Note 76 — Chapter XXVIII · THEÆTETUS.

Aristotle says (Ethic. Nikomach. x. 1176, a. 15) δοκεῖ δ’ ἐν ἅπασι τοῖς τοιούτοις εἶναι τὸ φαινόμενον τῷ σπουδαίῳ. “That is, which appears to be in the judgment of the wise or virtuous man.” The ultimate appeal is thus acknowledged to be, not to an abstraction, but to some one or more individual persons whom Aristotle recognises as wise. That is truth which this wise man declares to be truth. You cannot escape from the Relative by any twist of reasoning.

What Platonic critics call “Der Gegensatz des Seins und des Scheins“ (see Steinhart, Einleit. zum Theætêt. p. 37) is unattainable. All that is attainable is the antithesis between that which appears to one person, and that which appears to one or more others, choose them as you will: between that which appears at a first glance, or at a distance, or on careless inspection — and that which appears after close and multiplied observations and comparisons, after full discussion, &c. Das Sein is that which appears to the person or persons whom we judge to be wise, under these latter favourable circumstances.

Epiktetus, i. 28, 1. Τί ἔστιν αἴτιον τοῦ συγκατατίθεσθαί τινι; Τὸ φαίνεσθαι ὅτι ὑπάρχει. Τῷ οὖν φαινομένῳ ὅτι οὐχ ὑπάρχει, συγκατατίθεσθαι οὐχ οἷόν τε.