ABSTRACT
The philosophical “problem” of the one and the many that has occupied philosophers since Parmenides is also about love and the metaphysical foundations of authorship. In the Parmenides Plato takes up this discussion of the one and the many, leading to the most paradoxical conclusions, such as that the one is always becoming older and younger than itself at the same time. To defend Parmenides, Plato has Zeno of Elea propose the thesis that the one can be divided ad infinitum. Therefore, the one cannot be divided at all. For the poet, the paradox of the one and the many is conquered through the concept of being nothing. The authorial nothingness that the author is interested in willfully achieving involves the simultaneous unity and fragmentation of the author’s authorial voice. The author seeks to represent multiplicity and unity simultaneously; which is to say, the author seeks a vision of the one through the many and the many through the one. The simultaneous love of the one for the many and the many for the one describes the self-reflective artistic act.
