Plato, Theaetetus, section 197b

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[197b]

Socrates
They say it is having knowledge.

Theaetetus
True.

Socrates
Let us make a slight change and say possessing knowledge.

Theaetetus
Why, how will you claim that the one differs from the other?

Socrates
Perhaps it doesn't; but first hear how it seems to me to differ, and then help me to test my view.

Theaetetus
I will if I can.

Socrates
Well, then, having does not seem to me the same as possessing. For instance, if a man bought a cloak and had it under his control, but did not wear it, we should certainly say, not that he had it, but that he possessed it.

Theaetetus
And rightly.

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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