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ταὐτὸν -- ἅμα is the earliest explicit statement in Greek literature of the maxim of Contradiction; cf. Theaet. 188 A, Phaed. 102 E, 103 B, Soph. 230 B and infra X 602 E. Plato may have been led to formulate it in opposition to Heracliteanism, which was supposed by some to be the negation of the principle (see Arist. Met. Γ 3. 1005^{b} 24 and Theaet. 152 D ff.), or against the Megarian puzzles (see RP.^{7} § 226), or as a counterblast to both. Many of the sophistries of the Euthydemus turn on the violation of this law. In Aristotle's formula (Met. l.c. 1005^{b} 19) πρὸς ταὐτόν does not occur; and Hartman would cancel καὶ πρὸς ταὐτόν here and πρὸς τὸ αὐτό in 436 E, on the ground that it means the same as κατὰ ταὐτόν. But assuredly it does not. κατὰ ταὐτόν is ‘in the same part of it’ as the instances presently cited shew; while πρὸς ταὐτόν is ‘relatively to the same thing,’ viz. to something other than the subject of the proposition. πρὸς τὰ αὐτά and κατὰ ταὐτά are also both of them found in the parallel passage Soph. 230 B. πρὸς ταὐτόν covers such cases as are adduced in Theaet. 154 C—155 C: six dice are πλείους πρὸς τέτταρας, ἐλάττους πρὸς δώδεκα, but they are not ἐναντία πρὸς ταὐτόν. Cf. VII 524 A ff., and see also on ἢ καὶ εἴη in 437 A.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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