Sophist
An Eleatic visitor and Theaetetus try to define the sophist. Their divisions of expertise lead to a harder puzzle: how can false speech or deceptive images exist if speaking of what is not seems impossible?
Understanding the text
The conversation continues the dramatic setting of the Theaetetus. Its criticism of Parmenides transforms an investigation of a professional rival into a study of being and discourse.
Key points
- 01
Division
Successive distinctions classify practices, but finding many plausible descriptions of the sophist exposes the limits of a mechanical taxonomy.
- 02
Otherness
Not-being can mean being different rather than absolute nothingness, allowing an account of denial without treating nothing as a thing.
- 03
Combination
Being, motion, rest, sameness and difference combine selectively; meaningful statements likewise require ordered relations between names and verbs.
How to read it
Follow the shifts between defining a person and examining the conditions of speech. Do not reduce the discussion of not-being to a modern theory of negation alone.
Editions & sources
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method ↗