Plato's Parmenides: On Being and Non-Being

Author

Syed Husain, CUNY Bernard M Baruch CollegeFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-18-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Honors Designation

yes

Program of Study

Philosophy

Language

English

First Advisor

Thomas Teufel

Second Advisor

Douglas Lackey

Third Advisor

Sandeep Sreekumar

Abstract

In this paper I will discuss the Eight Hypotheses in Plato's Parmenides and draw out my own conclusion from them without any external help or secondary literature. I will then use this conclusion to address problems concerning the Parmenides in the Platonic Scholarship. The main conclusion I have drawn is that the Hypotheses are closing the gulf between Being and Non-Being via the concepts of Sameness, Difference, Becoming, Time and the Instant. In addition, the confluence of Being and Non-Being illuminates a subsidiary conclusion of this text possessing grounds for a new metaphysical presupposition of Being-Non-Being. I propose in this paper that this new metaphysical presupposition and structure of a sensible thing should replace the traditional One and Many metaphysical presupposition because of its insoluble problem of participation. The problems I will be addressing from the scholarship towards the end of the paper consist of the unity of the two halves of the text itself and the bearing of the text on Plato's grand Theory of Forms.

Recommended Citation

Husain, Syed, "Plato's Parmenides: On Being and Non-Being" (2018). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/bb_etds/80