21.3 What Is Knowledge?
The dialogue that constitutes the sequel to the Parmenides is the Theaetetus. It begins with a short introduction in which Euclides of Megara, the philosopher who had hosted the Socratics in a retreat after the death of Socrates (see above, ch. 6.1*), shares with his friend and countryman Terpsion a
21.2 From Heraclitus to Plato
We are confronted with a developmental story that sounds very Hegelian. First there was Heraclitus, who said all was flux. Then there was Parmenides, who said all was at rest. Then there was Plato, who said that the sensible world was flux, the world of Forms was at rest, and
21.1 Plato and Heraclitus
In the Parmenides, Plato brought his mentor and hero Socrates face to face with Parmenides of Elea, the most imposing and reverend figure of early Greek philosophy. He also introduced Parmenides’ most famous student, Zeno of Elea. Parmenides and his followers were famous for declaring that there is no change:
20.10 The Moral of the Story
So what are we supposed to learn from the attacks on the Theory of Forms in the first half of the Parmenides and the litany of arguments in the second half? According to Samuel Rickless, in his intensive study of the dialogue, we are to learn that four of
20.9 Aristotle on the Third Man
There is something very Aristotelian about the Third Man Argument—including the name. For Aristotle (but not Plato), the most real things are biological specimens, like Man (in the sense of a human being, member of the species Home sapiens). For Plato a non-substantial property like Largeness will do quite well
20.8 The Third Man Argument
The Parmenides is an unprecedented, baffling, and even bizarre dialogue. Two towering philosophical figures of yesteryear come to town, meet the young and up-and-coming Socrates, listen to him expound his theory of forms; Parmenides criticizes it, causing Socrates to despair; he then encourages him not to lose heart, but hone