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Logic IV 99
study which you commend. 487D In reply Plato gives a parable of a mutinous crew who will not let the only man steer who understands navigation. True philosphers are useless but why are they so? Simply because they are not allowed to do what they along know how to do namely to govern the commonwealth. Plato dilates up on the extremely disadvantageious position in which the great philosopher finds himself. He is undoubtedly right. It is an extremely rare thing that one of those rare minds who could develop into great philosophers is placed in the exceptional conditions requisite for his proper development so that the number of philosophers of the first rank who have ever lived can be counted on the fingers of one hand and it has never yet happened in recorded history that one of them was so situated as to become of full utility to the world. The cases the nearest to this are those of Locke and Bentham. But neither were great philosophers and neither had so much influence as he ought to have had. Yet the happiness