{rh||PLATO.|309}}
philosophy of Plato. It is not surprising, therefore, that a special name should have been awarded by their expositor to the science which treats of them. That special name is called by him dialectic, a word which, looking to its derivation, has no connection with ideas, but which is derived from διαλέγεσθαι, to discourse or discuss in the way of dialogue; so that the name of the science seems to have been suggested by the conversational way in which the ideas were discussed, rather than by anything connected with the nature of the ideas themselves; or the word dialectic may signify that silent dialogue which the mind carries on within itself whenever it is engaged in meditation. We shall have occasion hereafter to go more deeply into this science of ideas. Meanwhile I am dealing with little more than the nomenclature of the Platonic speculations.
5. I may here mention some of the principal Dialogues which deal respectively with the three sciences, dialectic, ethics, and physics. Dialectic shows itself in the Meno, the Theætetus, the Sophista, the Parmenides, the Philebus, the Phædrus, the Phædo, and the Republic. Ethics are treated of principally in the Philebus and the Republic, to which may be added the Euthyphro. The physics are contained for the most part in the Timæus. From this enumeration you will perceive that ethics and dialectic are sometimes treated of in the same Dialogue. The classification, however, is, I think, sufficiently accu-
