Parmenides by Plato. - HTML preview

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102

Parmenides

Certainly.

which the parts will be parts; and each part will If, then, the others have parts, they will par-be one part of the whole which is the whole of ticipate in the whole and in the one.

the part.

True.

True.

Then the others than the one must be one per-And will not the things which participate in fect whole, having parts.

the one, be other than it?

Certainly.

Of course.

And the same argument holds of each part, for And the things which are other than the one the part must participate in the one; for if each will be many; for if the things which are other of the parts is a part, this means, I suppose, that than the one were neither one nor more than it is one separate from the rest and self-related; one, they would be nothing.

otherwise it is not each.

True.

True.

But, seeing that the things which participate in But when we speak of the part participating in the one as a part, and in the one as a whole, are the one, it must clearly be other than one; for if more than one, must not those very things which not, it would not merely have participated, but participate in the one be infinite in number?

would have been one; whereas only the itself can How so?

be one.

Let us look at the matter thus:—Is it not a fact Very true.

that in partaking of the one they are not one, Both the whole and the part must participate and do not partake of the one at the very time in the one; for the whole will be one whole, of when they are partaking of it?