Note 26 — BOOK II. (continued 2)
Charles Duke Yonge translation
The French translator gives the following examples, to show what is meant by these several kinds of quibbling arguments:—
The lying one is this:—Is the man a liar who says that he tells lies. If he is, then he does not tell lies; and if he does not tell lies, is he a liar?
The concealed one:—Do you know this man who is concealed? If you do not, you do not know your own father; for he it is who is concealed.
The veiled one is much the same as the preceding.
The electra is a quibble of the same kind as the two preceding ones: Electra sees Orestes: she knows that Orestes is her brother, but does not know that the man she sees is Orestes; therefore she does know, and does not know, her brother at the same time.
The Sorites is universally known.
The bald one is a kind of Sorites; pulling one hair out of a man’s head will not make him bald, nor two, nor three, and so on till every hair in his head is pulled out.
The horned one:—You have what you have not lost. You have not lost horns, therefore you have horns.