Parmenides by Plato. - HTML preview

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87

Parmenides

True.

They are.

Then the one, if it is to touch itself, ought to be And if to the two a third be added in due order, situated next to itself, and occupy the place next the number of terms will be three, and the con-to that in which itself is?

tacts two?

It ought.

Yes.

And that would require that the one should be And every additional term makes one additional two, and be in two places at once, and this, while contact, whence it follows that the contacts are it is one, will never happen.

one less in number than the terms; the first two No.

terms exceeded the number of contacts by one, Then the one cannot touch itself any more than and the whole number of terms exceeds the it can be two?

whole number of contacts by one in like man-It cannot.

ner; and for every one which is afterwards added Neither can it touch others.

to the number of terms, one contact is added to Why not?

the contacts.

The reason is, that whatever is to touch another True.

must be in separation from, and next to, that Whatever is the whole number of things, the which it is to touch, and no third thing can be contacts will be always one less.

between them.

True.

True.

But if there be only one, and not two, there Two things, then, at the least are necessary to will be no contact?

make contact possible?

How can there be?