"Parmenides" - читать интересную книгу автора (Plato)

hand, he wants to prove that I am one, he will say, that we who are

here assembled are seven, and that I am one and partake of the one. In

both instances he proves his case. So again, if a person shows that

such things as wood, stones, and the like, being many are also one, we

admit that he shows the coexistence the one and many, but he does

not show that the many are one or the one many; he is uttering not a

paradox but a truism. If however, as I just now suggested, some one

were to abstract simple notions of like, unlike, one, many, rest,

motion, and similar ideas, and then to show that these admit of

admixture and separation in themselves, I should be very much

astonished. This part of the argument appears to be treated by you,

Zeno, in a very spirited manner; but, as I was saying, I should be far

more amazed if any one found in the ideas themselves which are

apprehended by reason, the same puzzle and entanglement which you have

shown to exist in visible objects.

While Socrates was speaking, Pythodorus thought that Parmenides

and Zeno were not altogether pleased at the successive steps of the

argument; but still they gave the closest attention and often looked

at one another, and smiled as if in admiration of him. When he had

finished, Parmenides expressed their feelings in the following words:-

Socrates, he said, I admire the bent of your mind towards

philosophy; tell me now, was this your own distinction between ideas

in themselves and the things which partake of them? and do you think

that there is an idea of likeness apart from the likeness which we

possess, and of the one and many, and of the other things which Zeno