Categoria: Parmênides

When the recitation was completed, Socrates requested that the first thesis of the first argument might be read over again, and this having been done, he said : What is your meaning, Zeno ? Do you maintain that if being is many, it must be both like and unlike, and that this is impossible, for…

While Socrates was speaking, Pythodorus thought that Parmenides and Zeno were not altogether pleased at the successive steps of the argument ; but still they gave the closest attention and often looked at one another, and smiled as if in admiration of him. When he had finished, Parmenides expressed their feelings in the following words…

Yes, Socrates, said Parmenides ; that is because you are still young ; the time will come, if I am not mistaken, when philosophy will have a firmer grasp of you, and then you will not despise even the meanest things ; at your age, you are too much disposed to regard opinions of men.…

And, further, let me say that as yet you only understand a small part of the difficulty which is involved if you make of each thing a single idea, parting it off from other things. What difficulty ? he said. There are many, but the greatest of all is this : — If an opponent…

Yes, said Parmenides ; and I think that this arises, Socrates, out of your attempting to define the beautiful, the just, the good, and the ideas generally, without sufficient previous training. I noticed your deficiency, when I heard you talking here with your friend Aristoteles, the day before yesterday. The impulse that carries you towards…

Parmenides proceeded : If one is, he said, the one cannot be many ? Impossible. Then the one cannot have parts, and cannot be a whole ? Why not ? Because every part is part of a whole ; is it not ? Yes. And what is a whole ? would not that of which…

Yet once more and for the third time, let us consider : If the one is both one and many, as we have described, and is, neither one nor many, and participates in time, must it not, in as far as it is one, at times partake of being, and in as far as it…

But if one is, what will happen to the others — is not that also to be considered ? Yes. Let us show then, if one is, what will be the affections of the others than the one. Let us do so. Inasmuch as there are things other than the one, the others are not…

Suppose, now, that we leave the further discussion of these matters as evident, and consider again upon the hypothesis that the one is, whether opposite of all this is or is not equally true of the others. By all means. Then let us begin again, and ask, If one is, what must be the affections…

Well, and ought we not to consider next what will be the consequence if the one is not ? Yes ; we ought. What is the meaning of the hypothesis — If the one is not ; is there any difference between this and the hypothesis — If the not one is not ? There…

And now, let us go back once more to the beginning, and see whether these or some other consequences will follow. Let us do as you say. If one is not, we ask what will happen in respect of one ? That is the question. Yes. Do not the words “is not” signify absence of…

Yet once more ; if one is not, what becomes of the others ? Let us determine that. Yes ; let us determine that. The others must surely be ; for if they, like the one, were not, we could not be now speaking of them. True. But to speak of the others implies difference…

Once more, let us go back to the beginning, and ask if the one is not, and the others of the one are, what will follow. Let us ask that question. In the first place, the others will not be one ? Impossible. Nor will they be many ; for if they were many one…

Let thus much be said ; and further let us affirm what seems to be the truth, that, whether one is or is not, one and the others in relation to themselves and one another, all of them, in every way, are and are not, and appear to be and appear not to be. Most…