haracter whenever it exists, “103e). For example, the number three is always three, but it is also always odd. Three participates in two forms, the three itself and the odd. Since it consists of the odd, three can never be even, or three can never admit of the even. Plato uses this example to reason that things contain opposites so that they can never “admit that Form which is opposite to that which is in them,” (104c). However, Plato distinguishes between “opposite things” and the “opposite themselves.” To refer to “opposite things” means to refer to the things and their opposite qualities. On the other hand, the “opposite themselves” is to explain the presence of which in things get their name. This distinction is important because it results in the fact that the opposite themselves “cannot tolerate the coming to be from one another,” (103b-c). This implies that Plato agrees with Parmenides’ denial of changing and plurality in the discussion of a becoming b. But by discussing how something can share in more than one Form, he believes that this is how becoming can be explained and thus known. By positing the objects of the sensible world into the intelligible world, and thus explaining the relationship of being and nonbeing, Plato believes that he has explained how becoming is unlearnable. Therefore, he assumes that the Parmenidian problem is solved.Aristotle, however, believes that Plato is flawed in his solution to the Parmenidian problem. In order to understand Aristotle’s criticism, his own solution to the Parmenidian problem must be explained. First, Aristotle claims that there is a dual equivocity of being and of prediction. There are two ways of predication: essentially and accidentally. Essential predication means to designate the whatness of the subject. For example, in the statement, Socrates is a man, the word - man is...
