Parts, or no parts?

Abstract

This chapter investigates the mereological complexity of the Forms, asking, not whether Forms have parts (which was a question examined in chapter 4), but whether and how each Form is constitutionally unified. If objects participate in Forms, overlapping constitutionally with them, how do the parts of a Form make up a single entity? Plato addresses this question by breaking new ground in metaphysics. In the Theaetetus Plato pioneers an account of how a composite may be derived from parts but be partless.