Plato's Parmenides Reconsidered

241 Pages·2015·2.84 MB·English

by  Mehmet Tabak

Plato’s Parmenides
Reconsidered
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Plato’s Parmenides
Reconsidered
Mehmet Tabak
plato’s parmenides reconsidered
Copyright © Mehmet Tabak, 2015.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the
United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth
Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of
the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan
Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998,
of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above
companies and has companies and representatives throughout the
world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United
States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978- 1- 137- 51535- 3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tabak, Mehmet.
Plato’s Parmenides reconsidered / Mehmet Tabak.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-137-51535-3 (hardback)
1. Plato. Parmenides. 2. Form (Philosophy) I. Title.
B378.T33 2015
184—dc23 2014046053
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: May 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to the
loving memory of my father, Huseyin Tabak.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Forms in the Middle- Period Dialogues 5
Introduction 5
The Theory of Forms in Phaedo 6
The Theory of Forms in Cratylus 15
The Theory of Forms in Republic 21
Conclusion 28
2 Parmenides, Part I 29
Introduction 29
The Setting and the Main Characters of Parmenides 29
Socrates’s Theory of Forms and His Challenge 35
The Extent of Forms 36
Parmenides’s Criticism of the Participation Theory 38
Infinite Regress Objections and More 43
Radical Separation of Forms Prohibits Knowledge 48
The Method 52
Aristoteles Replaces Socrates 56
Conclusion 56
3 Parmenides, Part II 59
Introduction 59
Argument 1: If the One Is, It Is Nothing 60
Argument 2: If the One Has Being, It Can Be and Not
Be All Things 71
The Appendix 97
Argument 3: If the Absolute One Participates, the
Others Are 101
viii Contents
Argument 4: If the Absolute One Does Not Participate,
the Others Are Not 105
The Conclusion of Arguments 1– 4: Parmenides’s
and Ours 107
Argument 5: Whatever Is Said of the Negative One Must
Be True and Known 108
Argument 6: Speaking of the Negative One, Which We
Cannot Speak Of 118
Argument 7: If the One Is Not, the Others Appear to Be 120
Argument 8: If the One Is Not, the Others Neither
Appear to Be nor Are Anything 123
The Final Conclusion of Parmenides 124
4 Parmenides in Theaetetus and Sophist 127
Introduction 127
Plato’s Critique of Protagoras in Theaetetus 128
Parmenides and Parmenides in Sophist 141
Conclusion 163
Notes 167
Bibliography 215
General Index 221
Index Locorum 225
Acknowledgments
I would like thank my wife, Akiko Moriyama- Tabak, for her uninter-
rupted support, encouragement, patience, and love. I also would like
to thank Dr. Shinasi Rama for patiently listening to my ranting about
the one and the others. The following friends have provided invaluable
feedback on the earlier drafts of this book: Ronald Rauchberg, John
Feldmann, Weilun Ko, Deniz Solmaz, and the anonymous reviewer. I
am deeply indebted to them all.