Notes on Plato's Sophist

S: Yet let's look at it in this way as well: Good idea! for the thing being now sought is not something that partakes of a trivial art, but of one that is exceedingly many-colored. For in the things said before an apparition displays ( ?) ( παρέχεται ) that this is not what we now say but is some other genus. T: In what way could this possibly be ( πῇ   δή ;) ? Theaetetus can't believe his ears. S: The species of the art of acquisition was, I suppose, two-fold--the one having the hunting part and the other the exchanging   ( ἀλλακτικόν ) . T: Yes, it was. This is not correct either. This is the earlier division (at 219d4): Ξένος κτητικῆς   δὲ   ἆρ᾽   οὐ   δύο   εἴδη ;  τὸ   μὲν   ἑκόντων   πρὸς   ἑκόντας   μεταβλητικὸν   ὂν   διά   τε   δωρεῶν   καὶ   μισθώσεων   καὶ   ἀγοράσεων ,  τὸ   δὲ   λοιπόν ,  ἢ   κατ᾽   ἔργα   ἢ   κατὰ   λόγο...

 S: Whereas the one that professes, on the one hand, that it makes associations for the sake virtue, but on the other hand, makes money as a wage, isn't this genus worthy to be addressed by a different name? T: Of course. S: By what name?  Try to say. T: It is quite clear; for we seem to me to have discovered the sophist.  So, having said this, I at least  suppose that I would be calling him by a fitting name. S: According to the present speech, Theaetetus, as is likely, the--of the art of appropriation, of the art of conquering ( χειρωτικῆς ) , of the art of acquisition ( κτητικῆς ) , of the art of hunting   ( θηρευτικῆς ) , of hunting living creatures, of hunting on land, of hunting on dry land ( χερσαίας ) , of the art of hunting tame animals, of hunting human beings ( ἀνθρωποθηρίας ) , of hunting by persuasion, of hunting in private, of the art of working for a wage, of the art of money-changing ( νομισματοπωλικῆς ) , of the art of opinion-educating ( δ...

T: That's very much the case. S: Up to that point, then, on the one hand, the sophist and the angler proceeded at the same time as a pair from the art of acquisition. T: It is likely, at least, that the pair do that. Not a lot of certainty here, just as there wasn't when the Stranger agreed to place the sophist into the category of someone having an art (at 221d5). S: They turn aside, on the other hand, from animal hunting--the one to the sea, I suppose, and rivers and creeks, hunting animals in these things. T: Of course. S: The other to the earth and certain other rivers in turn--to the bounteous meadows, as it were, of wealth and youth, subduing ( χειρωσόμενος )  the creatures in these things. T: What do you mean? This is getting to be a bit of a stretch. S: There arises as a pair a certain two big parts of hunting on land. T: What sort of thing is each of the pair? S: The one is of tame things, the other of wild. T: Is there, then, a certain hunting of tame things? S: If in...

S: The part of striking that is opposite to this, happening by hook, and one hits not the body of the fish, as with tridents, but around the head and mouth of the one that is hunted on each occasion, and pulling up in the opposite direction--from below upward--by means of rods and reeds; of which what, Theaetetus, shall we say the name must be called? T: I for my part am of the opinion ( δοκῶ   μέν ) that the very thing that we put forward as necessary to discover, this very thing has now been brought to completion. This answer is a bit tentative--there is no thinking verb used here, just Theaetetus stating his opinion. He also uses  μέν  solitarium ( μέν  not followed by  δέ ), which Smyth (2896) says "emphasizes a statement made by a person with reference to himself as opposed to others." So, again, a bit tentative--Theaetetus is not presuming to speak for anyone else--probably because he's not sure. S: Now, therefore, concerning the art of angling, both you a...

  S: Of course they both exist. And to that of the soulless--being nameless except for some parts of diving and other trivial matters of this sort--we must bid it farewell--but the other, being the hunting of animals with souls, address as animal-hunting. T: Let it be. S: So, then, wouldn't a two-fold species of animal-hunting be spoken of in justice--the one of the genus of land animals,  having  been divided by many species and names-- hunting on land-- and the other of every swimming animal--hunting in the water. T: Certainly. S: Of the swimming, do we see the winged tribe and the one living in water? T: Of course. S: And all hunting of the winged genus by us is, I suppose, called a certain bird-hunting. T: Yes, that's what it's called. This is the first time the Stranger has shown any interest in the species that the angler does not belong to. S: And of the living in water, the whole thing is pretty much called the art of fishing. T: Yes. S: What, then? Wouldn't we ...