Philosophy

Based on Hegel's Preface to his Phenomenology of the Mind Key Definers 1. Nothing is False or True. Reality is Negativity. The dialectical view anticipates this principle. Reality is grasped in the (dialectical) process. The more the ordinary mind takes the opposition between true and false to be fixed, the more is it accustomed to expect either agreement or contradiction with a given philosophical system, and only to see reason for the one or the other in any explanatory statement concerning such a system. It does not conceive the diversity of philosophical systems as the progressive evolution of truth; rather, it sees only contradiction in that variety. The bud disappears when the blossom breaks through, and we might say that the former is refuted by the latter; in the same way when the fruit comes, the blossom may be explained to be a false form of the plant's existence, for the fruit appears as its true nature in place of the blossom. These stages are not merely differenti...

© May 22, 2006 Download Plato's Parmenides from Gutenberg Several attempts at understanding the meaning of Plato’s Parmenides were made but not very successfully. Though some of the best minds like Cornford, Russell, Ryle, and Owen have struggled with it, the interpretations are not always acceptible without some hesitation. [1] Edward F. Little gives the following conclusion of it with reference to Plato’s own theory of Forms and distributing Parmenides’ arguments under eight hypotheses: [2] One with “O” capital refers to the form “O” and with “o” in small refers to its copies. Likewise “O” and “o” in “Others” and “others” respectively. The intent seems to be to teach Socrates how to reason efficiently in order to find the truth. The method is by deduction of consequences related to both the posited existence and also non-existence of a thing. (1) If there is a One, it does not exist. (2) If there is a one, it is many. (3) If there is a one, the others are one(s). (4) If there ...