Card #c1518IR // #c1518Synthesis
He depicts likewise other Polities, hypothetically; of which there is that in the Laws, and that too, after correction, in the Epistles; of which he makes use for the states, that are labouring, as mentioned in the Laws, under a disease, and possessing a region bounded off, and persons selected from every age, so that, according to the differences in their nature, and places, there may be a need of peculiar instruction and of bringing up and of using arms. ... From him the Sophist differs, first in manner, in that he is the seeker of pay from young persons, and is willing to be considered a person with bodily and mental accomplishments, rather than to be so; and (secondly) in matter, in that the philosopher is conversant with things existing for ever and in the same state; while the Sophist busies himself about that which is not, and retires to a spot, difficult to be seen on account of its darkness. For to that, which is, that, which is not, is not opposed. For the latter is unsubstantial and unintelligible, nor has it any basis; and which, if a person were compelled to speak of, or to think upon, he would be overthrown, through his bringing a battle around himself. Now that which is not, as far as it is understood, is not a naked negation of what is, but (it is) with a joint-meaning as regards another thing, which follows upon the primary being; so that, unless these too had participated in that, which is not, they would not have been separated from the others. But now, as many soever as are the beings that are, so many times is the being, which is not.
— Alcinous, *Handbook of Platonism*, Chs. 33–34, trans. George Burges (1854), pp. 312–314. *Surface Gloss:* Plato designs polities in descending tiers—from unconditional ideal states down to hypothetical "corrected" constitutions for diseased cities adapted to local geography. Finally, while the philosopher studies eternal Being, the Sophist hides in the darkness of Non-Being—which is not absolute nothingness, but relational "otherness" separating distinct things.
**1. The Three-Tier Policy Rollout:** Never deploy an ideal blueprint onto a sick institution. Separate your models into (a) Unconditional Ideal, (b) Greenfield Conditional (screened people, bounded turf), and (c) *Polity from Correction* (patching a diseased system by adapting strictly to its local terrain).
**2. The "Otherness" Loophole:** Bullshit artists and sophists don't hide in total falsehood (which is easy to spot and self-refuting); they hide in *relational non-being*—exploiting the subtle boundary-lines, definitions, and "what X is *not*" spaces between real things to manufacture plausible illusions.
— In our words · Source: Handbook of Platonism (Alcinous)
[Use when]Adapting a high-level organizational turnaround to local constraints ("Polity from Correction"), or exposing how a skilled sophist uses definitional pivots and relational ambiguity to evade accountability.
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[Why it matters]In his closing two chapters, Alcinous demonstrates how Platonic idealism interfaces with messy contingency, both politically and ontologically:
1. **The Three Tiers of Polity (Ch. 33):** Why do Plato's *Republic*, *Laws*, and *Epistles* contradict each other on property, war, and the community of wives? Alcinous organizes them by **degree of hypothesis/conditionality**. The *Republic* depicts first the unwarlike, healthy city, and then the "feverish" (*phlegmainousa*) warlike city purged by the tripartite class system (Guardians/Counselors, Auxiliaries/Fighters aligned with *thymos*, Operatives/Craftsmen). Below that sit the **hypothetical** (*ex hypotheseos*) polities: the *Laws* (designed for a bounded territory and screened colonists) and the **Polity from Correction** (*ek diorthoseos*, in the *Epistles*), which takes an *already diseased* historical state and tailors its military and educational regimen to its specific geography (naval coastal vs. light-armed mountain vs. heavy-armed plain).
2. **The Sophist and Relative Non-Being (Ch. 34):** Drawing on Plato's *Sophist* (254a–259b), Alcinous contrasts the philosopher (who differs in *manner* by loving truth over pay/appearance, and in *matter* by studying eternal Being) with the Sophist, who retreats into the dark thicket of **Non-Being** (*to me on*). Against Parmenides, Alcinous distinguishes **Absolute Non-Being** (which is unsubstantial, unintelligible, and causes anyone who tries to think it to overthrow himself in internal contradiction) from **Relative Non-Being**: "not a naked negation of what is, but with a joint-meaning (*synekphoresis*) as regards another thing." Non-Being is simply the Form of **Difference/Otherness** (*to heteron*). Without participating in this relational Non-Being, distinct Forms and beings could never be separated from one another; thus, "as many soever as are the beings that are, so many times is the being, which is not."
[INTERPRETATION: PRISCA THEOLOGIA / ESOTERIC]
Burges (1854) records Ficino's striking translation of relative non-being: *non pura negatio... sed cum suspicione quadam et subinsinuatione alterius, quod quidem modo aliquo ipsum, quod est, comitatur* ("not a pure negation... but with a certain suspicion and sub-insinuation of another, which in some way accompanies that which is"). In the Renaissance reception—culminating in Ficino's commentary on the *Sophist* and Pico della Mirandola's *De Ente et Uno*—this closing chapter of Alcinous provides the ontological key to the shadow-world of illusion, magic, and sophistry. Absolute nothingness does not exist and cannot be thought; therefore, evil, error, and sophistical phantoms cannot hide in a literal void. Instead, they parasitize **Otherness**—the necessary relational space (*me on*) that differentiates the hierarchy of creation. Whereas the Philosopher looks upward into the blinding darkness of the Super-Essential One, the Sophist (the counterfeit magician of words and appearances) slips downward into the sub-essential darkness of endless differentiation, exploiting the relational gaps between things to make what-is-not appear as what-is.