Being and Not-Being : An Introduction to Platos Sophist

The present monograph on Platos Sophist developed from series of lectures given over a number of years to honours and graduate phi- losophy classes in the University of Waterloo. It is hoped that it will prove a useful guide to anyone trying to come to grips with, and gain a perspective of Platos mature thought. At the same time my study is addressed to the specialist, and I have considered at the appropriate places a good deal of the scholarly literature that has appeared during the last thirty years. In this connection I regret that some of the pub- lications which came to my notice after my work was substantially completed (such as KamIahs and Sayres) have not been referred to in my discussion. As few philosophy students nowadays are familiar with Greek I have (except in a few footnotes) translated as well as transliterated all Greek terms. Citations from Platos text follow Cornfords admirable trans- lation as closely as possible, though the reader will find some significant deviations. The most notable of these concerns the key word on which I have rendered throughout as "being," thus avoiding Cornfords "existence" and "reality" which tend to prejudge the issues which the dialogue raises.