How Parmenides Saved the Theory of Forms

Bibliographic Data

ID10694802
AuthorsSamuel C Rickle (0000-0002-8421-0982, corresponding author), Samuel C Rickless
Year1998
Volume107
Issue4
Pages501
Publication date1998-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Philosophical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8108 • E-ISSN: 1558-1470
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2998374
OpenAlexW2327031144
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited18

Plato's Parmenides divides up into two main parts, the first ostensibly devoted to a series of criticisms launched by a venerable Parmenides against a theory of Forms previously articulated by a youthful Socrates, the second consisting of a virtually unbroken series of deductions (some from the hypothesis that the One is, the rest from the contradictory hypothesis that the One is not) to seemingly incompatible conclusions. As such, the dialogue poses a serious interpretative challenge, for it is unclear what conclusions Plato expected his readers to draw from both parts and how (or even whether) the conclusion of Part II is supposed to bear on the conclusion of Part I. Among scholars, opinions vary on all possible fronts. While some' believe that Plato intended the arguments of Part I to be valid reductiones, others2 hold that the purpose of the entire dia

Analytic philosophy · Contemporary philosophy · Epistemology · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical Philosophy and Science · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy