whether you would assume an idea of likeness in the abstract, which is the
contradictory of unlikeness in the abstract, by participation in either or
both of which things are like or unlike or partly both. For the same
things may very well partake of like and unlike in the concrete, though
like and unlike in the abstract are irreconcilable. Nor does there appear
to me to be any absurdity in maintaining that the same things may partake
of the one and many, though I should be indeed surprised to hear that the
absolute one is also many. For example, I, being many, that is to say,
having many parts or members, am yet also one, and partake of the one,
being one of seven who are here present (compare Philebus). This is not an
absurdity, but a truism. But I should be amazed if there were a similar
entanglement in the nature of the ideas themselves, nor can I believe that
one and many, like and unlike, rest and motion, in the abstract, are
capable either of admixture or of separation.'

Pythodorus said that in his opinion Parmenides and Zeno were not very well
pleased at the questions which were raised; nevertheless, they looked at
one another and smiled in seeming delight and admiration of Socrates.
'Tell me,' said Parmenides, 'do you think that the abstract ideas of
likeness, unity, and the rest, exist apart from individuals which partake
of them? and is this your own distinction?' 'I think that there are such
ideas.' 'And would you make abstract ideas of the just, the beautiful, the
good?' 'Yes,' he said. 'And of human beings like ourselves, of water,
fire, and the like?' 'I am not certain.' 'And would you be undecided also
about ideas of which the mention will, perhaps, appear laughable: of hair,
mud, filth, and other things which are base and vile?' 'No, Parmenides;
visible things like these are, as I believe, only what they appear to be:
though I am sometimes disposed to imagine that there is nothing without an
idea; but I repress any such notion, from a fear of falling into an abyss
of nonsense.' 'You are young, Socrates, and therefore naturally regard the