Dialogue on The Parmenides, Session 2: If the One is Not, then Nothing Is

Season two of group discussions on Plato’s Pod concluded on June 19, 2022, when members of the Toronto Philosophy, Calgary Philosophy, and Chicago Philosophy Meetup groups met to discuss the second half of Plato’s Parmenides and its conclusion that “if the one is not, nothing is.” In our minds, how do we distinguish one thing from another thing, and is it an absolute, universal truth that no thing in the universe would exist to us if the one is not?

For that matter, what, exactly, is “the one” that is the subject of the various hypotheses tested in dialogue between Parmenides and young Aristotle, and why does Plato leave us with no definition of the one if nothing would be without it? A proposition was made for our discussion, that Plato’s purpose in the Parmenides was that we consider our minds’ system of perception in time. Only in time, in the changing state of becoming, are we able to perceive, when all perception is of differences that stand in contrast to the unity of one. It was proposed that without reference to the unity of one, itself beyond the constraints of time as Parmenides claims, our perceptions of a thing itself – such as the large – and of the character of the thing’s parts, would always differ and lead to an infinite regress in thought.

Early in our discussion we considered Parmenides’ description of “the instant” of time when neither change nor rest exist but either is possible. Is “potential” another way of describing “the one”, in the instant in which either of two states is possible? We explored the relationship between this concept of the instant of time and current knowledge of quantum mechanics and the qubit, in particular the phenomenon of quantum superposition of states. Analogy was also used to consider the meaning of Plato’s words, and one participant connected the analogy of the circle to a balloon as a way of understanding the limitless capacity of the one in three dimensions of either state of change or rest. Does time associate itself with number, as Plato wrote in the Timaeus, and if so what are the consequences? What are the unique properties of the one, among numbers, limits, and the differences in perception that arise from limits?

We will consider these and other themes of Plato’s works in September, when Plato’s Pod will resume group discussions with an examination of the Cratylus. In the meantime, stay tuned to Plato’s Pod over the summer months for some fascinating interviews and more perspectives on the works of Plato, the philosopher and geometer who wrote nearly 2,400 years ago.