Part 2 of the Parmenides is an obvious place to examine Plato’s reception of Zeno; after all, it is a demonstration apparently based on Zeno’s method and one of the main characters of the dialogue is Zeno. Nevertheless, it has received little attention as a source for understanding Plato’s engagement with the historical Zeno. Here, I show that Plato engages with Zeno’s paradox of place in the first deduction of Part 2 of the Parmenides—and in sophisticated and interesting ways.
I begin by addressing some methodological issues. I then examine Eudemus’ account of Zeno’s paradox of place as reported by Simplicius and Aristotle’s account in his Physics 4.3 in order to reconstruct it. I proceed to examine the arguments for the one’s being nowhere, if it is, in the first deduction of the Parmenides. I argue that there are good reasons to suppose that Zeno’s paradox of place is at issue there. Finally, I reflect on what these arguments reveal about Plato’s engagement with Zeno’s paradox of place.
