Note 126 — Chapter X · SOPHISTICI ELENCHI.

Soph. El. Xxxi. p. 181, b. 26: οὐ δοτέον τῶν πρός τι λεγομένων σημαίνειν τι χωριζομένας καθ’ αὑτὰς τὰς κατηγορίας.

Mr. Poste observes in his note:— “The sophistic locus of tautology may be considered as a caricature of a dialectic locus. One fault which dialectic criticism finds with a definition is the introduction of superfluous words.” He then cites Topic. VI. ii. (p. 141, a. 4, seq.); but in this passage we find that the repetition of the same word is declared not to be an argumentative impropriety, so that the Sophist would gain nothing by driving his opponent into tautology.