VIII. On the Genuineness of the Sophista of Plato, and on some of its philosophical 

 bearings. By W. H. Thompson, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, and Regius 

 Professor of Greek. 



[Read Nm. 23, 1 857-3 



In selecting the Sophista of Plato for the subject of this paper, I have been influenced by 

 certain passages in an interesting contribution to our knowledge of some parts of the Platonic 

 system which was read by the Master of Trinity at a former Meeting'. I have principally 

 in view to assert what was then called in question, the genuineness of this dialogue, and the 

 consequent genuineness of the Politicus, which must stand or fall with it ; but I am not without 

 the hope of throwing some new light upon the scope and purpose of the Sophista in particular, 

 and upon the philosophical position of Platonism in reference to two or three now forgotten, 

 but in their day important schools of speculation. Such an inquiry cannot fail, I think, to be 

 interesting to those members of the Society whose range of studies has embraced the fragmen- 

 tary remains of the early thinkers of Greece, as well as the more polished and mature compo- 

 sitions of Plato and Aristotle : for such persons must be well aware that it is as impossible to 

 account for the peculiarities of these later systems without a clear view of their relation to 

 those which went before them, as it would be to explain the characteristics of Gothic archi- 

 tecture in its highest development without a previous study of those ruder Byzantine forms 

 out of which it sprang ; or to account for the peculiar form of an Attic tragedy without 

 a recognition of the lyrical and epic elements of which it is the combination. Nor is this all. 

 The writings both of Plato and Aristotle abound with critical notices of contemporary systems, 

 with the authors of which they were engaged in life-long controversy : and whoever refuses to 

 take this into account will miss the point and purpose not only of particular passages, but, 

 in the case of Plato, of entire dialogues. In the search for these allusions to the writings or 

 sayings of contemporaries, we have need rather of the microscope of the critic than of the sky- 

 sweeping tube of the philosopher : and a task so minute and laborious is not to be required of 

 any man whose literary life has loftier aims than the mere elucidation of the masterpieces of 

 classical antiquity. 



I say then at the outset of this inquiry, that I not only hold the Sophista to be a genuine 

 work of Plato, but that it seems to me to contain his deliberate judgment of the logical doc- 

 trines of three important schools, one of which preceded him by nearly a century, while the 

 remaining two flourished in Greece side by side with his own, and lasted for some time after 

 his decease. I hold the Sophista to be, in its main scope and drift, a critique more or less 



Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, Vol. ix. Part iv. 



