The Nature of the Sophist

Table of Contents

PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Theodorus, Theaetetus, Socrates. An Eleatic FOREIGNER, whom Theodorus and Theaetetus bring with them. The younger Socrates, who is a silent auditor.

THEODORUS: We bring with us a foreigner from Elea, who is a disciple of Parmenides and Zeno, and a true philosopher.

He is certainly divine, for we should call all philosophers as divine.

SOCRATES: Yes!

The true philosophers appear in various forms unrecognized by the ignorance of men. They ‘hover about cities,’ as Homer declares, looking from above upon human life.

Some think nothing of them. Others can never think enough.

Sometimes they appear as statesmen, and sometimes as sophists. To many, they seem to be no better than madmen.

I should like to ask the foreigner how sophists, statesmen, and philosophers are thought of in Italy.

Do Italians regarded them as one or two? Or do they, as the names are three, distinguish also three kinds, and assign one to each name?

Foreigner

We also regard them as three. But it is not easy to define precisely the nature of each of them.

Socrates

Foreigner, do you prefer to make a long oration on a subject which you want to explain to another, or to do the method of question and answer.

Parmenides used question and answer when I was a young man, and he was far advanced in years.

Foreigner

I prefer to talk with another when he responds pleasantly, and is light in hand; if not, I would rather have my own say.

Socrates

I recommend a young person—Theaetetus

Foreigner

I certainly cannot object to your proposal.

Theatus

But are you sure, FOREIGNER, that this will be acceptable to the rest of the company as Socrates imagines?

Foreigner

Yes, for they are applauding, Theaetetus. I am to argue with you. If you tire of the argument, you may complain of your friends and not of me.

Theatus

I do not think that I shall tire, and if I do, I shall get my friend here, young Socrates, the namesake of the elder Socrates, to help; he is about my own age, and my partner at the gymnasium, and is constantly accustomed to work with me.

Foreigner

Very good; you can decide about that for yourself as we proceed.

Meanwhile you and I will enquire into the nature of the Sophist, first of the three.

What is he?

The tribe of Sophists which we are investigating is:

not easily caught or defined.
troublesome and hard to be caught

The world has long ago agreed, that great subjects must be studied in the lesser and easier instances before we proceed to the greatest of all.

We should practise beforehand the method which is to be applied to the Sophist on some simple and smaller thing, unless you can suggest a better way.

Then suppose that we work out some lesser example which will be a pattern of the greater?

What is there which is well known and not great, and is yet as susceptible of definition as any larger thing?

Shall I say an angler? He is familiar to all of us, and not a very interesting or important person.

Theatus

He is not.

Foreigner

Yet I suspect that he will furnish us with the sort of definition and line of enquiry which we want.

Let us begin by asking whether he is a man having art or not having art, but some other power.

Theatus

He is clearly a man of art.

The Nature of the Sophist

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