Page - 674 - in The Complete Plato
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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 the opinions of men. But I should like to
know whether you mean that there are certain ideas of which all other things
partake, and from which they derive their names; that similars, for example,
become similar, because they partake of similarity; and great things become
great, because they partake of greatness; and that just and beautiful things
become just and beautiful, because they partake of justice and beauty?
Yes, certainly, said Socrates that is my meaning.
Then each individual partakes either of the whole of the idea or else of a
part of the idea? Can there be any other mode of participation?
There cannot be, he said.
Then do you think that the whole idea is one, and yet, being one, is in each
one of the many?
Why not, Parmenides? said Socrates.
Because one and the same thing will exist as a whole at the same time in
many separate individuals, and will therefore be in a state of separation from
itself.
Nay, but the idea may be like the day which is one and the same in many
places at once, and yet continuous with itself; in this way each idea may be
one and the same in all at the same time.
I like your way, Socrates, of making one in many places at once. You mean
to say, that if I were to spread out a sail and cover a number of men, there
would be one whole including many—is not that your meaning?
I think so.
And would you say that the whole sail includes each man, or a part of it
only, and different parts different men?
The latter.
Then, Socrates, the ideas themselves will be divisible, and things which
participate in them will have a part of them only and not the whole idea
existing in each of them?
That seems to follow.
Then would you like to say, Socrates, that the one idea is really divisible
and yet remains one?
674
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book The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Title
- The Complete Plato
- Author
- Plato
- Date
- ~347 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 1612
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International