From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordParadeigma is that with reference to which something is formed, recognized, or compared.
- In StobaeusThe report on forms calls the incorporeal form a pattern for sensible things and a cause of their ordering.
- In this edition“Pattern” and “model” retain the relation of exemplar to product.
- A place to beginForm is a pattern for sensible subsistence and ordering.
- English renderings
- pattern; model; exemplar
Meaning
Paradeigma is that with reference to which something is formed, recognized, or compared. A model’s role differs from the material out of which a product is made.
Use in the book
The report on forms calls the incorporeal form a pattern for sensible things and a cause of their ordering. In the Timaeus quotation, the craftsman’s model determines the quality of the result: an unchanging model grounds beauty. Pattern, productive agent, and recipient can thus be distinguished within a single explanation.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Pattern” and “model” retain the relation of exemplar to product. “Example” can be too weak when causal dependence is at issue.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 134, 137–138. The opening causal clause of I.12.1a.1 is grammatically defective; the general pattern relation is also supported by the parallel accounts.