Plato's Sophist

The Sophist starts off in the most obvious way, by exploring and trying to get at what a sophist is. I will try my best to explain this dialogue but I found it really involved and confusing. The argumentation is much more intellectual and complex it seems than the Cratylus or other dialogues I have read. At first he starts with the use of a mundane model (Angler), which shares some qualities in common with the target kind (Sophist). This common quality is the certain expertise (techne) at one subject. Then through the method of collection of different kinds (farming, caring for mortal bodies, for things that are put together or fabricated and imitation) he tries to bring them together into one kind, which he calls productive art. The same is true with the collection of learning, recognition, commerce, combat and hunting, which can be deduced into the kind of acquisitive art. From this he compares the model word and the target kind mapping out their likenesses and differences.