more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
When the question was put to us as to the name of 'that which is not', to whatever one must apply it, we got stuck in every kind of perplexity. Are we now in any less perplexity about 'that which is'?
Gist of Idea
If statements about non-existence are logically puzzling, so are statements about existence
Source
Plato (The Sophist [c.359 BCE], 250d)
Book Ref
Plato: 'The Sophist', ed/tr. Bernadete,Seth [University of Chicago 1986], p.45
A Reaction
Nice. This precapitulates the whole story of modern philosophy of language. What started as a nagging doubt about reference to non-existents ends as bewilderment about everything we say.