Sophist – Plato
THEAETETUS: True.
THEAETETUS: Yes, that is the name.
STRANGER: And when the war is one of words, STRANGER: And of disputation, that sort which is it may be termed controversy?
only a discussion about contracts, and is carried on at random, and without rules of art, is recog-THEAETETUS: Yes.
nized by the reasoning faculty to be a distinct class, but has hitherto had no distinctive name, and does STRANGER: And controversy may be of two not deserve to receive one from us.
kinds.
THEAETETUS: No; for the different sorts of it THEAETETUS: What are they?
are too minute and heterogeneous.
STRANGER: When long speeches are answered by STRANGER: But that which proceeds by rules of long speeches, and there is public discussion about art to dispute about justice and injustice in their the just and unjust, that is forensic controversy.
own nature, and about things in general, we have been accustomed to call argumentation (Eristic)?
THEAETETUS: Yes.
THEAETETUS: Certainly.
STRANGER: And there is a private sort of controversy, which is cut up into questions and an-STRANGER: And of argumentation, one sort swers, and this is commonly called disputation?
wastes money, and the other makes money.