ACritique of the Current Theory of Plato’s Development in Terms of the Concepts of Being and Knowledge

This paper aims to challenge the current chronology of Plato’s dialogues based on the development of the concepts of knowledge and being in his philosophy. The six presented objections are arranged in two groups. The first group is to criticize the position of some of the late period dialogues after the middle period ones. While the first objection discusses the problems of Theaetetus’ late position, the second argues about the the problems of the late position of Sophist and the second part of Parmenides after Republic and the third that of Laws and Politicus.The second group of objections is going to challenge the position of Parmenides after the middle period dialogues. Criticizing the dominant theory that Parmenides’ critics of the theory of Forms are referring to the theory in the middle dialogues, we will try to illustrate that not only these dialogues provide the answers of the critics, but they are constructed based on, and directed to, them. The fifth and sixth objections show that based on the current chronology of the dialogues we can neither take Parmenides’ critics as valid nor as invalid.