From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordProthesis is an intention or purpose, something set before an agent.
- In StobaeusThe brief report about Plato places intention directed toward an end within a difficult definition of chance and its relation to choice.
- In this edition“Intention” is preferable to “proposition” in this construction.
- A place to beginIntention toward an end enters the reported account of chance and choice.
- English renderings
- intention; purpose; proposed end
Meaning
Prothesis is an intention or purpose, something set before an agent. The relation to an end can be explicit.
Use in the book
The brief report about Plato places intention directed toward an end within a difficult definition of chance and its relation to choice. The sentence is too compressed to establish a complete theory of intention, but its purposive orientation is clear.
Places to read
- I.6.17a.2Intention toward an end enters the reported account of chance and choice.
Translation in this edition
“Intention” is preferable to “proposition” in this construction.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 87. The report is textually uncertain and is not a verbatim quotation from an identified Platonic passage.