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3 4 4 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 41 / Issue 3not equipped to be a student of politics; for he has no experience in theactions which life demands of him, and these actions form the basisand subject matter of the discussion. Moreover since he follows hisemotions, his study will be pointless and unprofitable. Whether he isyoung in years or immature in character makes no difference; for hisdeficiency is not a matter of time but of living and pursuing all his interestsunder the influence of his emotions. Knowledge brings no benefitto this kind of person, just as it brings none to the morally weak. 100These principles apply to all men, believer and unbeliever. What is, and whatis not, is something accessible to us all:Socrates: Since knowledge depended on what is and ignorance necessarilyon what is not, mustn’t we also seek something betweenignorance and knowledge that depends on that which is inbetween, if there is in fact any such thing?Glaucon: Most certainly.Socrates: Do we say opinion is something?Glaucon: Of course.Socrates: A power different from knowledge or the same?Glaucon: Different.Socrates: Then opinion is dependent on one thing and knowledge onanother, each according to its own power.Glaucon: That’s so.Socrates: Doesn’t knowledge naturally depend on what is, to know ofwhat is that it is and how it is? 101Man’s reasoning capabilities make him able to come together, to congregate,and to pursue noble ends. According to Cicero, the “learning of truth mostclosely relates to human nature. For all of us feel the pull that leads us todesire to learn and to know; we think it a fine thing to excel in this, whileconsidering it bad and dishonorable to stumble, to wander, to be ignorant, tobe deceived.” 102Part of the reason early Christian colleges collapsed was that they refusedto tolerate philosophy. This conflict led to ecclesiastical conflict and division.Marsden describes this conflict aptly:100Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Martin Ostwald (New York: MacMillan, 1986), 5–6. See alsoJames V. Schall, A Student’s Guide to Liberal Learning (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2000), 2, 11.101Plato, The Republic, trans. Allan Bloom (New York: Basic Books, 1968), 157 (names of interlocutorsadded).102Cicero, On Duties, ed M. T. Griffin and E. M. Atkins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1991), 8; Newman, Idea of a University, 78–79.