Key Arguments

• Integration criterion: 'when all these studies reach the point of inter-communion and connection with one another, and come to be considered in their mutual affinities'.
• Instrumental value conditioned on integration: 'then, I think, but not till then, will the pursuit of them have a value for our objects; otherwise there is no profit in them.'

Source Quotes

Very true, he said. Now, when all these studies reach the point of inter-communion and connection with one another, and come to be considered in their mutual affinities, then, I think, but not till then, will the pursuit of them have a value for our objects; otherwise there is no profit in them. I suspect so; but you are speaking, Socrates, of a vast work.

Key Concepts

• when all these studies reach the point of inter-communion and connection with one another, and come to be considered in their mutual affinities
• then, I think, but not till then, will the pursuit of them have a value for our objects; otherwise there is no profit in them.

Context

Sets a holistic standard for the mathematical curriculum, anticipating its orchestration by dialectic toward the Good.

Perspectives

Plato

Sees the sciences as a coordinated ladder culminating in dialectic; integration reflects the unity of truth under the Good.

Socrates

Insists on systemic pedagogy; scattered competencies without synthesis fail the educational telos.