The article analyses the interpretation of the relationship between being and nothing provided by Plato. Plato does not question Parmenides’ thesis “being is, but nothing is not,” but he believes that if philosophers do not look beyond that thesis, there will be stagnation. There is no absolute nothing, but according to Plato, nothing is somehow and in some other formsstill interacts with being. In the dialogues “Parmenides” and “Sophist,” Plato illustrates how nothing penetrates being, deprives it of oneness and integrity and thus transforms it into the set of particles where each particle appears to be itself, but unlike the others. By “others” Plato means nothing, which is not the absolute nothing, but only the relative nothing - the nothing of something or other. In the dialogues the interaction of being and nothing is analysed in respect to the Realm of Ideas - to the domain of types and varieties, and their universal qualities. In his “Timaeus,” alongside types and properties, Plato introduces individua
Translated title of the contributionThe category of nothing in the philosophy of Plato
Original languageRussian
Pages (from-to)69-81
Number of pages13
JournalВестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Философия и конфликтология
Volume36
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2020

    Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • Religious studies
  • Philosophy
  • Sociology and Political Science

ID: 78512159