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οὐδ᾽ εἰκόνα ἂν ἔτι κτλ.: such as we saw before in VI 506 E ff. Glauco's question refers to the method, Socrates' reply to the object, of Dialectic: it is of course impossible to separate the two. On διισχυρίζεσθαι followed by ἰσχυριστέον see I 336 E note

ὅτι μὲν δεῖ κτλ. Cf. VI 505 E ff., supra 517 C (δεῖ ταύτην ἰδεῖν κτλ.), 519 C, 526 E ( δεῖ αὐτὴν παντὶ τρόπῳ ἰδεῖν). These passages are strongly in favour of δεῖ as against δή (see cr. n.), which Schneider, Hermann, and Stallbaum retain. ἰδεῖν is unpleasing if we read δή, and μὲν δή is not free from difficulty here. For μέν without δέ following see V 475 E note

, B 7 τόδε γοῦν κτλ. Socrates proceeds to establish what he has just asserted, viz. that only dialectic can reveal the Good to those who are versed in the propaedeutic ‘arts’ or sciences. In this at least (he says) every one will agree with us, viz. ‘that it is some other μέθοδος’ (different from the five propaedeutic ‘arts’) ‘which endeavours in every case to apprehend by scientific procedure concerning each several self’ (e.g. αὐτοῦ καλοῦ, αὐτοῦ δικαίου, etc.) ‘that which they severally are’ (the οὐσία of each) e.g. ἔστιν καλόν, etc. Cf. 531 D οὐ γάρ που δοκοῦσί γε σοι οἱ ταῦτα (the five propaedeutic ‘arts’) δεινοὶ διαλεκτικοὶ εἶναι. Socrates continues: while all the other arts (except τὰ μαθηματικά) address themselves πρὸς δόξας ἀνθρώπων, etc., even the mathematical ‘arts’ give no λόγος of their ὑποθέσεις (and so do not apprehend the ἔστιν of their subject). Dialectic and Dialectic alone does this (533 C), so that Dialectic is the ἄλλη τις μέθοδος and alone satisfies our needs. τόδε is the object of λέγουσιν, on which, and not on ἀμφισβητήσει, ὡς depends. ἄλλη means other than ὧν νῦν δὴ διήλθομεν. ἀλλά is opposed to the negative notion contained in ἄλλη (another μέθοδος, not that of the five ‘arts,’ but etc.). Badham arbitrarily proposes to read ὅρῳ περιλαμβάνειν for ὁδῷ περὶ παντὸς λαμβάνειν. The expression περὶ παντός ‘about everything’ is of course different from αὐτοῦ ἑκάστου πέρι, and μέθοδος ὁδῷ is the kind of collocation in which Plato delights. For other views on this sentence see App. XIV.

αἱ μὲν ἄλλαι κτλ. Cf. Phil. 55 E— 58 E. Plato is thinking of a threefold classification of arts under κολακική, ποιητική, and ἐπιμελητική or the like (J. and C., comparing Gorg. 463 ff., 501, 502, Soph. 222 E, 265 ff., Pol. 261 ff.).

τετράφαται is one of Plato's archaisms: see on I 330 B. Such forms are not found in inscriptions after 410 B.C. (Meisterhans^{3} p. 166).

γεωμετρίας -- ταύτῃ. For the syntax cf. VI 511 B note

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    • Plato, Sophist, 222e
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