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Stranger
Str. You distinguish in your speech between generation and being, do you not? i.e., between the process of coming into existence and existence itself. It is difficult to determine exactly who the idealists are whose doctrines are here discussed. Possibly Plato is restating or amending some of his own earlier beliefs.
5
Theaetetus
Theaet. Yes, we do.
Stranger
Str. And you say that with the body, by means of perception, we participate in generation, and with the soul, by means of thought, we participate in real being, which last is always unchanged and the same, whereas generation is different at different times.
Theaetetus
Theaet. Yes, that is what we say.
Stranger
Str. But, most excellent men, how shall we define this participation which you attribute to both? Is it not that of which we were just speaking?
Theaetetus
Theaet. What is that?
10
Stranger
Str. A passive or active condition arising out of some power which is derived from a combination of elements. Possibly, Theaetetus, you do not hear their reply to this, but I hear it, perhaps, because I am used to them.
Theaetetus
Theaet. What is it, then, that they say?
Stranger
Str. They do not concede to us what we said just now to the aboriginal giants about being.
Theaetetus
Theaet. What was it?
Stranger
Str. We set up as a satisfactory sort of definition of being, the presence of the power to act or be acted upon in even the slightest degree.
15
Stranger
Str. It is in reply to this that they say generation participates in the power of acting and of being acted upon, but that neither power is connected with being.
