Plato's forms in transition : a reading of the Parmenides

Bibliographic Information

Plato's forms in transition : a reading of the Parmenides

Samuel C. Rickless

Cambridge University Press, 2007

  • : hardback

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-256) and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

There is a mystery at the heart of Plato's Parmenides. In the first part, Parmenides criticizes what is widely regarded as Plato's mature theory of Forms, and in the second, he promises to explain how the Forms can be saved from these criticisms. Ever since the dialogue was written, scholars have struggled to determine how the two parts of the work fit together. Did Plato mean us to abandon, keep or modify the theory of Forms, on the strength of Parmenides' criticisms? Samuel Rickless offers something that has never been done before: a careful reconstruction of every argument in the dialogue. He concludes that Plato's main aim was to argue that the theory of Forms should be modified by allowing that forms can have contrary properties. To grasp this is to solve the mystery of the Parmenides and understand its crucial role in Plato's philosophical development.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • 1. The theory of forms
  • 2. The theory criticized
  • 3. The theory modified: methodology
  • 4. The first deduction
  • 5. The second deduction
  • 6. From the appendix to the fourth deduction
  • 7. From the fifth to the eighth deduction
  • Conclusion.

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Details

  • NCID
    BA79749213
  • ISBN
    • 9780521864565
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Cambridge ; New York
  • Pages/Volumes
    xv, 272 p.
  • Size
    24 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
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