The Parmenides and Plato's late philosophy

by Robert G. Turnbull

From antiquity, Plato's Parmenides has been considered an enigma. In this book Robert Turnbull offers a translation and explanation of the Parmenides, using his interpretation to elucidate Plato's major late dialogues. Turnbull claims that, in the Parmenides, Plato abandoned the earlier Phaedo account of form-participation, and instead, worked out the metaphysics of form-participation and mathematics that grounds the framework of his late philosophy. Relying on the testimony of Aristotle, Euclid, and Plotinus, and rejecting most modern accounts, Turnbull finds in the Parmenides a radical departure that clarifies and illuminates Plato's mature Pythagoreanism.