Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons^™

Some Ways Of Being In Plato, Allan Silverman

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I propose to examine on this occasion three closely related issues in the interpretation of Plato's metaphysics, the separation of Forms, participation, and the nature of particulars. In the compass of this talk, I cannot do justice to all three of these issues, indeed probably to none of them. A fortiori, I cannot do a semblance of justice to the closely related topics of predication, both ontological and linguistic; the status of Aristotle's remarks about Plato's metaphysics and his own treatment of these issues, or the vexing problem of the development of Plato’s thinking. Nonetheless, I cannot avoid these topics. …