185
THEAET. No.
185
SOC. Now in regard to sound and color, you have, in the first place, this thought about both of them, that they both exist?
185
THEAET. Certainly.
185
SOC. And that each is different from the other and the same as itself?
185
THEAET. Of course.
185
SOC. And that both together are two and each separately is one?
185
THEAET. Yes, that also.
185
SOC. And are you able also to observe whether they are like or unlike each other?
185
THEAET. May be.
185
SOC. Now through what organ do you think all this about them? For it is impossible to grasp that which is common to them both either through hearing or through sight. Here is further evidence for the point I am trying to make: if it were possible to investigate the question whether the two, sound and color, are bitter or not, you know that you will be able to tell by what faculty you will investigate it, and that is clearly neither hearing nor sight, but something else.
185
THEAET. Of course it is,—the faculty exerted through the tongue.
185
SOC. Very good. But through what organ is the faculty exerted which makes known to you that which is common to all things, as well as to these of which we are speaking—that which you call being and not-being, and the other attributes of things, about which we were asking just now? What organs will you assign for all these, through which that part of us which perceives gains perception of each and all of them?
185
THEAET. You mean being and not-being, and likeness and unlikeness, and identity and difference, and also unity and plurality as applied to them. And you are evidently asking also through what bodily organs we perceive by our soul the odd and the even and everything else that is in the same category.
185
SOC. Bravo, Theaetetus! you follow me exactly; that is just what I mean by my question.
185
THEAET. By Zeus, Socrates, I cannot answer, except that I think there is no special organ at all for these notions, as there are for those others; but it appears to me that the soul views by itself directly what all things have in common.