160 



PROFESSOR THOMPSON, ON THE GENUINENESS OF 



epitomized by Aristotle, in whicli the paradoxes of Parmenides and Zeno are put forward in 

 their most paradoxical form, and pushed to their consequences with unflinching consistency. 

 Gorgias was also a speculator in physics, and so was Antisthenes*; in whom, moreover, we may 

 observe other characteristics of those accomplished men of letters of the fifth century, who are 

 usually called " the Sophists." His ethical opinions on the other hand were borrowed from 

 Socrates ; but in passing through his mind they took the tinge of the soil, and seem to the 

 common sense of mankind as startling as any of his dialectical paradoxes. It is remarkable, 

 however, that when Plato handles the Cynical Ethics, he treats their author with far more 

 leniency than in this dialogue. In comparing it with the Pleasure Theory of Aristippus, he 

 speaks of the Cynical system with qualified approbation. ISva-^epri^', "austere or morose," 

 is the hardest epithet he flings at Antisthenes in the Philebus : he even attributes to him 

 a certain nobleness of character ((puaiv ouk dyeui/rj), which had led him, as Plato thought, 

 to err on the side of virtue. The Philebus is a work of wider range and profounder bearings 

 than the Sophista, but the dialogues have this in common, that in both the broad daylight of 

 reason is shed on regions which had been darkened by the one- sided speculations or the wilful 

 logomachy of earlier or inferior thinkers. The way in which Antisthenes is dragged from his 

 hiding-place among the intricacies of the Non-existent into the light of common sense, at the 

 close of the present dialogue, appears to me an admirable specimen of controversial ability ; and 

 the broad and simple principles on which Plato founds the twin sciences of Logic and Grammar' 

 stand in favourable contrast to the sophistical subtlety of his predecessors and contemporaries. 

 At this point of the discussion I would gladly stop : but I feel bound to say a few words 

 on what I have ventured to call the " logical exercise," which is the pretext under which 

 Plato takes occasion to dispose of the doctrines of certain formidable antagonists. That the 

 ^laperiKol \6yot, the " amphiblestric organa*," in which he endeavours to catch and land 

 first the Sophist and then the Statesman, were regarded by Plato himself in this light, we 

 learn from his own testimony in the Politicus, 285 d, ^ 26 Bekk. " Is it," asks the Eleatic 

 Stranger, " for the Statesman's sake alone, that this long quest has been instituted, or is it not 

 rather for our own sake, that we may strengthen our powers of dialectical enquiry upon 

 subjects in general ? S. J. It was doubtless for this general purpose. E. S. How much 

 less then would a man of sense have submitted to a tedious enquiry into the definition of the 

 art of weaving, if he had no higher object than that !" He then proceeds to apologize 

 for the prolixity of this method of classification : but adds, " The method which enables us to 

 distinguish according to species, is in itself worthy of all honour ; nay, the very prolixity of an 

 investigation of this kind becomes respectable, if it render the hearer more inventive. In that 



' Hence the explanation of Philebus, 44 b : xal nd\a Sil- 

 vui/i Xeyofxevou-i Ta irepi tpvaiv, 



* /'Ai/. 44 c : /lavTevo/xeuoli ov Tt'^vp dWd th/i Sutrx^- 

 /u«la <f)V<rfws uuk dyei/i/ov^, Kiav fxefxtatjKOTwv TtjV Tijt i;- 



ooi/j/s Suvafntff Kui vevofJiiKoTfav ouSev u-yte? <rK€i//a/iev»s Irt 



Kal TaWa ai/Tcov dv<r-)(^epdar fiwra. lb, D : kutu to tt/s 

 tuaxepeia^ avTuiti ixyoi. The accomplished and unfortu- 

 nate Sydenham first pointed out the reference in these epithets 

 to the Cynics and their master. The oi rix'V "f Plato tallies 



witli the oVaWeuTot of Aristotle, and with his own anovaoi, 

 &c. 



' P. 262 D. Simple as the analysis of the Proposition into 

 omfia Kal prjun (subject and predicate in logic, noun and verb 

 in grammar) may seem to a modern reader, it appears to have 

 been a novelty to Plato's contemporaries. Plutarch expressly 

 attributes the discovery to Plato (Plat. Qu. v. I. 108, 

 Wytlenb.), Apuleius, Doctr. Plat. iii. p. 203. Comp. Plat. 

 Crat. 431 B. * Soph. 235 B. 



