Notes on Plato's Sophist

219a1ff.:  Stranger: I certainly expect that he has a pursuit and speech that is not unsuitable for us in relation to what we want. Theaetetus: He would have it beautifully.  There is a lot of wanting so far in the dialogue, more than I would expect: "The thing that you want to explain to someone" (217c4) "It is possible for you to select any of the ones present whom you want" (217d4) "Do you want us to try to lay it down as a paradigm of the greater thing?" (218d8) "I certainly expect that he has a pursuit and speech that is not unsuitable for us in relation to what we want" (219a2) Perhaps the sophist makes attempts to make the world to conform to what he wants, whereas the philosopher conforms himself to what the world is. S: Come, let us begin it in this way. Tell me: will we posit that he possesses an art or is he someone who lacks an art but has some other power.? T: He is someone who lacks an art least of all. S: But certainly of all the a...

218a4ff.: Theaetetus: "Act in this way, then, Stranger, and just as Socrates said you will have been gracious to all." Compared to how eager Theaetetus is to converse with the Stranger, you can see how reluctant the Stranger was to embark on the conversation. He knows it's going to be a long discussion--and he doesn't want it to seem like he's showing off. And he makes it sound like he's only willing to do it because it would be bad manners to do otherwise. Theaetetus, on the other hand, is all but pleading with the Stranger to agree to embark on the discussion. That's a good sign. He also picks up on one of the words the Stranger used--"not to be gracious to you ... appears to me to be unbefitting a stranger and wild"--"Act in this way ... and ... you will have been gracious to all." So, Theaetetus is really listening to the Stranger and responding to what he said.  "Act in this way" is also interesting. The verb ( δρᾶ ) is u...

217a1 Socrates: ... what the people around that place suppose and name these thing." "That place" literally refers to Elea, but that is often the word used in Plato to refer to the "place" where the forms are. (I'm reading Charles Williams' Place of the Lions right now and was just explaining to my wife how Plato and Aristotle disagreed about the way in which the forms exist.) 217a4: Theodorus: "But what most of all and what kind of thing about them--having become thoroughly perplexed--did you have a mind to ask"? This has to be one of the weirdest questions I've ever seen in a dialogue. Is Theodorus astonished that anyone could actually not know, could actually wonder what these three things are? I used to like thinking about the word perplexed (aporia). A "poros" is a way of getting across a river--and if you're "aporos," you don't have any way to get across (from ignorance to understanding). Socrates is alw...

 216a1ff.: "According to yesterday's agreement, Socrates, we have come: both we ourselves--in an orderly way--and we are also bringing this stranger ... . " Yesterday's agreement was "But at dawn, Theodorus, let's meet here again." The agreement did not include coming back with Theaetetus, let along the Stranger. The separation (indicated by te ... kai) indicates that "in an orderly way" refers to the coming of Theodorus (and Theaetetus)  but not of the Stranger. Bringing the Stranger along was not part of the agreement and so is not orderly. "He is a companion of the ones around Parmenides and Zeno--a real man, a philosopher." I recall from my days studying Parmenides that for Parmenides Being (to on)--is something from which all otherness is banished--it is and stays the same no matter how you look at it--time, place, dimension, never undergoing any change, etc. From my study of the The Statesman  for my dissertation: a main point o...