Like these are also all arguments of the following kind: 'Could a man strike a blow with a hand which he has not got, or see with an eye which he has not got?' For he has not got only one eye.Some people solve this case, where a man has more than one eye, or more than one of anything else, by saying also that he has only one.Others also solve it as they solve the refutation of the view that 'what a man has, he has received': for A gave only one vote; and certainly B, they say, has only one vote from A.Others, again, proceed by demolishing straight away the proposition asked, and admitting that it is quite possible to have what one has not received; e.g.to have received sweet wine, but then, owing to its going bad in the course of receipt, to have it sour.But, as was said also above,' all these persons direct their solutions against the man, not against his argument.
For if this were a genuine solution, then, suppose any one to grant the opposite, he could find no solution, just as happens in other cases; e.g.suppose the true solution to be 'So-and-so is partly true and partly not', then, if the answerer grants the expression without any qualification, the sophist's conclusion follows.If, on the other hand, the conclusion does not follow, then that could not be the true solution: and what we say in regard to the foregoing examples is that, even if all the sophist's premisses be granted, still no proof is effected.
Moreover, the following too belong to this group of arguments.'If something be in writing did some one write it?' 'Yes.' 'But it is now in writing that you are seated-a false statement, though it was true at the time when it was written: therefore the statement that was written is at the same time false and true.' But this is fallacious, for the falsity or truth of a statement or opinion indicates not a substance but a quality: for the same account applies to the case of an opinion as well.Again, 'Is what a learner learns what he learns?' 'Yes.' 'But suppose some one learns "slow" quick'.Then his (the sophist's) words denote not what the learner learns but how he learns it.Also, 'Does a man tread upon what he walks through?