ABSTRACT

This chapter explains the 'battle' between corporealists and idealists described in Plato's Sophist is of significance for understanding the philosophical function of the dramatic exchange between the Eleatic guest and Theaetetus, the dialogue's main interlocutors. It should be clear by now, the agreement that being is power is an agreement reached between the guest and the corporealists as interpreted by Theaetetus. The things the guest specifically cites as being, for the sake of this conclusion, are soul and the virtues. This means that what turns the corporealists into reformed corporealists is not simply that they acknowledge that soul and virtues are among the things that are. It is rather the narrower claim that the soul has, rather than is, a body, and the further claim that the virtues are bodiless, which suggest that the corporealists have been transformed into something else.