[343b]
nor is there anything to prevent forms which are now called “round” from being called “straight,” and the “straight” “round”1; and men will find the names no less firmly fixed when they have shifted them and apply them in an opposite sense. Moreover, the same account holds good of the Definition also, that, inasmuch as it is compounded of names and verbs, it is in no case fixed with sufficient firmness.2 And so with each of the Four, their inaccuracy is an endless topic; but, as we mentioned a moment ago, the main point is this, that while there are two separate things, the real essence and the quality,
1 f. Plat. Crat. 384d, Plat. Crat. 384e for the view that names are not natural but conventional fixities.
2 cf. Plat. Theaet. 208b ff. for the instability of Definitions.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 7 translated by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1966.
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