"Sophist" - читать интересную книгу автора (Plato)

acceptable to the rest of the company as Socrates imagines?

Str. You hear them applauding, Theaetetus; after that, there is

nothing more to be said. Well then, I am to argue with you, and if you

tire of the argument, you may complain of your friends and not of me.

Theaet. 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.

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

proceed. Meanwhile you and I will begin together and enquire into

the nature of the Sophist, first of the three: I should like you to

make out what he is and bring him to light in a discussion; for at

present we are only agreed about the name, but of the thing to which

we both apply the name possibly you have one notion and I another;

whereas we ought always to come to an understanding about the thing

itself in terms of a definition, and not merely about the name minus

the definition. Now the tribe of Sophists which we are investigating

is not easily caught or defined; and the world has long ago agreed,

that if great subjects are to be adequately treated, they must be

studied in the lesser and easier instances of them before we proceed

to the greatest of all. And as I know that the tribe of Sophists is

troublesome and hard to be caught, I should recommend that we practise

beforehand the method which is to be applied to him on some simple and

smaller thing, unless you can suggest a better way.

Theaet. Indeed I cannot.