The Recurring Problem of the Third Man

Abstract

This paper is a discussion of the "third man" argument in plato's iparmenidesd. Pretty much everyone agrees that plato must have relied on three assumptions in his regress, which have become known as the one over many, self-predication, and nonidentity assumptions. Most writers take nonidentity to be a largely uncontroversial matter of stipulation. The main virtue of this paper is that it argues that nonidentity is consistent with plato's explicit premises only if plato accepted a view in the theory of reference which i believe he would have denied. It is also argued that tma is purely an exercise in ontology and is little concerned with reference or language.