A Study of Dialectic in Plato's Parmenides

ISBN-13: 9780810134850 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 240 str.

Eric Sanday; John Russon

Opis

In this book, Eric Sanday boldly demonstrates that Plato's -theory of forms- is true, easy to understand, and relatively intuitive. Sanday argues that our chief obstacle to understanding the theory of forms is the distorting effect of the tacit metaphysical privileging of individual things in our everyday understanding. For Plato, this privileging of things that we can own, produce, exchange, and through which we gain mastery of our surroundings is a significant obstacle to philosophical education. The dialogue's chief philosophical work, then, is to destabilize this false privileging and, in Parmenides, to provide the initial framework for a newly oriented account of participation. Once we do this, Sanday argues, we more easily can grasp and see the truth of the theory of forms.

Spis treści

INTRODUCTION:  DIALECTIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD  
1.         The Platonic Context 
2.         Commentary on Method        
Outline of the Chapters         
PART I:  SCIENTIFIC PHILOSOPHY
Chapter 1: Zenonian Method 
1.         Reception       
2.         Participation   
3.         The Conversation Between Zeno and Socrates         
Rhetoric, Eristic, and Scientific Philosophy  
4.         Parmenidean Intervention [130a3 – 130e3]   
Maturing into Scientific Philosophy  
Conclusion of First Chapter   
CHAPTER 2 – PUTTING PARTICIPATION TO THE TEST       
1.         One in Quantity:  Part/Whole Complexity    
2.         One of Many:  Individuality  
Review:  “One” as Aggregate and Individual           
3.         One in Quality:  Likeness and Multiplicity    
Metaphysical Asymmetry      
4.         The Skeptical Objection         
Answering the Skeptic           
5.         Dialectic in the Republic and Parmenides     
Conclusion of First Part         
PART 2:  EXERCISE AND REHABILITATION  
CHAPTER 3:  FIRST HYPOTHESIS (H1) 
Preparatory Discussion of the “One” 
1.         The One in the First Hypothesis        
2.         Complexity    
2a.       Part/Whole Complexity         
A Note on Dialectic and the “Secondary Aim” of H1          
2b.       Spatiality        
2c.       Motion and Rest        
3.         Same and Other         
4.         Like and Unlike         
5.         Measure          
6.         Temporality    
Lessons and Questions          
CHAPTER 4:  THE ONE-THAT-IS:  SECOND HYPOTHESIS (H2)       
Summary of the Chapter        
1.         The Abstract Intelligibility of Spatially Determinate Individuals     
1a.       One Consisting of Many:  the first argument (142c-143a)    
1b.       Many Ones:  the second argument (143a-144e5)      
Conclusion of the Two Derivations (144d3-145a4)  
2.         Spatial Limit  
2a.       Spatiality        
2b.       Motion and Rest        
3.         Qualitative Relation   
3a.       Same and Other         
3a.i      the one is the same as itself    
3a.ii     the one is different from itself           
3a.iii    the one is different than the others    
3a.iv    the one is the same as the [things] not-one    
3b.       Like/Unlike    
4.         Quantitative Relation 
4a.       Contact:  coordinating complexity and individuality
4b.       Continuous Magnitude:  Greater/Smaller/Equal        
4c.       Discrete Magnitude:  Measure           
5.         Temporality    
5a.       The Temporality of the One, Relative to Itself          
5b.       The Temporality of the One, Relative to Others       
Conclusion of H2
CHAPTER 5:  TRANSFORMED PERSPECTIVE 
1.         H2a – The Instant      
2.         H3-H4 – Limit and the Unlimited     
2a.       H4      
3.         H5-H6 – Veridical Predication          
3a.       The One-that-is-not Partakes of Many Things           
3b.       The Bonds of Being and Not Being  
3c.       Motion and Rest        
3d.       H6      
4.         H7-H8 – Appearance 
4a.       H8      
CONCLUSION