The One and the First

While for Parmenides, the occupancy of the realm of Being is one--'The One'--for Plato it is multiple, including not only 'One', but other numbers, as well.  Still the Platonist One shares with the Parmenidean The One the characteristics of perfection and immutability.  So, even though usually classified as 'neo-Platonist', the 'One' of Emanationism is Parmenidean in at least some fundamental respects.  However, the immutability and perfection of the One preclude the possibility of other entities issuing forth from it.  In contrast, the number that is appropriate to the process of Emanation is 'the First', which not merely does not preclude the possibility of a generation of other entities from it, but entails it.  Indeed, as has been previously argued here, numerical cardinality is derived from numerical ordinality--e. g. Whitehead-Russell's Successor Function, which, in their system, generates the cardinal numbers, is an ordinal process--a derivation which is difficult to conceive in any system the focal point of which is a complete, static entity.