Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 4Grote, George
Philosophy
Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 4
Grote, George
Philosophy, Ancient; Plato; Socrates, 470 BC-399 BC
[Footnote 79: Plato, Tim. pp. 62-64 B. Demokritus appears to have
held on this point an opinion approaching to that of Plato. See
Democr. Frag. ed. Mullach, pp. 204-215: Aristot. Metaph. A. p.
985, b. 15; De Sensu, s. 62-65; Sextus Empiric. adv. Math. vii.
135.
[Greek: Peri\ me\n ou)=n bare/os kai\ kou/phou kai\ sklêrou= kai\
malakou=, e)n tou/tois a)phori/zei--tô=n d' a)/llôn
ai)sthêtô=n ou)deno\s ei)=nai phu/sin, a)lla\ pa/nta pa/thê
tê=s ai)sthê/seôs a)lloioume/nês.] We may remark that Plato
includes hardness and softness, the different varieties of
resistance, among the secondary or relative qualities of matter;
all that he seems to conceive as absolute are extension and
figure, the geometrical conception of matter. In the view of most
modern philosophers, resistance is considered as the most
obviously and undeniably _absolute_ of all the attributes of
matter, as that which serves to prove that matter itself is
absolute. Dr. Johnson refuted the doctrine of Berkeley by knocking
a stick against the ground; and a similar refutation is adopted in
words by Reid and Stewart (see Mill's System of Logic, Book vi. ad
finem, also Book i. ch. 3, s. 7-8). To me the fact appealed to by
Johnson appears an evidence in favour of Berkeley's theory rather
than against it. The Resistant ([Greek: o(\ pare/chei prosbolê\n
kai\ e)paphê/n tina], Plato, Sophist. p. 246 A) can be understood
only as a correlate of something which is resisted: the fact of
sense called Resistance is an indivisible fact, involving the
implication of the two. In the first instance it is the resistance
experienced to our own motions (A. Bain, The Senses and the
Intellect, p. 91, 3rd ed.), and thus involves the feeling of our
own spontaneous muscular energy.
The Timæus of Plato is not noticed by Sir W. Hamilton in his very
learned and instructive Dissertation on the Primary and Secondary
Qualities of Body (notes to his edition of Reid's Works, p. 826),
though it bears upon his point more than the Theætêtus, which he
mentions.]
[Footnote 80: Plato, Timæus, pp. 65-69 E.]
[Side-note: Construction of man imposed by the Demiurgus
upon the secondary Gods. Triple Soul. Distribution thereof in the
body.]
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