Concept

Peras

πέρας · peras

PhilebuslimitPythagoreanfirst principle

Limit — the principle that gives measure and form to the unlimited.

Limit and the unlimited

In the Philebus Plato sets two principles at the root of all things: peras, limit, and the apeiron, the unlimited. The unlimited is the indefinite, the more-and-less that knows no measure; limit is what bounds it, imposing number, ratio, and proportion. Their mixture yields everything definite and good — health, music, the ordered cosmos — for to be something is to be bounded and measured.

See also

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