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Stranger
Str. Then do you see that when a man appears to know many things, but is called by the name of a single art, there is something wrong about this impression, and that, in fact, the person who labors under this impression in connexion with any art is clearly unable to see the common principle of the art, to which all these kinds of knowledge pertain, so that he calls him who possesses them by many names instead of one?
Theaetetus
Theaet. Something like that is very likely to be the case.
Stranger
Str. We must not let that happen to us in our search through lack of diligence. So let us first take up again one of our statements about the sophist. For there is one of them which seemed to me to designate him most plainly.
Theaetetus
Theaet. Which was it?
Stranger
Str. I think we said he was a disputer.
5
Stranger
Str. And did we not also say that he taught this same art of disputing to others?
Theaetetus
Theaet. Certainly.
Stranger
Str. Now let us examine and see what the subjects are about which such men say they make their pupils able to dispute. Let us begin our examination at the beginning with this question: Is it about divine things which are invisible to others that they make people able to dispute?
Theaetetus
Theaet. That is their reputation, at any rate.
10
Stranger
Str. And how about the visible things of earth and heaven and the like?
Theaetetus
Theaet. Those are included, of course.
