Knowing the One: Provisionality in Parmenides and Plato

The notion of the one is a central element in the thought of Parmenides and Plato. At issue are two relationships: that between one and many, and that being and becoming, and the possibility of acquiring knowledge about these relationships. Parmenides is traditionally understood as unequivocally equating being, one and thought with one another; hence denying multiplicity and becoming while proclaiming that all that can be known is unchanging being. Following Reiner Schürmann’s reading in his essay “Tragic Differing: The Law of the One and the Law of the Contraries in Parmenides,” which emphasizes the symmetry of the ascent and descent of the narrative journey presented in Parmenides’ poem, we find that Parmenides actually speaks to the mortal inescapability of difference and the need to bring an intuitive understanding of the one and being to our everyday dealings with difference and becoming if we wish to act in accord with Justice. Plato may be seen as both integrating and surpassing the thought of his predecessor. In his dialogue Parmenides a one that is prior to being is demonstrated to be unthinkable, and the notion of participation is shown to be a way of conceiving the inconceivable. Similarly the Republic presents a Good that is above being, yet apprehendable to the extent that it enables the perception of eternal forms. The ascent of knowledge presented in the Pheadrus again suggests the potential for approaching eternal being while denying the possibility of full knowledge, and reinforces the notion that our search is erotically fueled. In his poem Parmenides narrates his ascent from the doxa of the mortal world, marked by contraries and becoming, to the aletheia of the immortal realm, in which a goddess teaches him that true being is one, unmoving, unchanging and uniform, and subsequent descent as the goddess describes a reverse passage from aletheia back to doxa. While in many ways Parmenides presents himself as being the passive recipient of revelation — he is carried by “wise horses” and