relative as well as absolute?

THEAETETUS: Certainly.

STRANGER: And the other is always relative to other?

THEAETETUS: True.

STRANGER: But this would not be the case unless being and the other

entirely differed; for, if the other, like being, were absolute as well

as relative, then there would have been a kind of other which was not

other than other. And now we find that what is other must of necessity

be what it is in relation to some other.

THEAETETUS: That is the true state of the case.

STRANGER: Then we must admit the other as the fifth of our selected

classes.

THEAETETUS: Yes.

STRANGER: And the fifth class pervades all classes, for they all differ

from one another, not by reason of their own nature, but because they

partake of the idea of the other.

THEAETETUS: Quite true.

103

Sophist