This article intends to characterize the constructive function that the
Indeterminate Duality may have played in Plato’s oral teaching. Far
from being in itself – as some testimonia seem to suggest – the primary
origin of evil, as origin of multiplicity the Indeterminate Duality can
be perceived as intrinsically presupposed by Plato’s identification
of the source of being with the supreme Good. The notion of good
implicates for Plato namely an unconditioned impulse to relationality,
which indicates that the supreme Good is to be considered as supreme
origin not only of unity, but also of multiplicity (scil. non-unity) and
alterity. In the absence of multiplicity and alterity, no real relation,
and, therefore, no real manifestation of the Good could in fact take
place. As a consequence (and in accord with the suggestions given by
Simplicius), the Indeterminate Duality may be considered as source of
that original differentiation as well as of that generativity without which
the supreme Good would be discordant with its goodness.
