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[261a] and when we have perceived that, may prove the existence of falsehood, and after proving that, may imprison the sophist therein, if he can be held on that charge, and if not, may set him free and seek him in another class.

Theaetetus
It certainly seems, Stranger, that what you said at first about the sophist—that he was a hard kind of creature to catch—is true; for he seems to have no end of defences,1 and when he throws one of them up, his opponent has first to fight through it before he can reach the man himself; for now, you see, we have barely passed through


1 Perhaps a sort of pun is intended, for πρόβλημα was already beginning to have the meaning of “problem.”

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.

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