What difficulty? he said.
There are many, but the greatest of all is this:-If an opponent
argues that these ideas, being such as we say they ought to be, must
remain unknown, no one can prove to him that he is wrong, unless he
who denies their existence be a man of great ability and knowledge,
and is willing to follow a long and laborious demonstration; he will
remain unconvinced, and still insist that they cannot be known.
What do you mean, Parmenides? said Socrates.
In the first place, I think, Socrates, that you, or any one who
maintains the existence of absolute essences, will admit that they
cannot exist in us.
No, said Socrates; for then they would be no longer absolute.
True, he said; and therefore when ideas are what they are in
relation to one another, their essence is determined by a relation
among themselves, and has nothing to do with the resemblances, or
whatever they are to be termed, which are in our sphere, and from
which we receive this or that name when we partake of them. And the
things which are within our sphere and have the same names with
them, are likewise only relative to one another, and not to the
ideas which have the same names with them, but belong to themselves
and not to them.
What do you mean? said Socrates.
I may illustrate my meaning in this way, said Parmenides:-A master
has a slave; now there is nothing absolute in the relation between
them, which is simply a relation of one man to another.
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