Hypothesis/Deduction n. 2 (142b–155e): If the one is. The one is, it must be and it is part of being. The one is part of being and vice versa. Being is a part of the one, the one is a whole that is a group of sections. The one does not participate in the being, so it must be a single part. Being is unlimited and is contained in everything, however big or small it is. So, since the one is part of being, it is divided into as many parts as being, thus it is unfinished. The parts are themselves sections of a whole, the whole is delimited, confirming the presence of a beginning, a centre, and an end. Therefore, since the centre is itself at the same distance from the beginning and the end, the one must have a form: linear, spherical, or mixed. If the whole is in some of its parts, it will be the plus into the minus, and different from itself. The one is also elsewhere, it is stationary and in movement at the same time. The Appendix to the First Two Deductions 155e–157b Hypothesis/Deduction n. 3 (157b–159b): If the one is not. If the one is not it participates in everything different from it, so everything is partially one. Similarity, dissimilarity, bigness, equality and smallness belong to it since the one is similar to itself but dissimilar to anything that is, but it can be big or small as regards dissimilarity and equal as concerns similarity. So the one participates of non-being and also of being because you can think of it. Therefore, the one becomes and perishes and, since it participates of non-being, stays. The one removes from itself the contraries so that it is unnameable, not disputable, not knowable or sensible or showable. The other things appear one and many, limited and unlimited, similar and dissimilar, the same and completely different, in movement and stationary, and neither the first nor the latter thing since they are different from the one and other things. Eventually they are not. So if the one is not, being is not. A satisfactory characterisation of this part of the dialogue has eluded scholars since antiquity. Many thinkers have tried, among them Cornford, Russell, Ryle, and Owen; but few would accept without hesitation any of their characterisations as having got to the heart of the matter. Recent