This text is part of:
ἀντιλογικῆς τέχνης . ἀντιλογική is defined in Soph. 225 B as a variety of ἀμφισβητητικόν: viz. τὸ ἐν ἰδίοις—opposed to τὸ δικανικόν, which is δημοσίᾳ—αὖ καὶ κατακεκερματισμένον ἐρωτήσεσι πρὸς ἀποκρίσεις. It is described in Phaedr. 261 D ff., and practical illustrations are given in the sophisms of Euthyd. 275 C ff. The Ἀντιλογικοί are spoken of as almost a distinct sect in Plato's time: see Lys. 216 A and Isocr. περὶ ἀντιδόσεως 45 ἄλλοι δέ τινες περὶ τὰς ἐρωτήσεις καὶ τὰς ἀποκρίσεις—οὓς ἀντιλογικοὺς καλοῦσιν. Here Plato probably has in view some of the ‘Sophists’ (as in VI 499 A) as well as the Megarian school, whose well-known puzzles—ὁ ψευδόμενος, ὁ διαλανθάνων, Ἠλέκτρα, ὁ ἐγκεκαλυμμένος: see D. L. II 108—are excellent examples of verbal fallacies. The same class of people are also called ἐριστικοί and ἀγωνιστικοί: see Men. 75 C and cf. Theaet. 167 E, Phil. 17 A and Isocr. in Soph. 20 τῶν περὶ τὰς ἔριδας καλινδουμένων—τοιαῦτα λογίδια διεξιόντες οἷς εἴ τις ἐπὶ τῶν πράξεων ἐμμείνειεν, εὐθὺς ἂν ἐν πᾶσιν ε<*>η κακοῖς. On the history and place of Eristic in Greek philosophy see E. S. Thompson's elaborate excursus in his edition of the Meno pp. 272—285. κατ̓ εἴδη διαιρούμενοι . εἴδη is not of course ‘the Ideas’: but ‘species’ ‘kinds’: cf. Pol. 285 A κατ᾽ εἴδη— διαιρουμένους and Soph. 253 D κατὰ γένη διαιρεῖσθαι. That κατὰ γένη (s. εἴδη) διαλέγειν is the peculiar province of dialectic was the iew of Socrates as well as of Plato: see Xen. Mem. IV 5. 12 ἔφη δὲ καὶ τὸ διαλέγεσθαι ὀνομασθῆναι ἐκ τοῦ συνιόντας κοινῇ βουλεύεσθαι διαλέγοντας κατὰ γένη τὰ πράγματα. See also on III 402 C. κατ̓ αὐτὸ -- ἐναντίωσιν: lit. ‘pursue the contradiction of what has been said according to the name and nothing more’ i.e. ‘aim at the merely verbal contradiction of what has been said.’ We are told by Clement (Strom. II 7. 968 B ed. Migne) that Critolaus called such persons ὀνοματομάχοι. With διώκειν ἐναντίωσιν cf. III 410 B γυμναστικὴν διώκειν. The implied antithesis to κατ᾽ αὐτὸ τὸ ὄνομα is κατ᾽ αὐτὸ τὸ πρᾶγμα: cf. Soph. 218 C δεῖ δὲ ἀεὶ παντὸς πέρι τὸ πρᾶγμα αὐτὸ μᾶλλον διὰ λόγων ἢ τοὔνομα μόνον συνομολογ̔ήσασθαι χωρὶς λόγου. ἔριδι -- διαλέκτῳ: a common opposition: cf. Men. 75 C ff. and Phil. 17 A.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.