Page - 764 - in The Complete Plato

THEAETETUS: Yes; it is in reality only an image. STRANGER: Then what we call an image is in reality really unreal. THEAETETUS: In what a strange complication of being and not-being we are involved! STRANGER: Strange! I should think so. See how, by his reciprocation of opposites, the many-headed Sophist has compelled us, quite against our will, to admit the existence of not-being. THEAETETUS: Yes, indeed, I see. STRANGER: The difficulty is how to define his art without falling into a contradiction. THEAETETUS: How do you mean? And where does the danger lie? STRANGER: When we say that he deceives us with an illusion, and that his art is illusory, do we mean that our soul is led by his art to think falsely, or what do we mean? THEAETETUS: There is nothing else to be said. STRANGER: Again, false opinion is that form of opinion which thinks the opposite of the truth:—You would assent? THEAETETUS: Certainly. STRANGER: You mean to say that false opinion thinks what is not? THEAETETUS: Of course. STRANGER: Does false opinion think that things which are not are not, or that in a certain sense they are? THEAETETUS: Things that are not must be imagined to exist in a certain sense, if any degree of falsehood is to be possible. STRANGER: And does not false opinion also think that things which most certainly exist do not exist at all? THEAETETUS: Yes. STRANGER: And here, again, is falsehood? THEAETETUS: Falsehood—yes. STRANGER: And in like manner, a false proposition will be deemed to be one which asserts the non-existence of things which are, and the existence of things which are not. THEAETETUS: There is no other way in which a false proposition can 764