[436d]
and a
part in motion. Is not that so?” “It is.”
“Then if the disputant should carry the jest still further with
the subtlety that tops at any rate1 stand still as a whole at the same time that they are
in motion when with the peg fixed in one point they revolve, and that the
same is true of any other case of circular motion about the same
spot—we should reject the statement on the ground that the repose
and the movement in such cases2 were not in relation to
the same parts of the objects, but we would say
1 The argumentative γε is controversial. For the illustration of the top cf. Spencer, First Principle, 170, who analyzes “certain oscillations described by the expressive though inelegant word 'wobbling'” and their final dissipation when the top appears stationary in the equilibrium mobile.
2 The meaning is plain, the alleged rest and motion do not relate to the same parts of the objects. But the syntax of τὰ τοιαῦτα is difficult. Obvious remedies are to expunge the words or to read τῶν τοιούτων, the cacophony of which in the context Plato perhaps rejected at the cost of leaving his syntax to our conjectures.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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