Plato : SOPHIST Persons of the dialogue: Theodorus - Theaetetus - Socrates - an Eleatic stranger Translated by Benjamin Jowett - 77 Pages - Greek fonts Search Plato's works / Plato Anthology / The Greek Word Library = Note by Elpenor

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Page 65

Str. Perhaps you will see more clearly by the help of the following explanation.

Theaet. What explanation?

Str. Not - being has been acknowledged by us to be one among many classes diffused over all being.

Theaet. True.

Str. And thence arises the question, whether not - being mingles with opinion and language.

Theaet. How so?

Str. If not - being has no part in the proposition, then all things must be true; but if not - being has a part, then false opinion and false speech are possible, for. think or to say what is not - is falsehood, which thus arises in the region of thought and in speech.

Theaet. That is quite true.

Str. And where there is falsehood surely there must be deceit.

Theaet. Yes.

Str. And if there is deceit, then all things must be full of idols and images and fancies.

Theaet. To be sure.

Str. Into that region the Sophist, as we said, made his escape, and, when he had got there, denied the very possibility of falsehood; no one, he argued, either conceived or uttered falsehood, inasmuch as not - being did not in any way partake of being.

Theaet. True.

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