Abstract

This thesis argues against the conventional view that Plato believed that forms or universals exist in a "second world" separate from human experience. In the Parmenides, Plato recognized that such a view undermines the practice of philosophic discourse by placing truth out of the reach of human beings. The Parmenides is interpreted as Plato's attempt to relate the forms to concrete experience, and so to provide an ontology which supports the practice of philosophic discourse. The ontology Plato provides is placed in the context of contemporary discussions of the nature and requirements of discourse. The motivating aim of the thesis is to explain the theory of forms as that theory of truth which is presupposed by the practice of philosophical discussion