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i . introduction
in the sophist (263e10-264b4), Plato distinguishes between two kinds of belief. On the one hand, there is a kind of belief that occurs "according to thinking" (...), being "the completion of thinking" (...). This kind is called 'doxa.' On the other hand, there is another kind of belief that occurs "through sense perception" (...). This kind is called 'phantasia,' perhaps best rendered as "appearing."1 The purpose of this paper is to uncover the distinction between these two different kinds of belief.2
What distinguishes these two kinds of belief is the believer's understanding of the thing the belief is about, as a result of the way in which each kind of belief is formed. A person having a doxa about something grasps the nature of the thing. It is formed through a particular kind of thinking that sorts out how that thing is related to other things in terms of its genus and species. Forming a doxa requires an effort of thought and takes time. One who has a phantasia about something grasps the mere appearance of the thing. It is formed through sense perception, on the basis of how the thing strikes the person, without considering its real nature.
The Sophist not only accounts for the distinction between these two different kinds of belief, it also stages the distinction in its very movement. The Sophist is structured around the Eleatic stranger's attempt to reveal the disguise of the sophist. The sophist has the appearance of a wise man, and many are deceived into believing him to be so. But the Eleatic stranger pins down the sophist as an imitator of the wise man (..., 268c1). The sophist's art is defined as "the contradiction-making art of the insincere and ignorant part of belief-forming art belonging to the appearance-making kind, derived from the image-making art, of the not divine but human art of production, which is distinguished in words as the 'wonder-making portion'" (268c8-d2). The entire dialogue is devoted to establishing the prerequisites for this final definition of the sophist's art.3 The dialogue thus displays a movement from the unconsidered belief that the sophist is a wise man, based on his appearance, to the reasoned belief, based on...