Our philosophical reflection on the question of the one and the many brings us to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (427 – 347 B.C). Plato is arguably the most influential philosopher in Western intellectual history and is most known for his theory of transcendent forms (Ideas or essences). Plato held that these transcendent forms are imperfectly mirrored in the sensible world and known through the intellect alone. Ideas, according to Plato, are the highest order of reality while matter is subject to the formative effects of the Ideas. We will get to the rest of Plato’s philosophy a little later. For now, we need to think about the importance of metaphysics in the first place, the question of the one and the many, and how Plato came to the discovery of Form or Idea. This will be the first post of three which will explore Plato’s attempt to resolve the metaphysical question of the one and the many.

Metaphysics is the study of the reality in which we find ourselves and the transcendent reality that makes this world possible. Sometimes philosophers define metaphysics as the study of ultimate reality. Of course, the study of ultimate reality generates many questions. Some of these questions include: How is reality connected to being and existence? What is the essential nature to being or the totality of all that exists? Is reality one or many? If it is many, how does it relate to the one? In fact, it is this question—the question or problem known as “the One and the Many” that puzzled Plato and ultimately caused him to formulate his metaphysical conception of Form. The problem of the One and the Many, is also related to questions of Universal and Particular and Being and Becoming. Plato was certainly perplexed by the question of the One and the Many, the idea of Being and Becoming, and through his investigation of these questions, he became the first systematic metaphysician. He also realized that in some way, metaphysics was basic to all other philosophical concerns.

With this foundation, it is important to understand Plato’s place in Western intellectual history as the foremost systematic philosopher. Although there were others before him, commonly known as the pre-Socratics, who explored interesting metaphysical theories regarding the nature of reality, Plato was the first to describe reality in a methodical and rationally compelling way¹. The pre-Socratics, however, asked some fundamental questions about reality that perplexed Plato and influenced his metaphysical outlook. The pre-Socratics, for example, wondered what could be the essential nature of all things and how this essential nature relates to everything else. This question has come down to us as the problem of the One and the Many. The question of the One and the Many is an attempt to intellectually explore the structure of reality. It seeks to find unifying principles in the diversity around us. In other words, the question of the One and the Many is an attempt to make sense out of the world. From Plato’s perspective, the question explores the unities of goodness, justice, or the nature geometry and mathematics, and then tries to explain how these unities, which do not change, exist as diverse particularities in the world. This basic philosophical puzzle has to do with the nature of change and causation. The pre-Socratics, and Plato, were aware that many things change from one thing to another. After all, change is all around us – life, death, seasons, and time itself all are indications of change.

Plato was keenly aware of the problem of the One and the Many. In the Philebus, for example, Socrates says, “The principle which has just turned up, which is a marvel of nature; for that one should be many or many one, are wonderful propositions” (Plato 611). Later, Socrates explains:

A gift of heaven, which, as I conceive, the gods tossed among men by the hands of a new Prometheus, and therewith a blaze of light; and the ancients, who were our betters and nearer the gods than we are, handed down the tradition, that whatever things are said to be are composed of one and many, and have the finite and the infinite implanted in them: seeing then that such is the order of the world, we too ought in every enquiry to begin by laying down one idea of that which is the subject of inquiry; this unity we shall find in everything. (Plato 612)

The question of the one and the many is an attempt to discover the essential nature upon which everything else depends for its existence. The intuition to reduce reality to its essential nature is significant. Scientific theories that unite and make sense out of many other theories and concepts are generally accepted and considered superior models of explanation. It seems basic to human nature to take simplicity and unity as having explanatory power². There is a rational human impulse to seek and discover a unity or system of thought that provides an answer for everything else related to it. The same is true for those who seek a foundation for reality. Even amidst change, things are interdependent. The question of the One and the Many provides a way to explore and discuss that which everything else depends on for existence. Plato brings this notion to light when he has Socrates discuss the nature of virtue in the Meno dialogue:

How fortunate I am, Meno! When I ask you for one virtue, you present me with a swarm of them, which are in your keeping. Suppose that I carry on the figure of the swarm, and ask of you, What is the nature of the bee? And you answer that there are many kinds of bees, because there are many and different kinds of them; or are they not rather to be distinguished by some other quality, as for example beauty, size, or shape? (Plato 175)

In this example, Socrates is investigating the nature of virtue by way of natural philosophy. Plato has Socrates explain that just as moral acts have the potential of reflecting the true nature of virtue, there is something in nature, as well, that can reflect the essential character or “Being” of the physical world. The One and the Many has interesting political ramifications too. In the political world, the great American experiment is an attempt to unite the many. For example, the motto on the Seal of the United States says “E Pluribus Unum” – from the many, one – in an attempt to describe the American ethos of bringing unity out of the diversity of the many. Not only politically, however, but in the physical world, the tension of the One and the Many holds true as well. In part two, we will discover how Plato attempts to resolve this question and why it is important for Western intellectual history and the implications for us today.

Plato. The Dialogues of Plato. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Great Books of the Western World. Vol. 6. Chicago: Encycyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1996.

1 On occasion, Plato references the pre-Socratic thinker Heraclitus. Plato was certainly aware of and in discussion with the ideas that came before him and was also influenced by Parmenides.

2 This is why many metaphysicians use Occam’s razor to decide among competing theories of reality.