[162b]
thus assuring its own perfect existence, and the non-existent partakes of the non-existence of not being existent and the existence of being non-existent, and thus the non-existent also secures its perfect non-existence.” “Very true.” “Then since the existent partakes of non-existence and the non-existent of existence, the one, since it does not exist, necessarily partakes of existence to attain non-existence.” “Yes, necessarily.” “Clearly, then, the one, if it does not exist, has existence.” “Clearly.” “And non-existence also, if it does not exist.” “Of course.”“Well, can anything which is in a certain condition be not in that condition without changing from it?” “No, it cannot.” “Then everything of that sort—if a thing is and is not in a given condition—signifies a change.”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.
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