Book 6
4
because the sophists discuss the accident more, perhaps, than any other people—whether cultured and grammatical,i.e. able to read and write. The sophistic argument is given by Alexander as follows: A is grammatical; therefore grammatical A=A. A is cultured; therefore cultured A=A. Therefore grammatical=cultured, and he who is grammatical must be cultured. But B, though grammatical, is not cultured. Therefore the grammatical is not the same as the cultured. and cultured Coriscus and Coriscus,If Coriscus is the same as cultured Coriscus, he is the same as cultured cultured Coriscus, and soad infinitum. Cf. Soph. Elench. 173a 34. are the same or different; and whether everything that is, but has not always been, has come into being, so that if a man who is cultured has become grammatical, he has also, being grammatical, become culturedIf A, being cultured, has become grammatical, then being cultured he is grammatical. Then being grammatical he is cultured. But he has not always, being grammatical, been cultured. So if that which is but has not always been must have come to be, then being grammatical he has become cultured; i.e., he must have been both grammatical before he was cultured and cultured before he was grammatical; which is absurd ( Ross).; and all other such discussions. Indeed it seems that the accidental is something closely akin to the nonexistent.
