Spheres, Semantics, and Parricide: The Stranger’s Attack on Parmenides, Sophist 244b-245d

Spheres, Semantics, and Parricide: The Stranger’s Attack on Parmenides, Sophist 244b-245d

Ori Respler

Prior to writing the Sophist, Plato seemingly found his former metaphysical theories to be untenable in the Parmenides in which he introduced issues with the theory of the Forms.1 To address these specific issues, Plato wrestled with the monism of the Parmenidean doctrine and its metaphysical ontology. In this essay, I will examine the debate of whether Plato takes the Parmenidean doctrine seriously in the Sophist. The views of Lesley Brown and Mary Louise Gill conclude that Plato was not truly attempting a dissection and complete understanding of Parmenides’ poem, which thereby made it effortless for him to reject the view. Brown holds that Plato did not understand the metaphor’s implications in its entirety, while Gill maintains that the metaphor was taken much too literally. I oppose both views and claim that Plato did attempt a serious understanding of monist ontology, and that whether the Parmenidean passages were taken out-of-context is not the case.

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