Sophist – Plato
STRANGER: Yet, surely, motion is the same, be-THEAETETUS: Quite right,—that is, on the sup-cause all things partake of the same.
position that some classes mingle with one another, and others not.
THEAETETUS: Very true.
STRANGER: That such a communion of kinds is STRANGER: Then we must admit, and not ob-according to nature, we had already proved be-ject to say, that motion is the same and is not fore we arrived at this part of our discussion.
the same, for we do not apply the terms ‘same’
and ‘not the same,’ in the same sense; but we THEAETETUS: Certainly.
call it the ‘same,’ in relation to itself, because partaking of the same; and not the same, because STRANGER: Let us proceed, then. May we not having communion with the other, it is thereby say that motion is other than the other, having severed from the same, and has become not that been also proved by us to be other than the same but other, and is therefore rightly spoken of as and other than rest?
‘not the same.’
THEAETETUS: That is certain.
THEAETETUS: To be sure.
STRANGER: Then, according to this view, mo-STRANGER: And if absolute motion in any point tion is other and also not other?
of view partook of rest, there would be no absurdity in calling motion stationary.
THEAETETUS: True.