Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 2
Plato · en
Here is a suitable termination for one of the Dialogues of Search:
"My mind has been embarrassed by contradictions as yet unreconciled,
but this is a stage indispensable to future improvement". We have
moreover an interesting passage of arms between Rhetoric and
Dialectic: two contemporaneous and contending agencies, among the
stirring minds of Athens, in the time of Plato and Isokrates. The
Rhetor accuses the Dialectician of departing from the conditions of
reality--of breaking up the integrity of those concretes, which occur
in nature each as continuous and indivisible wholes. Each of the
analogous particular cases forms a continuum or concrete by itself,
which may be compared with the others, but cannot be taken to pieces,
and studied in separate fragments.[43] The Dialectician on his side
treats the Abstract ([Greek: to\ kalo\n]) as the real Integer, and
the highest abstraction as the first of all integers, containing in
itself and capable of evolving all the subordinate integers: the
various accompaniments, which go along with each Abstract to make up
a concrete, he disregards as shadowy and transient disguises.
[Footnote 43: Plat. Hipp. Maj. 301 B. [Greek: A)lla\ ga\r dê\ su/,
ô)= Sô/krates, ta\ me\n o(/la tô=n pragma/tôn ou) skopei=s, ou)d'
e)kei=noi, oi(=s su\ ei)/ôthas diale/gesthai, krou/ete de\
a)polamba/nontes to\ kalo\n kai\ e(/kaston tô=n o)/ntôn e)n toi=s
lo/gois katate/mnontes; dia\ tau=ta ou(/tô mega/la u(ma=s lantha/nei
kai\ _dianekê= sô/mata tê=s ou)si/as pephuko/ta_.] Compare 301
E.
The words [Greek: dianekê= sô/mata tê=s ou)si/as pephuko/ta]
correspond as nearly as can be to the logical term _Concrete_,
opposed to _Abstract_. Nature furnishes only Concreta, not
Abstracta.]
[Side-note: Men who dealt with real life, contrasted with the
speculative and analytical philosophers.]