Page - 745 - in The Complete Plato

STRANGER: That part of the pugnacious which is a contest of bodily strength may be properly called by some such name as violent. THEAETETUS: True. STRANGER: And when the war is one of words, it may be termed controversy? THEAETETUS: Yes. STRANGER: And controversy may be of two kinds. THEAETETUS: What are they? STRANGER: When long speeches are answered by long speeches, and there is public discussion about the just and unjust, that is forensic controversy. THEAETETUS: Yes. STRANGER: And there is a private sort of controversy, which is cut up into questions and answers, and this is commonly called disputation? THEAETETUS: Yes, that is the name. STRANGER: And of disputation, that sort which is only a discussion about contracts, and is carried on at random, and without rules of art, is recognized by the reasoning faculty to be a distinct class, but has hitherto had no distinctive name, and does not deserve to receive one from us. THEAETETUS: No; for the different sorts of it are too minute and heterogeneous. STRANGER: But that which proceeds by rules of art to dispute about justice and injustice in their own nature, and about things in general, we have been accustomed to call argumentation (Eristic)? THEAETETUS: Certainly. STRANGER: And of argumentation, one sort wastes money, and the other makes money. THEAETETUS: Very true. STRANGER: Suppose we try and give to each of these two classes a name. THEAETETUS: Let us do so. STRANGER: I should say that the habit which leads a man to neglect his own affairs for the pleasure of conversation, of which the style is far from being agreeable to the majority of his hearers, may be fairly termed loquacity: such is my opinion. 745