5 h 5 minAudiobook10 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 125 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 125 pagesAbout this book
How can a lie exist if it speaks of something that is not?
In Plato’s Sophist, an unnamed visitor from Elea joins Theaetetus to ask what separates a sophist from a philosopher. Socrates is present, but says little. The visitor leads the search, testing definitions and tracing the ways clever argument can resemble wisdom without offering true knowledge.
What begins as a search for a person becomes an inquiry into reality itself. To explain false speech, the Stranger must question Parmenides’ teaching that what is not cannot be spoken of. Being, appearance, sameness and difference become urgent problems: how can anyone distinguish truth from an imitation of it?
What you’ll discover
- An angler as a guide Begin with a fisherman, and watch a simple definition become a tool for harder questions.
- Wisdom and its disguises Explore the shifting portraits of the sophist, whose arguments can imitate knowledge.
- The puzzle of falsehood Face the strange difficulty of explaining how speech can describe what is not.
- A challenge to Parmenides Follow the Stranger as he questions a teaching that threatens the search for falsehood.
- An argument taking shape Trace each distinction as the dialogue presses from familiar examples toward questions about being itself.
Who will love it
For readers who like to watch an argument being built step by step, and for anyone curious about how Western philosophy first handled truth, lies and appearances.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A stranger from Elea leads the search
- Define by dividing: the angler as practice
- The sophist appears in many disguises
- False speech seems impossible, and that is the trouble
- What is real? Giants, gods and the five kinds
- Not-being as difference, and the sophist caught
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 5 h 5 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 10 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in, 125 pages: USD 7.95 when you start free, USD 13.95 on its own.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in, 125 pages: USD 14.95 when you start free, USD 20.95 on its own.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
eBooks and audiobooks open right away. Download EPUB or PDF, or send the book to your Kindle. Every printed copy is made when you order it and shipped worldwide; shipping is shown at checkout.
How it works
- Start free. Nothing to pay today; the eBook of this book is yours to keep.
- Read, listen and print. 200,000+ classics as eBook, large-print eBook, audiobook and 15-minute summary, and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print, for the whole household.
- We remind you first. Free for 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment. Then USD 0.14 a day in your first year on the yearly plan and USD 0.27 a day after, or USD 0.66 a day on the monthly plan. Cancel online in two clicks.
Bought on its own? Every eBook, audiobook and printed book you buy without the plan carries our 30-day money-back guarantee.
25 languages, side by side
Read and hear Sophist in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Sophist
by Plato
A visitor from Elea hunts for the sophist and confronts a puzzle about how falsehood can exist.
Excellent
- Read or listen
- 25 languages, side by side
- Print and large print at cost
- The whole household
Free for 3 months · starts right away, on any device
Read free3 months free · cancel anytimeFree for 3 months, then USD 0.14 a dayCancel anytimeHow it works
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A stranger from Elea leads the search
The dialogue opens on the day after the conversation recorded in Theaetetus. Theodorus, a mathematician, arrives with a guest whom he calls a philosopher from Elea. Socrates greets the visitor with some wit. He wonders whether this man might be a god in disguise, sent to test and refute the weak arguments of mortals. Theodorus laughs the idea off and says the Stranger is gentler than that.
Socrates then asks a practical question. In the Stranger's country, do people treat the sophist, the statesman and the philosopher as one kind of person, as two, or as three? The Stranger says they are three, though defining each is no small job. He agrees to take them in turn, and he starts with the sophist. Socrates lets him choose how to speak, either in a long lecture or in short question and answer. The Stranger prefers a partner who answers, and he picks young Theaetetus, who has just shown his skill in the earlier dialogue.
Free for 3 months · Cancel anytime
Free gifts
USD 580 in free gifts when you start
Every book in every format and in 25 languages, for the whole household. Nothing to pay today.
- 200,000+ classic eBooksIn 25 languages, side by side
USD 170FREE - Every audiobookIn 25 languages, any device
USD 120FREE - 15-minute summariesRead or listen, in 25 languages
USD 60FREE - Print at cost, no markupPaperback, hardcover, large print
USD 60FREE - The whole householdUp to 5 readers
USD 170FREE - A part in rebuilding the libraryNew languages and books for all
FREE
Questions about Sophist
Can I read it free?
Yes. The first key idea of the 15-minute summary is free with no sign-up. Start free and the whole book is yours for 3 months, with the eBook to keep, plus 200,000+ more classics and any book printed at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print. Nothing to pay today: we email you 7 days before your first payment, and you can cancel online in two clicks.
Can I buy just the printed book?
Yes. The paperback costs USD 13.95 on its own. Start free and you pay the cost of printing: USD 7.95 for this paperback, and any other book at cost as a paperback, hardcover or large print.
Can my family read too?
Yes. The whole household reads and listens: up to 5 readers, each with their own shelf and their own place in every book.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Cancel online in two clicks at any time and nothing more is charged. Nothing is charged in your first 3 months, and we email you 7 days before your first payment.
What is Plato's Sophist about?
It tries to define the sophist, a paid teacher of persuasion, and separate him from the philosopher. To do so, it has to solve a puzzle about how false statements and images can exist, and it reworks the idea of being.
Who is the Eleatic Stranger in Sophist?
He is an unnamed visitor from Elea, a Greek city in southern Italy, who follows the school of Parmenides. He leads the talk, with Theaetetus answering, while Socrates mostly listens. He also appears in Statesman.
What does parricide mean in Plato's Sophist?
The Stranger says he must commit a kind of parricide, meaning the killing of a father. He means he must challenge Parmenides, his school's founder, who taught that what is not cannot be spoken of or thought.
More like this
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
Our mission
The library burned once. We are building it back.
Every great book, in every language and every format, for every family. Every plan helps pay for new languages, new audiobooks and books for readers who have never had them. Join the movement.
Read our story- Every language25 languages today, side by side, and more every year
- No wastePrinted on demand: no warehouses, no unsold stock, no pulped copies
- For everyonePaperback, hardcover and large print at the cost of printing
Popular in philosophy & ideas
See all
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free
