|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: meaning when combined, and others have no meaning. One class of words
describes action, another class agents: 'walks,' 'runs,' 'sleeps' are
examples of the first; 'stag,' 'horse,' 'lion' of the second. But no
combination of words can be formed without a verb and a noun, e.g. 'A man
learns'; the simplest sentence is composed of two words, and one of these
must be a subject. For example, in the sentence, 'Theaetetus sits,' which
is not very long, 'Theaetetus' is the subject, and in the sentence
'Theaetetus flies,' 'Theaetetus' is again the subject. But the two
sentences differ in quality, for the first says of you that which is true,
and the second says of you that which is not true, or, in other words,
attributes to you things which are not as though they were. Here is false
|
