Parmenides
Plato c. 370 BCE
This philosophical dialogue examines whether beauty and other qualities exist apart from the things that possess them. A young Socrates faces questions from the elderly Parmenides, rather than leading the discussion himself.
134 pages 2h 36m reading time
- One of the most puzzling and debated dialogues Plato wrote, in which he turns hard questions against his own best-known idea.
- Argues that the theory of Forms (the idea that perfect, unchanging models like Beauty or Justice exist apart from the everyday things that share in them) runs into serious problems, including the "Third Man" argument, which suggests such a theory leads to an endless chain of Forms.
- Works through a long series of arguments about whether "the One" exists, reaching opposite conclusions side by side to show how slippery ideas like unity, being, and number can be.
- Became a key text for later Neoplatonist thinkers such as Proclus, who read its arguments about the One as a guide to the highest source of all reality.
- Its objections to the Forms, later taken up by Aristotle, are still studied and argued over by philosophers today.
A story told thirdhand
The talk reaches us thirdhand, recited by Plato's half-brother Antiphon, who memorized it from a man who was there.
A meeting probably invented
Parmenides and Socrates most likely never met, though the ages Plato gives make a brief Athens visit just possible.
Built on real thinkers
Plato drew on Parmenides' real poem about the One and on Zeno's real puzzles, which Zeno reads aloud here.
Written late in life
Scholars think Plato wrote it in his later years, around the same time as his dialogues Theaetetus and Sophist.
Translated from Greek by Benjamin Jowett