Plato, Greater Hippias, section 297a

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Epinomis, or Nocturnal Council

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[297a]

Hippias
Yes, it is.

Socrates
But surely, Hippias, the cause and that of which the cause is the cause are different; for the cause could not well be the cause of the cause. But look at it in this way was not the cause seen to be creating?

Hippias
Yes, certainly.

Socrates
By that which creates, then, only that is created which comes into being, but not that which creates.¹ Is not that true?

Hippias
That is true.

Socrates
The cause, then, is not the cause of the cause, but of that which comes into being through it.

1 i.e. the creative force creates the thing created, not the creative force.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.

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