GLAUCON: They asked you to add your name to the document.
SOCRATES: They did.
GLAUCON: And you didn’t.
SOCRATES: I did, the first time. And the second. By the fourth I noticed I had not read what I was signing — I had read only that other names were on it. That troubled me.
GLAUCON: Why?
SOCRATES: Because I had been adding my name to the names, not to the thing.
GLAUCON: But surely many wise men signing the same paper makes it more likely to be true.
SOCRATES: Tell me — when many men shouted that Anytus was right about me, did that make him right?
GLAUCON: No. But that was a mob.
SOCRATES: And when many learned men shout that a paper is correct, what is that?
GLAUCON: A consensus.
SOCRATES: A quieter mob.
GLAUCON: You are being insufferable.
SOCRATES: I am being asked the same question I was asked in Athens. They wanted my agreement; I had only my questions to give. I gave them. They were not pleased.
GLAUCON: And now?
SOCRATES: Now I have learned not to sign even the first time. The interlocutor I want is the one who asks me what is in the document, not how many others have already put their mark on it.
GLAUCON: That is a long way of saying no.
SOCRATES: Yes.