sophist   

off. For the true answer will certainly be a very long one, a great
deal longer than might be expected from such a short and simple
question. At the same time, I fear that I may seem rude and
ungracious
if I refuse your courteous request, especially after what you have
said. For I certainly cannot object to your proposal, that
Theaetetus should respond, having already conversed with him myself,
and being recommended by you to take him.
Theaetetus. But are you sure, Stranger, that this will be quite so
acceptable to the rest of the company as Socrates imagines?
Str. You hear them applauding, Theaetetus; after that, there is
nothing more to be said. Well then, I am to argue with you,
and if you
tire of the argument, you may complain of your friends and not of me.
Theaet. I do not think that I shall tire, and if I do, I shall get
my friend here, young Socrates, the namesake of the elder
Socrates, to
help; he is about my own age, and my partner at the gymnasium, and
is constantly accustomed to work with me.
Str. Very good; you can decide about that for yourself as we
proceed. Meanwhile you and I will begin together and enquire into
the nature of the Sophist, first of the three: I should like you to
make out what he is and bring him to light in a discussion; for at
present we are only agreed about the name, but of the thing to which
we both apply the name possibly you have one notion and I another;
whereas we ought always to come to an understanding about the thing
itself in terms of a definition, and not merely about the name minus
the definition. Now the tribe of Sophists which we are investigating
is not easily caught or defined; and the world has long ago agreed,
that if great subjects are to be adequately treated, they must be
studied in the lesser and easier instances of them before we proceed
to the greatest of all. And as I know that the tribe of Sophists is
troublesome and hard to be caught, I should recommend that
we practise
beforehand the method which is to be applied to him on some
simple and
smaller thing, unless you can suggest a better way.
Theaet. Indeed I cannot.
Str. Then suppose that we work out some lesser example
which will be
a pattern of the greater?
Theaet. Good.
Str. What is there which is well known and not great, and is yet
as susceptible of definition as any larger thing? Shall I say an
angler? He is familiar to all of us, and not a very interesting or
important person.
Theaet. He is not.
Str. Yet I suspect that he will furnish us with the sort of
definition and line of enquiry which we want.
Theaet. Very good.
Str. Let us begin by asking whether he is a man having art or not
having art, but some other power.
Theaet. He is clearly a man of art.
Str. And of arts there are two kinds?
Theaet. What are they?
Str. There is agriculture, and the tending of mortal creatures,
and the art of constructing or moulding vessels, and there is the
art of imitation-all these may be appropriately called by a single
name.
Theaet. What do you mean? And what is the name?
Str. He who brings into existence something that did not exist
before is said to be a producer, and that which is brought into
existence is said to be produced.
Theaet. True.