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

Plato in print

77 Pages

Page 62

Str. And now tell me another thing.

Theaet. What?

Str. Is the not - beautiful anything but this - an existence parted off from a certain kind of existence, and again from another point of view opposed to an existing something?

Theaet. True.

Str. Then the not - beautiful turns out to be the opposition of being to being?

Theaet. Very true.

Str. But upon this view, is the beautiful a more real and the not - beautiful a less real existence?

Theaet. Not at all.

Str. And the not - great may be said to exist, equally with the great? Theaet. Yes.

Str. And, in the same way, the just must be placed in the same category with the not - just the one cannot be said to have any more existence than the other.

Theaet. True.

Str. The same may be said of other things; seeing that the nature of the other has a real existence, the parts of this nature must equally be supposed to exist.

Theaet. Of course.

Str. Then, as would appear, the opposition of a part of the other, and of a part of being, to one another, is, if I may venture to say so, as truly essence as being itself, and implies not the opposite of being, but only what is other than being.

Theaet. Beyond question.

Previous Page / First / Next

  Plato Home Page / Bilingual Anthology   Plato Search ||| Aristotle

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/plato/plato-sophist.asp?pg=62

Copyright : Elpenor 2006 -