Kitap 7
13
But when some declared that all these questions were pointless and idle sophisms, Taurus said: Do not despise such problems, as if they were mere trifling amusements. The most earnest of the philosophers have seriously debated this question. See Pease, Things without Honor, Class. Phil. xxi. (1926), pp. 97 ff. Some have thought that the term 'die' was properly used, and that the moment of death came, while life still remained; others have left no life in that moment, but have claimed for death all that period which is termed dying.' Also in regard to other similar problems they have argued for different times and maintained opposite opinions. But our master Plato, Parm. 21, p. 156 D; cf. vi. 21, above. said he, assigned that time neither to life nor to death, and took the same position in every discussion of similar questions. For he saw that the alternatives were mutually contrary, that one of the two opposites could not be maintained while the other existed, and that the question arose from the juxtaposition of two opposing extremes, namely life and death. Therefore he himself devised, and gave a name to, a new period of time, lying on the boundary between the two, which he called in appropriate and exact language h( e)cai/fnhs fu/sis, or 'the moment of sudden separation.' And this very term, as I have given it, said he, you will find used by him in the dialogue entitled Parmenides.
