Sophist by Plato. - HTML preview

82

Sophist – Plato

THEAETETUS: True.

STRANGER: I mean that they lavish gifts on those whom they hunt in addition to other in-STRANGER: And of persuasion, there may be said ducements.

to be two kinds?

THEAETETUS: Most true.

THEAETETUS: What are they?

STRANGER: Let us admit this, then, to be the STRANGER: One is private, and the other public.

amatory art.

THEAETETUS: Yes; each of them forms a class.

THEAETETUS: Certainly.

STRANGER: And of private hunting, one sort STRANGER: But that sort of hireling whose receives hire, and the other brings gifts.

conversation is pleasing and who baits his hook only with pleasure and exacts nothing but his THEAETETUS: I do not understand you.

maintenance in return, we should all, if I am not mistaken, describe as possessing flattery or an STRANGER: You seem never to have observed art of making things pleasant.

the manner in which lovers hunt.

THEAETETUS: Certainly.

THEAETETUS: To what do you refer?

STRANGER: And that sort, which professes to 83

Sophist – Plato

form acquaintances only for the sake of virtue, THEAETETUS: Just so.

and demands a reward in the shape of money, may be fairly called by another name?

STRANGER: Let us take another branch of his genealogy; for he is a professor of a great and THEAETETUS: To be sure.

many-sided art; and if we look back at what has preceded we see that he presents another aspect, STRANGER: And what is the name? Will you tell besides that of which we are speaking.

me?

THEAETETUS: In what respect?

THEAETETUS: It is obvious enough; for I believe that we have discovered the Sophist: which is, as I STRANGER: There were two sorts of acquisitive conceive, the proper name for the class described.

art; the one concerned with hunting, the other with exchange.

STRANGER: Then now, Theaetetus, his art may be traced as a branch of the appropriative, ac-THEAETETUS: There were.

quisitive family—which hunts animals,—living—

land—tame animals; which hunts man,—pri-STRANGER: And of the art of exchange there vately—for hire,—taking money in exchange—

are two divisions, the one of giving, and the other having the semblance of education; and this is of selling.

termed Sophistry, and is a hunt after young men of wealth and rank—such is the conclusion.

THEAETETUS: Let us assume that.