Sophist – Plato
THEAETETUS: Certainly not.
THEAETETUS: So it would appear.
STRANGER: Or do you wish to imply that they STRANGER: Being, then, according to its own are both at rest, when you say that they are?
nature, is neither in motion nor at rest.
THEAETETUS: Of course not.
THEAETETUS: That is very much the truth.
STRANGER: Then you conceive of being as some STRANGER: Where, then, is a man to look for third and distinct nature, under which rest and help who would have any clear or fixed notion motion are alike included; and, observing that of being in his mind?
they both participate in being, you declare that they are.
THEAETETUS: Where, indeed?
THEAETETUS: Truly we seem to have an intima-STRANGER: I scarcely think that he can look tion that being is some third thing, when we say anywhere; for that which is not in motion must that rest and motion are.
be at rest, and again, that which is not at rest must be in motion; but being is placed outside STRANGER: Then being is not the combination of both these classes. Is this possible?
of rest and motion, but something different from them.
THEAETETUS: Utterly impossible.