Plato, Sophist, section 248a

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[248a] and us, then, let us asume that this is for the present agreed upon and settled.

Theaetetus
It is settled.

Stranger
Then let us go to the others, the friends of ideas; and do you interpret for us their doctrines also.

Theaetetus
I will.

Stranger
You distinguish in your speech between generation and being, do you not?¹

Theaetetus
Yes, we do.

Stranger
And you say that with the body, by means of perception, we participate in generation, and with the soul, by means of thought, we participate in real being, which last is always unchanged and the same, whereas generation is different at different times.

1 i.e., between the process of coming into existence and existence itself. It is difficult to determine exactly who the idealists are whose doctrines are here discussed. Possibly Plato is restating or amending some of his own earlier beliefs.

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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