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Full Idea
Let's take the kind posited and cut it in two, .then follow the righthand part of what we've cut, and hold onto things that the sophist is associated with until we strip away everything he has in common with other things, then display his peculiar nature.
Gist of Idea
To reveal a nature, divide down, and strip away what it has in common with other things
Source
Plato (The Statesman [c.356 BCE], 264e)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.289
A Reaction
This seems to be close to Aristotle's account of definition, when he is trying to get at what-it-is-to-be some thing. But if you strip away everything the definiendum has in common with other things, will anything remain?
| 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] |