regarded sometimes as continuous and sometimes as discrete: (10) In some
parts of the argument the abstraction is so rarefied as to become not only
fallacious, but almost unintelligible, e.g. in the contradiction which is
elicited out of the relative terms older and younger: (11) The relation
between two terms is regarded under contradictory aspects, as for example
when the existence of the one and the non-existence of the one are equally
assumed to involve the existence of the many: (12) Words are used through
long chains of argument, sometimes loosely, sometimes with the precision of
numbers or of geometrical figures.

The argument is a very curious piece of work, unique in literature. It
seems to be an exposition or rather a 'reductio ad absurdum' of the
Megarian philosophy, but we are too imperfectly acquainted with this last
to speak with confidence about it. It would be safer to say that it is an
indication of the sceptical, hyperlogical fancies which prevailed among the
contemporaries of Socrates. It throws an indistinct light upon Aristotle,
and makes us aware of the debt which the world owes to him or his school.
It also bears a resemblance to some modern speculations, in which an
attempt is made to narrow language in such a manner that number and figure
may be made a calculus of thought. It exaggerates one side of logic and
forgets the rest. It has the appearance of a mathematical process; the
inventor of it delights, as mathematicians do, in eliciting or discovering
an unexpected result. It also helps to guard us against some fallacies by
showing the consequences which flow from them.

In the Parmenides we seem to breathe the spirit of the Megarian philosophy,
though we cannot compare the two in detail. But Plato also goes beyond his
Megarian contemporaries; he has split their straws over again, and admitted
more than they would have desired. He is indulging the analytical
tendencies of his age, which can divide but not combine. And he does not