Plato on False Statement: Relative Being, a Part of Being, and Not-Being in the Sophist

Notes and Discussions PLATO ON FALSE STATEMENT: RELATIVE BEING, A PART OF BEING, AND NOT-BEING IN THE SOPHIST Recently Plato's account of not-Being in the Sophist has received considerable attention , notably in papers by David Wiggins,1 G. E. L. Owen,2 and Edward N. Lee.3 Lee's discussion is especially important because it emphasizes (in my opinion, correctly) the analogy of the partitioning of Knowledge at 257c--d. Nevertheless even Lee seems to me to fail to give a correct explanation of the Sophist's discussion of this matter. I. RELATIVE FORMS The sentence4 "Phaedo is tall," makes a statement which we may symbolize as (1) Phaedo/the Tall. The subject of the statement (Phaedo) corresponds to the subject term of the sentence ("Phaedo"); the predicate (the property or Form, the Tall) corresponds to the predicate term of the sentence ("tall"); the copulative element of the statement (Plato's participation ) corresponds to the "is''5 and is symbolized as "/". Now consider the sentence "Phaedo is taller than Simmias." In this post-Fregean era we tend to think of the statement it makes in the following way: (2) Phaedo/taller than Simmias, or, to symbolize it in a manner more closely conforming to Platonic expression: (2') Phaedo/the Tall relative to Simmlas. According to symbolizations (2) and (2") what is predicated of Phaedo is the complex predicate tallness relative to Sirnmias. For just this reason, they do not represent the Platonic conception of predications involving relational predicates. To Plato's way of thinking, what is predicated of Phaedo is not a complex predicate at all, but simply the Form of the Tall; the statement made by the sentence "Phaedo is taller than Simmias," is simply (3) Phaedo/the Tall. This is not the end of the story, of course---there is a difference between (what we might call) relative Forms, such as the Tall or the Different, and non-relative Forms, such as, e.g., the Red. The Red ("is red") is a non-relative Form (non-relative predicate expression); a red thing can be "spoken of as being what it is [i.e., red] just in itself.''e x David Wiggins, "Sentence Meaning, Negation, and Plato's Problem of Non-Being," in Plato, A Collection of Critical Essays, Vol. I: Metaphysics and Epistemology, ed. Gregory Vlastos (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1971),pp. 268-303. 2 G. E. L Owen, "Plato on Not-Being," also in Vlastos, pp. 223-267. (Henceforth referred to as "Owen.') s Edward N. Lee, "Plato on Negation and Not-Being in the Sophist," Philosophical Review, LXXXI, 3 (July, 1972),267-304. (Henceforthreferred to as "Lee.") 4 For brevity's sake, I shall speak as if statements are made by sentences rather than by utterances of sentences by speakers. 5 Not all sentences contain a term or expression which signifiesonly copulation--"Theaetetus sits," for example, contains no copula term. In Plato's terminology a subject expression is a "name," a predicate expression is a "verb." One can make a statement simply by juxtaposing a name and a verb in an uttered sentence (Sophist 262a-d). 6 See Sophist 255c-d, quoted in Section II, below. [336] NOTES AND DISCUSSIONS 337 Looking, one just sees that a red thing is red, period; no comparison of a red thing to some other thing is necessary to discern its redness. On the other hand, relative Forms, unlike non-relative Forms, must necessarily be predicated of something in light of some consideration or comparison. 7 For example, one may look at Phaedo and Simmias, perceive Phaedo to be the taller of the two, and utter a sentence which expresses statement (3). Utterance of the short sentence "Phaedo is tall," would be sufficient to do the job; just "Phaedo is tall," however, would give no indication to the hearer as to the consideration (i.e., a comparison of the heights of Phaedo and Simmias) in light of which the statement was made. A sentence which made explicit the full nature of the statement would give such an indication. The statement made after comparing Phaedo and Simmias, (4) Phaedo/the Tall (relative to Simmias), or (symbolizing "relative...