This book offers a controversial new solution to the famous puzzle of the so-called `gymnastic' half of Plato's Parmenides, the meaning of which has so far completely eluded understanding. Meinwald goes on to show that the Parmenides serves to introduce a metaphysics which has outgrown the problems commonly associated with the `Platonism' of the middle dialogues, providing a crucial bridge between those dialogues and the later works of Plato. `Simply stunning. [Meinwald's] interpretation of a difficult and crucial Platonic text is not just to be placed among others as one more excellent competitor. It supersedes the others.' Sandra Peterson, University of Minnesota