The Senses of Apeiron in Philebus 16b–27c
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Scholars debate whether ‘apeiron’ (unlimited) is univocal or multivocal in Plato’s Philebus. Offering a ‘middle path,’ I argue that the term is univocal, but used with respect to two senses of unlimited continua. The term appears early in two dense passages on ontological structure: the descriptions of the ‘god-given method’ (16b–18d) and ‘the fourfold division of beings’ (23c–27c). I consider each passage and argue that they respectively concern the eidetic continua of being that the knower comes to understand and the fluxing continua of opposed and co-constitutive bodily elements from which spatiotemporal objects derive their natures. They also indicate two major influences on Plato, respectively the Pythagorean and Heraclitean as recorded in Aristotle’s Metaphysics, and I draw on these resources to develop my account. I conclude by considering some important Platonic lessons that we learn from thinking through this distinction between the related senses of the unlimited.
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The Senses of Apeiron in Philebus 16b–27c
In: MéthexisSearch for other papers by Colin C. Smith in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Scholars debate whether ‘apeiron’ (unlimited) is univocal or multivocal in Plato’s Philebus. Offering a ‘middle path,’ I argue that the term is univocal, but used with respect to two senses of unlimited continua. The term appears early in two dense passages on ontological structure: the descriptions of the ‘god-given method’ (16b–18d) and ‘the fourfold division of beings’ (23c–27c). I consider each passage and argue that they respectively concern the eidetic continua of being that the knower comes to understand and the fluxing continua of opposed and co-constitutive bodily elements from which spatiotemporal objects derive their natures. They also indicate two major influences on Plato, respectively the Pythagorean and Heraclitean as recorded in Aristotle’s Metaphysics, and I draw on these resources to develop my account. I conclude by considering some important Platonic lessons that we learn from thinking through this distinction between the related senses of the unlimited.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 296 | 181 | 22 |
| Full Text Views | 74 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 151 | 20 | 0 |
