Miscellanies 8.3.5
Summary: Demonstration supplies conviction about disputed things from agreed ones; in its full sense it produces scientific certainty, just as a true physician or a true knower lacks nothing of his skill.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ τὴν ἀπόδειξιν πάντες ἄνθρωποι ὁμολογήσαιεν ἂν λόγον εἶναι τοῖς ἀμφισβητουμένοις ἐκ τῶν ὁμολογουμένων ἐκπορίζοντα τὴν πίστιν. οὐ μόνον δὲ ἀπόδειξις καὶ πίστις καὶ γνῶσις. ἀλλὰ καὶ πρόγνωσις λέγεται διχῶς, ἣ μὲν ἐπιστημονική τε καὶ βεβαία, ἄλλη δὲ μόνον ἐλπιστική. κυριώτατα μὲν οὖν ἀπόδειξις λέγεται ἡ τὴν ἐπιστημονικὴν πίστιν ἐντιθεῖσα ταῖς τῶν μανθανόντων ψυχαῖς, δοξαστικὴ δὲ ἡ ἑτέρα, ὡς καὶ ἄνθρωπος ὁ μὲν ὄντως ἄνθρωπος ὁ τὰς κοινὰς φρένας κεκτημένος. ὃ δὲ ἄγριος καὶ θηριώδης. οὕτω τοι καὶ ὁ κωμικὸς ἔλεγεν· ὡς χαρίεν ἐστὶ[ν] ἄνθρωπος, [ἔστ᾿] ἂν ἄνθρωπος ᾖ. καὶ ἐπὶ βοὸς καὶ ἵππου καὶ κυνὸς ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος παρὰ τὴν ἀρετὴν τοῦ ζῴου ἢ κακίαν. εἰς γὰρ τὴν τοῦ γένους τελειότητα βλέποντες ἐπὶ τὰ κυριώτατα τῶν σημαινομένων ἐρχόμεθα. αὐτίκα ἰατρὸν νοοῦμεν ᾧ μηδὲν τῆς ἰατρικῆς δυνάμως ἐνδεῖ, γνωστικὸν δὲ ᾧ μηδὲν λείπει τῆς ἐπιστημονικῆς εἰδήσεως.
English · Claude translation
In the same way all people would agree that demonstration is an account that supplies conviction about disputed matters from agreed ones. Not only demonstration, conviction, and knowledge, but also foreknowledge is spoken of in two ways: one scientific and secure, the other merely hopeful. Demonstration in the most proper sense, then, is that which plants scientific conviction in the souls of learners; the other kind rests on opinion. So too with a human being: one is truly a human being, the one who possesses common sense, another is wild and bestial. Thus the comic poet said: “How charming a thing is a human being, when he is a human being.” And of an ox, a horse, and a dog the same account holds, according to the animal's excellence or badness. For looking to the perfection of the kind, we come to the most proper of the meanings. So we understand a physician to be one who lacks nothing of the power of medicine, and the one who knows to be one who lacks nothing of scientific knowledge.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Conviction” renders πίστις, which means both “faith” and “conviction” or “proof”; it is rendered “conviction” where Clement uses it as a logical term and “faith” where he links it with Christian faith (8.3.7). The comic poet is traditionally identified as Menander (a fragment; the attribution is not certain here). “The one who knows” renders ὁ γνωστικός.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.3.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/3/5/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.3.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/3/5/).
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