The Dialectic of Essence: A Study of Plato's Metaphysics Book

Preface ix
Abbreviations xi
INTRODUCTION 1
The Dialectic of Essence 4
Précis 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