Note 76 — Chapter XXVII · PARMENIDES.

Aristot. Metaph. A. 987, b. 20; A. 992, a. 8; B. 1001, a. 27; I. 1053, b. 18. Some ancient expositors thought that the purpose of Plato in the Parmenides was to demonstrate this Αὐτὸ-Ἓν; see Schol. ad Aristot. Metaph. p. 786, a. 10, Brandis.

It is not easy to find any common bearing between the demonstrations given in this dialogue respecting Ἓν and Πολλὰ — and the observations which Plato makes in the Philêbus upon Ἓν and Πολλά. Would he mean to include the demonstrations which we read in the Parmenides, in the category of what he calls in Philêbus “childish, easy, and irrational debates on that vexed question?” (Plato, Philêbus, p. 14 D). Hardly: for they are at any rate most elaborate as well as ingenious and suggestive. Yet neither do they suit the description which he gives in Philêbus of the genuine, serious, and difficult debates on the same question.