more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
The rule is that when one perceives first the community between the members of a group of many things, one should not desist until one sees in it all those differences that are located in classes.
Gist of Idea
Whenever you perceive a community of things, you should also hunt out differences in the group
Source
Plato (The Statesman [c.356 BCE], 285b)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.328
A Reaction
He goes on to recommend the opposite as well - see community even when there appears to be nothing but differences. I take this to be analysis, just as much as modern linguistic approaches are. Analyse the world, not language.
| 16125 | To reveal a nature, divide down, and strip away what it has in common with other things [Plato] |
| 279 | Only divine things can always stay the same, and bodies are not like that [Plato] |
| 5961 | The soul gets its goodness from god, and its evil from previous existence. [Plato] |
| 281 | The arts produce good and beautiful things by preserving the mean [Plato] |
| 16123 | Whenever you perceive a community of things, you should also hunt out differences in the group [Plato] |
| 16124 | No one wants to define 'weaving' just for the sake of weaving [Plato] |
| 282 | Non-physical beauty can only be shown clearly by speech [Plato] |
| 22559 | Democracy is the worst of good constitutions, but the best of bad constitutions [Plato, by Aristotle] |
| 283 | The question of whether or not to persuade comes before the science of persuasion [Plato] |