Book 1, Chapter 22
Original Latin
50 Sed plurimi contra nituntur animosque quasi capite damnatos morte multant, neque aliud est quicquam cur incredibilis is animorum videatur aeternitas, nisi quod nequeunt qualis animus sit vacans corpore intellegere et cogitatione comprehendere. quasi vero intellegant, qualis sit in ipso corpore, quae conformatio, quae magnitudo, qui locus; ut, si iam possent in homine vivo cerni omnia quae nunc tecta sunt, casurusne in conspectum videatur animus, an tanta sit eius tenuitas, ut fugiat aciem?
51 haec reputent isti qui negant animum sine corpore se intellegere posse: videbunt, quem in ipso corpore intellegant. mihi quidem naturam animi intuenti multo difficilior occurrit cogitatio, multo obscurior, qualis animus in corpore sit tamquam alienae domi, quam qualis, cum exierit et in liberum caelum quasi domum suam venerit. si enim, quod numquam vidimus, id quale sit intellegere non possumus, certe et deum ipsum et divinum animum corpore liberatum cogitatione complecti possumus. Dicaearchus quidem et Aristoxenus, quia difficilis erat animi quid aut qualis esset intellegentia, nullum omnino animum esse dixerunt.
52 est illud quidem vel maxumum animo ipso animum videre, et nimirum hanc habet vim praeceptum Apollinis, quo monet ut se quisque noscat. non enim credo id praecipit, ut membra nostra aut staturam figuramve noscamus; neque nos corpora sumus, nec ego tibi haec dicens corpori tuo dico. cum igitur ‘nosce te’ dicit, hoc dicit: ‘nosce animum tuum.’ nam corpus quidem quasi vas est aut aliquod animi receptaculum; ab animo tuo quicquid agitur, id agitur a te. hunc igitur nosse nisi divinum esset, non esset hoc acrioris cuiusdam animi praeceptum tributum deo [sc. hoc se ipsum posse cognoscere].
53 Sed si, qualis sit animus, ipse animus nesciet, dic quaeso, ne esse quidem se sciet, ne moveri quidem se? ex quo illa ratio nata est Platonis, quae a Socrate est in Phaedro explicata, a me autem posita est in sexto libro de re p.:
Musean translation
Complete machine-assisted translation from the Latin. Latin transcription by the Perseus Project, Trustees of Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0.
50 “But most people struggle against this and punish souls with death as though they had condemned them on a capital charge. There is no other reason why the eternity of souls seems incredible to them except that they cannot understand or grasp in thought what a soul without a body is like. As though they understood what it is like within the body itself—its shape, size, or location! If all the parts now hidden in a living person could be seen, would the soul come into view, or is its substance so fine that it eludes the gaze?
51 “Let those who say they cannot understand the soul without a body consider these things: they will see what sort of soul they understand within the body itself. To me, as I examine the soul’s nature, the thought of what it is like within the body, as though in someone else’s house, seems far more difficult and obscure than the thought of what it is like when it has left and come into the open heavens, as though to its own home. Even if we cannot understand the nature of something we have never seen, we can certainly embrace in thought both god himself and the divine soul freed from the body. Dicaearchus and Aristoxenus, indeed, because understanding what the soul was or what it was like proved difficult, said there was no soul at all.
52 “Yet to see the soul by means of the soul itself is perhaps the greatest achievement of all. This is surely the force of Apollo’s command that everyone should know himself. For I do not believe he commands us to know our limbs, our height, or our shape. We are not bodies; nor am I, in saying these things to you, speaking to your body. When he says ‘Know yourself,’ then, he means ‘Know your soul.’ The body is, as it were, a vessel or a receptacle for the soul; whatever is done by your soul is done by you. Unless knowing the soul were divine, this command, belonging to a mind of exceptional insight, would not have been attributed to a god [namely, this ability to know oneself].
53 “But if the soul itself does not know what it is like, tell me, please: will it not even know that it exists, or that it moves? From this arose Plato’s argument, which Socrates explains in the Phaedrus, and which I set out in the sixth book of On the Republic:”
Plain English translation
Complete independent machine-assisted translation directly from the Latin. Latin transcription by the Perseus Project, Trustees of Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0.
50 “Yet opponents crowd in, imposing death on souls as though a court had found them guilty of a capital crime. What makes everlasting souls so hard for them to believe in? Nothing but their inability to grasp or imagine the soul apart from its body. And do they really understand it while it’s inside? Can they tell its dimensions, shape, or location? Imagine uncovering everything now hidden inside a living human being. Would that bring the soul into sight? Or would its fineness still put it beyond our eyes?
51 “Anyone who claims a bodiless soul is beyond their understanding should reflect on those questions. Let them find out just what they understand about the soul lodged in a body. When I consider its nature, here’s the much harder, murkier picture for me: the soul living in the body, in someone else’s house, so to speak. It’s easier to picture it gone from there, back in the open sky where it’s at home. Suppose we can’t understand the character of things we’ve never seen. Even so, our thoughts can certainly take in god himself and the divine soul released from its body. Dicaearchus and Aristoxenus found it difficult to grasp the soul’s identity or character, and on that account said it didn’t exist at all.
52 “For the soul to see itself with its own power is certainly a very great achievement. That’s surely the point of Apollo’s command that everyone should know themselves. I don’t think he’s telling us to know our limbs or our height or shape. We aren’t bodies, and as I say these things to you, I’m not speaking to your body. When he says ‘Know yourself,’ he means ‘Know your soul.’ The body is a sort of vessel or container for the soul. Whatever your soul does is done by you. If knowing the soul weren’t divine, this command, which comes from a particularly keen mind, wouldn’t have been credited to a god.
53 “Tell me, though: even if the soul can’t discover its own character, must it also be unaware that it exists, or that it moves? This is where Plato’s argument begins. Socrates develops it in the Phaedrus, and I included it in book six of On the Republic:”
About this section
Book 1, Chapter 22 is part of Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero. This page sets the Latin original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is chapter 22 of 189 in the work, which is kept in the Roman tradition.
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