The Review of Metaphysics

Volume 65, Issue 4, June 2012

C. J. Wolfe
Pages 747-764

Plato’s and Aristotle’s Answers to the Parmenides Problem

This paper explores Plato and Aristotle's responses to the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, who paradoxically said that there is no such thing as non-being, and no such things as change. I argue that Plato’s response (as found in his dialogue the Sophist) would have been good enough to defeat the claim in a debate, thereby remedying the political aspects of the Parmenides problem. However, Aristotle’s answer (as found in Physics book 1, chapter 9) is required to answer some additional philosophical and scientific aspects. Plato's Sophist is a very difficult dialogue to understand; seeing it in light of Aristotle's discussion of the same topic helps to explain the complexities of what his teacher Plato wrote.