Note 114 — Chapter XXIX · SOPHISTES — POLITIKUS.

Plato, Sophist. p. 255 C-D. τῶν ὄντων τὰ μὲν αὐτὰ καθ’ αὑτά, τά δὲ πρὸς ἄλληλα ἀεὶ λέγεσθαι . . . Τὸ δ’ ἕτερον ἀεὶ πρὸς ἕτερον . . . Νῦν δὲ ἀτεχνῶς ἡμῖν ὅ, τι περ ἂν ἕτερον ᾖ, συμβέβηκεν ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἑτέρου τοῦτο ὅπερ ἐστὶν εἶναι. These last words partly anticipate Aristotle’s explanation of τὰ πρός τι (Categor. p. 6, a. 38).

Here we have, for the first time so far as I know (certainly anterior to Aristotle), names relative and non-relative, distinguished as classes, and contrasted with each other. It is to be observed that Plato here uses λέγεσθαι and εἶναι as equivalent; which is not very consistent with the sense which he assigns to ἐστιν in predication: see the note immediately preceding.