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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §50.17.65.pr

The Nature of the Fallacy Known as Sorites

Passage 9125 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This text explains the nature of the sophism called sorites by the Greeks, which leads an argument from what is obviously true to what is obviously false through minute changes.

[IDEM libro quinquagensimo quarto digestorum. ] §50.17.65.prEa est natura cauillationis, quam Graeci σωρίτην appellant, ut ab euidenter ueris per breuissimas mutationes disputatio ad ea, quae euidenter falsa sunt, perducatur.
[THE SAME, in the fifty-fourth book of the Digests.] Such is the nature of the sophism, which the Greeks call sorites, that by very minute changes the argument is led from things which are patently true to those which are patently false.

Notes

  1. 50.17.65.prEa est natura ... ut — The demonstrative adjective ea (feminine singular nominative, agreeing with natura) correlates with the subsequent ut clause (expressing result or explanation), meaning "such... that..." or "is of such a nature that...".
  2. 50.17.65.prab euidenter ueris ... ad ea, quae euidenter falsa sunt — The word ueris governed by the preposition ab is the neuter plural ablative of the adjective uerus used substantively ("things that are true"), whereas the counterpart after the preposition ad consists of the demonstrative pronoun ea (neuter plural accusative) modified by the relative clause quae... sunt. Despite the variation in structure, both parts are semantically parallel.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §50.17.65.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:50.17.65.pr

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