Page - 786 - in The Complete Plato

STRANGER: The plain result is that motion, since it partakes of being, really is and also is not? THEAETETUS: Nothing can be plainer. STRANGER: Then not-being necessarily exists in the case of motion and of every class; for the nature of the other entering into them all, makes each of them other than being, and so non-existent; and therefore of all of them, in like manner, we may truly say that they are not; and again, inasmuch as they partake of being, that they are and are existent. THEAETETUS: So we may assume. STRANGER: Every class, then, has plurality of being and infinity of not- being. THEAETETUS: So we must infer. STRANGER: And being itself may be said to be other than the other kinds. THEAETETUS: Certainly. STRANGER: Then we may infer that being is not, in respect of as many other things as there are; for not-being these it is itself one, and is not the other things, which are infinite in number. THEAETETUS: That is not far from the truth. STRANGER: And we must not quarrel with this result, since it is of the nature of classes to have communion with one another; and if any one denies our present statement [viz., that being is not, etc.], let him first argue with our former conclusion [i.e., respecting the communion of ideas], and then he may proceed to argue with what follows. THEAETETUS: Nothing can be fairer. STRANGER: Let me ask you to consider a further question. THEAETETUS: What question? STRANGER: When we speak of not-being, we speak, I suppose, not of something opposed to being, but only different. THEAETETUS: What do you mean? STRANGER: When we speak of something as not great, does the expression seem to you to imply what is little any more than what is equal? THEAETETUS: Certainly not. STRANGER: The negative particles, ou and me, when prefixed to words, do not imply opposition, but only difference from the words, or more 786