Organon F
2022, Pages 1–22
ISSN 2585-7150 (online) ISSN 1335-0668 (print)
Research Article
The Whole-Part Dilemma: A Compositional Understanding of Plato’s Theory of Form
Seong Soo Park
DOI: to be assigned
In this paper, I suggest a way of resolving the whole-part di-lemma suggested in the Parmenides. Specifically, I argue that grabbing the second horn of the dilemma does not pose a sig-nificant challenge. To argue for this, I consider two theses about Forms, namely, the oneness and indivisibility theses. More specifically, I argue that the second horn does not vio-late the oneness thesis if we treat composition as identity and that the indivisibility thesis ought to be reinterpreted given Plato’s later dialogues. By doing so, I suggest a com-positional understanding of Plato’s theory of Forms, which can resolve the whole-part dilemma.
Plato; Parmenides; theory of Forms; one and many.
Author
Seong Soo Park
Affiliation
Sungkyunkwan University
Adress
Department of Philosophy, Sungkyunkwan University, Sungkyunk-wan-ro 25-2, Jongro-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Received
17 September 2020
Revised
8 January 2021
Accepted
23 June 2021
Published online
18 April 2022
Publishers
Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Park, Seong Soo. "The Whole-Part Dilemma: A Compositional Understanding of Plato’s Theory of Forms". Organon F 2022, 1–22. https://www.organonf.com/journal/seong-soo-park
© Seong Soo Park
Forthcoming
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