“The Third Man Argument”in Plato’s Parmenides

As an example of Plato’s self-revolution,“The Third Man Argument” reveal the difficulties led by presuppositions in theory of forms:one of the core difficulties is the separation between a form and individuals,which distinguishes a form from individuals as well as making them mixed,and an infinite regress comes into being under this circumstance.Another core difficulty of them is the separation between the opposites,by virtue of which,For one thing,each form itself becomes isolated and absolute one;For another thing,each of forms is no longer one as a result of it.After criticized the theory of forms in the first part of Parmenides,Plato reconstructed the theory of forms by altering the presuppositions in the second part of the dialogue.By doing so,he succeeded escaping from “The Third Man Argument”.The key point of the reconstruction is to demonstrate the opposites could combine together.Owing to this combination,On one hand,each form itself gets rid of the situation of being an isolated and absolute one and infinite regress will no longer generate.On the other hand,the individuals would become the compound which consists of the opposites.Hence,the separation between a form and individuals will be canceled forever。Therefore,a form is no longer regarded as an idividual and Self-Predication won’t be considered as partaking of attributes.The main content of the thesis includes three chapters.The task of chapter 1 is to analyze “The Third Man Argument” after concluding the presuppositions of the theory of forms,such as Opposition Principle;The Form Being Itself by Itself;The Principle of Separation.The part one of the chapter 2 is to justify the responses from Plato and make general descriptions for them,which would present themselves through 8 sets of Hypothesis Deductions.The rest of chapter 2and chapter 3 includes the main content of the responses,namely,Hypothesis Deductions,which aim at confirming the combination of these opposites.The main idea of them is that if we make assumptions the separation of opposites,deducting from either the one is or not,we would conclude that the one can’t partake of any opposites and others aren’t able to share any opposite qualities.On the contrary,if we suppose the combination of these opposites,according to either the one is or not,the one would be able to share each of opposites and others would partake of all opposite attributes.Therefore,the hyphothesis that opposites combine together is reasonable.Hence,the individuals are essentially the compounds of the opposites.In this sense,there is no longer separation between the forms and their participants.As a result,suppositions which cause“The Third Man Argument” disappear,Plato succeeded in avoiding it.