Note 53 — Chapter X · SOPHISTICI ELENCHI.

Topic. I, i. p. 100, b. 26: οὐ γὰρ πᾶν τὸ φαινόμενον ἔνδοξον καὶ ἔστιν ἔνδοξον. οὐθὲν γὰρ τῶν λεγομένων ἔνδοξων ἐπιπόλαιον ἔχει παντελῶς τὴν φαντασίαν, καθάπερ περὶ τὰς τῶν ἐριστικῶν λόγων ἀρχὰς συμβέβηκεν ἔχειν· παραχρῆμα γὰρ καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ τοῖς καὶ μικρὰ συνορᾶν δυναμένοις κατάδηλος ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡ τοῦ ψευδοῦς ἐστὶ φύσις. It is by reference to this distinction between ἔνδοξα which are genuine and ἔνδοξα which are only such in appearance that the Scholiast (p. 306, b. 40) explains the meaning of Aristotle in the eleventh chapter of Sophistici Elenchi: ὁ μὲν οὖν κατὰ τὸ πρᾶγμα θεωρῶν τὰ κοινὰ διαλεκτικός, ὁ δὲ τοῦτο φαινομένως ποιῶν σοφιστικός (p. 171, b. 6-20). I confess that I attach no distinct meaning to the words κατὰ τὸ πρᾶγμα θεωρῶν τὰ κοινὰ, which characterizes the Dialectician as contrasted with the Sophist; nor can I learn much from the notes either of Waitz, or of Mr. Poste (p. 129, seq.) on the passage. Take for example the last half of the Parmenides of Plato, or Book B. of the Metaphysics of Aristotle. Are we to say that in these two compositions Plato and Aristotle speculate on to τὰ κοινὰ κατὰ τὸ πρᾶγμα, or that they do so only in appearance?