sophist   

unmeaningness an everlasting fixture?
Theaet. That would be a dreadful thing to admit, Stranger.
Str. But shall we say that has mind and not life?
Theaet. How is that possible?
Str. Or shall we say that both inhere in perfect being, but that
it has no soul which contains them?
Theaet. And in what other way can it contain them?
Str. Or that being has mind and life and soul, but although
endowed with soul remains absolutely unmoved?
Theaet. All three suppositions appear to me to be irrational.
Str. Under being, then, we must include motion, and that which is
moved.
Theaet. Certainly.
Str. Then, Theaetetus, our inference is, that if there is
no motion,
neither is there any mind anywhere, or about anything or belonging
to any one.
Theaet. Quite true.
Str. And yet this equally follows, if we grant that all things are
in motion-upon this view too mind has no existence.
Theaet. How so?
Str. Do you think that sameness of condition and mode and subject
could ever exist without a principle of rest?
Theaet. Certainly not.
Str. Can you see how without them mind could exist, or come into
existence anywhere?
Theaet. No.
Str. And surely contend we must in every possible way against him
who would annihilate knowledge and reason and mind, and yet ventures
to speak confidently about anything.
Theaet. Yes, with all our might.
Str. Then the philosopher, who has the truest reverence for these
qualities, cannot possibly accept the notion of those who
say that the
whole is at rest, either as unity or in many forms: and he will be
utterly deaf to those who assert universal motion. As children say
entreatingly "Give us both." so he will include both the moveable
and immoveable in his definition of being and all.
Theaet. Most true.
Str. And now, do we seem to have gained a fair notion of being?
Theaet. Yes truly.
Str. Alas, Theaetetus, methinks that we are now only beginning to
see the real difficulty of the enquiry into the nature of it.
Theaet. What do you mean?
Str. O my friend, do you not see that nothing can exceed out
ignorance, and yet we fancy that we are saying something good?
Theaet. I certainly thought that we were; and I do not at all
understand how we never found out our desperate case.
Str. Reflect: after having made, these admissions, may we not be
justly asked, the same questions which we ourselves were asking of
those who said that all was hot and cold?
Theaet. What were they? Will you recall them to my mind?
Str. To be sure, I will remind you of them, by putting the same
questions, to you which I did to them, and then we shall get on.
Theaet. True.
Str. Would you not say that rest and motion are in the most entire
opposition to one another?
Theaet. Of course.
Str. And yet you would say that both and either of them
equally are?
Theaet. I should.
Str. And when you admit that both or either of them are,
do you mean
to say that both or either, of them are in motion?