Sophist – Plato
THEAETETUS: In what a strange complication THEAETETUS: There is nothing else to be said.
of being and not-being we are involved!
STRANGER: Again, false opinion is that form of STRANGER: Strange! I should think so. See how, opinion which thinks the opposite of the truth:—
by his reciprocation of opposites, the many-You would assent?
headed Sophist has compelled us, quite against our will, to admit the existence of not-being.
THEAETETUS: Certainly.
THEAETETUS: Yes, indeed, I see.
STRANGER: You mean to say that false opinion thinks what is not?
STRANGER: The difficulty is how to define his art without falling into a contradiction.
THEAETETUS: Of course.
THEAETETUS: How do you mean? And where STRANGER: Does false opinion think that things does the danger lie?
which are not are not, or that in a certain sense they are?
STRANGER: When we say that he deceives us with an illusion, and that his art is illusory, do THEAETETUS: Things that are not must be imag-we mean that our soul is led by his art to think ined to exist in a certain sense, if any degree of falsely, or what do we mean?
falsehood is to be possible.