the mark of an educated man...

Our discussion will be adequate if it has as much clearness as the subject-matter admits of, for precision is not to be sought for alike in all discussions, any more than in all the products of the crafts. Now fine and just actions, which political science investigates, admit of much variety and fluctuation of opinion, so that they may be thought to exist only by convention, and not by nature. And goods also give rise to a similar fluctuation because they bring harm to many people; for before now men have been undone by reason of their wealth, and others by reason of their courage.

We must be content, then, in speaking of such subjects and with such premisses to indicate the truth roughly and in outline, and in speaking about things which are only for the most part true and with premisses of the same kind to reach conclusions that are no better. In the same spirit, therefore, should each type of statement be received; for it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician scientific proofs. Nicomachean Ethics, I, 3.

and in Latin (secoind paragraph)

In tradenda civili scientia, non agendum esse demonstrationibus accuratis, quia id subjectum eius non permittit

(I don't like this Latin translation by William Wilkinson 1820 too much - it's very convoluted)

Ergo satis erit, si, cum de rebus et ex rebus ejusmodi verba facimus, rudem quandam veri formam adumbremus: et cum de rebus, quae plurimum eveniunt, atque ex talibus disputationem instituimus,
talia quoque concludamus. Eodemque modo quaecunque ab alio dicuntur accipi probarique debent; est enim hominis probe instituti tantam in unoquoque genere subtilitatem desiderare, quantam rei ipsius natura recipit; nihil enim videtur interesse, utrum mathematicum rationibus ad persuadendum ac commodatis utentem feras, an ab oratore demonstrationes postules.

This one by Carolus Zell (better)

Satis itaque erit, si, cum de ejusmodi rebus ex rationibus item ejusmodi explicatio instituatur, rudi quadam et crassa forma verum declaremus; satis item, si (cum et derebus, quae plerumque eveniunt, et vero etiam ex talibus rationibus disputationem instituamus) ad talem quoque modam concludamus. Εodem autem modo etiarti accipi oportebit, quae hic dicentur. Εst enim bene instituti hominis, tantam in unoquoque genere disputationis subtilitatem desiderare, quantam rei ipsius fert natura. Ut enim ridiculus sit, qui mathematicum probabilibus rationibus ntentem probet: ita is quoque, qui ab ora tore demonstrationes postulet.



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