1st Edition
Unity and Development in Plato's Metaphysics (RLE: Plato)
Introduction: the Problem of Plato’s Development. Part 1: The metaphysics in the Early and Middle Platonic Dialogues 1. The Existence of the Forms 2. The Forms as Causes 3. The Forms as Paradigms. 4. Self-Predication 5. The Forms as Objects of Knowledge – the Being/Becoming Distinction 6. The Separation of Forms and Phenomena 7. The Problem of Participation. Part 2: The Challenge of the Parmenides 1. Socrates’ Statement of the Theory of Forms 2. The Population Problem 3. Arguments against Immanence 4. The Third Man Argument 5. The Two-Worlds Argument 6. Conclusion. Part 3: The Response of the Timaeus 1. Being and becoming- the two Worlds 2. The Demiurge and the New Theory of Causation 3. The Forms as Paradigms 4. The Receptacle and Self-Predication. Part 4: The Sophist 1. The Critique of the Friends of the Forms 2. Plato’s Account of Being and Not-Being 3. Paradeigmatism in the Sophist 4. The Timaeus and the Sophist – the Development of Plato’s Metaphysics. Appendix: The Doctrinal maturity and Chronological Position of the Timaeus 1. The Ancient Interpretive Tradition 2. Stylometry. Bibliography. Index
Biography
William Prior
