Dr WHEWELL, on the PLATONIC THEORY OF IDEAS. 101 



Ideas, but by some one, probably an admirer of Parmenides and Zeno, in order to shew how 

 strong were his master's arguments against the Platonists, and how weak their objections to the 

 Eleatic doctrine. 



I conceive that this view throws an especial light on every part of the Dialogue, as a 

 brief survey of it will shew. Parmenides and Zeno come to Athens to the Panathenaic festi- 

 val : Parmenides already an old man, with a silver head, dignified and benevolent in his appear- 

 ance, looking five and sixty years old: Zeno about forty, tall and handsome. They are the 

 guests of Pythodorus, outside the Wall, in the Ceramicus ; and there they are visited by 

 Socrates, then young, and others who wish to hear the written discourses of Zeno. These 

 discourses are explanations of the philosophy of Parmenides, which he had delivered in 

 verse. 



Socrates is represented as shewing, from the first, a disposition to criticize Zeno's disser- 

 tation very closely ; and without any prelude or preparation, he applies the Doctrine of Ideas 

 to refute the Eleatic Doctrine that All Things are One. (^ 3.) When he had heard to the end, 

 he begged to have the first Proposition of the First Book read again. And then : " How is it, 

 O Zeno, that you say, That if the Things which exist are Many, and not One, they must 

 be at the same time like and unlike ? Is this your argument ? Or do I misunderstand you .''■' 

 " No," says Zeno, " you understand quite rightly.' Socrates then turns to Parmenides, and 

 says, somewhat rudely, as it seems, " Zeno is a great friend of yours, Parftienides : he shews 

 his friendship not only in other ways, but also in what he writes. For he says the same 

 things which you say, though he pretends that he does not. You say, in your poems, that 

 All Things are One, and give striking proofs : he says that existences are not many, and he 

 gives many and good proofs. You seem to soar above us, but you do not really differ." 

 Zeno takes this sally good-humouredly, and tells him that he pursues the scent with the keen- 

 ness of a Laconian hound. "But," says he (§6), "there really is less of ostentation in my 

 writing than you think. My Essay was merely written as a defence of Parmenides long ago, 

 when I was young ; and is not a piece of display composed now that I am older. And it was 

 stolen from me by some one ; so that I had no choice about publishing it." 



Here we have, as I conceive, Socrates already represented as placed in a disadvantageous 

 position, by his abruptness, rude allusions, and readiness to put bad interpretations on what 

 is done. For this, Zeno's gentle pleasantry is a rebuke. Socrates, however, forthwith rushes 

 into the argument ; arguing, as I have said, for his own Theory. 



" Tell me," he says, " do you not think there is an Idea of Likeness, and an Idea of 

 Unlikeness ? And that everything partakes of these Ideas .'' The things which partake of 

 Unlikeness are unlike. If all things partake of both Ideas, they are both like and unlike; and 

 where is the wonder.? {& 7-) If you could shew that Likeness itself was Unlikeness, it would 

 be a prodigy ; but if things which partake of these opposites, have both the opposite qualities, 

 it appears to me, Zeno, to involve no absurdity." 



" So if Oneness itself were to be shewn to be Maniness" (I hope I may use this word, 

 rather than multiplicity) "I should be surprized; but if any one say that /am at the same 

 time one and many, where is the wonder ? For I partake of maniness : my right side is 

 different from my left side, my upper from my under parts. But I also partake of Oneness, 



