“And yet, O my friend, if true opinion in law courts and knowledge are the same, the perfect judge could not have judged rightly without knowledge; and therefore I must infer that they are not the same.”
- Source
- Theaetetus
- Date
- 4th century BCE
- Local voice
- Dialogue speaker · Socrates
Meaning of “And yet, O my friend, if true opinion…”
Socrates argues that someone can arrive at a correct judgment on testimony without having witnessed or known the event firsthand. The example tests Theaetetus’s proposal that knowledge simply equals true opinion; the dialogue continues to investigate other proposed definitions rather than announcing a simple final formula.
Where does it come from?
Theaetetus, around Stephanus 201a–c, Socrates explaining his law-court counterexample while speaking with Theaetetus. Benjamin Jowett English translation, Project Gutenberg #1726. The full sentence is spoken by Socrates in the dramatic dialogue, not from Jowett’s prefatory commentary; no claim is made about modern evidence law.
Why the local voice matters
Theaetetus, around 201a–c; Socrates uses law-court testimony to distinguish correct belief from knowledge in Jowett translation.
