This paper intends to bring forth a different solution to the problem of understanding the theory of being and what both is and is not in Republic V, a theory that has always been a matter of dispute. Based on our suggestion, the theory of being in Republic must be figured out under the light of the relation of being and not being with the concept of 'difference' in Sophist where Plato is trying to make being free of its old relation with the concept of 'sameness' and bind it to difference. This binding results in the concept of image and its relation with its original. The way of being of an image as what both is and is not its original helps Plato to resolve the problem of being and not being. Since we believe that Aristotle’s theory of pollachus legetai is structurally similar to this specific relation of an image and its original which is based on difference, we call Plato’s theory pollachus esti and present this theory as a possible resolution of the problem of understanding being in the fifth book of Republic. What both is and is not becomes conceivable because this 'is' is not the same but different.
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