Note 116 — Chapter X · SOPHISTICI ELENCHI.

Ibid. b. 7, 18, 37: λύουσι δέ τινες ἀναιροῦντες τὴν ἐρώτησιν· φασὶ γὰρ ἐνδέχεσθαι ταὐτὸ πρᾶγμα εἰδέναι καὶ ἀγνοεῖν, ἀλλὰ μὴ κατὰ ταὐτό.

Mr. Poste (pp. 152-157) translates ἀναιροῦντες τὴν ἐρώτησιν — “contradicting the thesis,” and he expresses his surprise at the assertion, observing (very truly) that contradiction of the thesis is the very opposite of a solution; it helps in the very work which the refutation aims at accomplishing. But I cannot think that ἐρώτησις does mean “the thesis,” either here or in the other passage to which Mr. Poste refers (xxii. p. 178, b. 14). I think it means a premiss which the respondent has conceded, or must be presumed to have conceded, essential to the validity of the refutation. The term ἐρώτησις cannot surely, with any propriety, be applied to the thesis. It means either a question, or what is conceded in reply to a question; and the thesis cannot come under either one meaning or the other, being the proposition which the respondent sets out by affirming and undertakes to defend.