Description
Book SynopsisOffers a systematic account of Plato's metaphysics. This work argues that the best way to make sense of the metaphysics as a whole is to examine carefully what Plato says about ousia (essence) from the Meno through the middle period dialogues, the Phaedo and the Republic, and into several late dialogues including the Parmenides, and the Timaeus.
Trade Review"A significant, substantial and original addition to Platonic scholarship... [It] provides a coherent and approachable explanation of the development of Plato's metaphysical system."--S.A. Burgess, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Table of ContentsPreface ix Abbreviations xi INTRODUCTION 1 The Dialectic of Essence 4 Precis of the Chapters 9 CHAPTER ONE AN OVERVIEW OF LATONIC METAPHYSICS 13 The Philosophical Background 13 Forms 14 Particulars 17 Metaphysics and Epistemology 22 CHAPTER TWO SOCRATIC METAPHYSICS? 28 Socrates 28 The Craft Analogy 30 Socratic Properties 32 Metaphysical Conjectures 36 The Meno 41 CHAPTER THREE THE EMERGENCE OF FORMS 49 Section One 49 The Phaedo 50 The Final Argument 57 Section Two 65 The Republic 65 Book VII 70 Section Three 78 Being and Participation 78 CHAPTER FOUR REFINING THE THEORY OF FORMS 104 Section One 104 Overview 104 The Parmenides 105 The First Part 108 The First Two Hypotheses 112 Section Two 121 Separation 121 CHAPTER FIVE FORMS AND LANGUAGE 137 Overview 137 Background to the Argument of the Sophist 145 The Sophist 148 The Interweaving of Forms 162 CHAPTER SIX NOT-BEINGS 182 Overview 182 Not-Being in the Sophist: The Background to 255e 184 Sophist 255e8-257a7 187 Sophist 257a8-259b5 189 Sophist 263a-263d4 201 Collection and Division 207 CHAPTER SEVEN THE NATURE OF MATERIAL ARTICULARS 218 Section One 218 Overview 218 The Philebus 221 The Mixed Life 228 The Fourfold Ontology (23c-27c) 230 The End of the Philebus 240 Section Two 246 The Timaeus 246 Talk of Phenomena in Flux 257 Necessity and Matter 265 The Two Theories 273 Conclusion 282 Conclusion 285 Appendix 299 Notes 311 Bibliography 367 Index Locorum 379 General Index 387
