Note 134 — Chapter XXIX · SOPHISTES — POLITIKUS. (continued 2)

Plato, Republic, v. pp. 477-478. Theætêt. pp. 188-189. Parmenidês, pp. 160 C, 163 C. Euthydêmus, p. 284 B-C.

Aristotle (De Interpretat. p. 21, a. 22) briefly expresses his dissent from an opinion, the same as what is given in the Platonic Sophistês — that τὸ μὴ ὄν is ὄν τι. He makes no mention of Plato, but Ammonius in the Scholia alludes to Plato (p. 129, b. 20, Schol. Bekk.).

We must note that the Eleate in the Sophistês states both opinions respecting τὸ μὴ ὄν: first that which he refutes — next that which he advances. The Scholiast may, therefore, refer to both opinions, as stated in the Sophistês, though one of them is stated only for the purpose of being refuted.

We may contrast with these views of Plato (in the Sophistês) respecting τὸ μὴ ὄν, as not being a negation τοῦ ὄντος, but simply a something ἕτερον τοῦ ὄντος, the different views of Aristotle about τὸ μὴ ὄν, set forth in the instructive Commentary of M. Ravaisson, Essai sur la Métaphysique d’Aristote, p. 360.

“Le non-être s’oppose à l’être, comme sa négation: ce n’est donc pas, non plus que l’être, une chose simple; et autant il y a de genres de l’être, autant il faut que le non-être ait de genres. Cependant l’opposition de l’être et du non-être, différente, en realité, dans chacune des catégories, est la même dans toutes par sa forme. Dans cette forme, le second terme n’exprime pas autre chose que l’absence du premier. Le rapport de l’être et du non-être consiste donc dans une pure contradiction: dernière forme à laquelle toute opposition doit se ramener.”

Aristotle seems to allude to the Sophistês, though not mentioning it by its title, in three passages of the Metaphysica — E. 1026, b. 14; K. 1064, b. 29; N. 1089, a. 5 (see the note of Bonitz on the latter passage) — perhaps also elsewhere (see Ueberweg, pp. 153-154). Plato replied in one way, Leukippus and Demokritus in another, to the doctrine of Parmenides, who banished Non-Ens as incogitable. Leukippus maintained that Non-Ens equivalent to τὸ κενόν, and that the two elements of things were τὸ πλῆρες and τὸ κενόν, for which he used the expressions δὲν and οὐδέν. Plato replied as we read in the Sophistês: thus both he and Leukippus tried in different ways to demonstrate a positive nature and existence for Non-Ens. See Aristot. Metaph. A. 985, b. 4, with the Scholia, p. 538, Brandis. The Scholiast cites Plato ἐν τῇ Πολιτείᾳ, which seems a mistake for ἐν τῷ Σοφίστῃ.