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Single Idea 222

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / c. Teaching ]

Full Idea

Only a man of very great natural gifts will be able to understand that everything has a class and absolute essence, and an even more wonderful man can teach this.

Gist of Idea

Only a great person can understand the essence of things, and an even greater person can teach it

Source

Plato (Parmenides [c.364 BCE], 135a)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Plato IV (Cratylus,Parmenides,Hippias Maj, Min)', ed/tr. Fowler,H.N. [Harvard Loeb 1926], p.227

The 36 ideas from 'Parmenides'

8937 Plato's 'Parmenides' is the greatest artistic achievement of the ancient dialectic [Hegel on Plato]
13986 Plato found antinomies in ideas, Kant in space and time, and Bradley in relations [Plato, by Ryle]
14150 Plato's 'Parmenides' is perhaps the best collection of antinomies ever made [Russell on Plato]
21821 Plato's Parmenides has a three-part theory, of Primal One, a One-Many, and a One-and-Many [Plato, by Plotinus]
16151 Plato moves from Forms to a theory of genera and principles in his later work [Plato, by Frede,M]
15846 In Parmenides, if composition is identity, a whole is nothing more than its parts [Plato, by Harte,V]
211 If admirable things have Forms, maybe everything else does as well [Plato]
210 It would be absurd to think there were abstract Forms for vile things like hair, mud and dirt [Plato]
212 The whole idea of each Form must be found in each thing which participates in it [Plato]
213 Each idea is in all its participants at once, just as daytime is a unity but in many separate places at once [Plato]
214 If absolute greatness and great things are seen as the same, another thing appears which makes them seem great [Plato]
215 If things partake of ideas, this implies either that everything thinks, or that everything actually is thought [Plato]
216 If things are made alike by participating in something, that thing will be the absolute idea [Plato]
217 Nothing can be like an absolute idea, because a third idea intervenes to make them alike (leading to a regress) [Plato]
218 Participation is not by means of similarity, so we are looking for some other method of participation [Plato]
219 If absolute ideas existed in us, they would cease to be absolute [Plato]
220 The concept of a master includes the concept of a slave [Plato]
221 Absolute ideas, such as the Good and the Beautiful, cannot be known by us [Plato]
222 Only a great person can understand the essence of things, and an even greater person can teach it [Plato]
223 If you deny that each thing always stays the same, you destroy the possibility of discussion [Plato]
224 When questions are doubtful we should concentrate not on objects but on ideas of the intellect [Plato]
13259 It seems that the One must be composed of parts, which contradicts its being one [Plato]
225 The unlimited has no shape and is endless [Plato]
2062 The only movement possible for the One is in space or in alteration [Plato]
16150 One is, so numbers exist, so endless numbers exist, and each one must partake of being [Plato]
15847 Two things relate either as same or different, or part of a whole, or the whole of the part [Plato]
227 You must always mean the same thing when you utter the same name [Plato]
228 Greatness and smallness must exist, to be opposed to one another, and come into being in things [Plato]
229 The one was and is and will be and was becoming and is becoming and will become [Plato]
15849 Plato says only a one has parts, and a many does not [Plato, by Harte,V]
15850 Anything which has parts must be one thing, and parts are of a one, not of a many [Plato]
231 Everything partakes of the One in some way [Plato]
15851 Parts must belong to a created thing with a distinct form [Plato]
232 Opposites are as unlike as possible [Plato]
233 Some things do not partake of the One [Plato]
234 We couldn't discuss the non-existence of the One without knowledge of it [Plato]