Plato's Reception of Parmenides

by Palmer, John A.

• ISBN13: 9780199251599
• ISBN10: 0199251592
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-25
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

John Palmer presents a new and original account of Plato's uses and understanding of his most important Presocratic predecessor, Parmenides. Adopting an innovative approach to the appraisal of intellectual influence, Palmer first explores the Eleatic underpinnings of central elements inPlato's middle-period epistemology and metaphysics. He then shows how in the later dialogues Plato confronts various sophistic appropriations of Parmenides while simultaneously developing his own deepened understanding. Along the way Palmer gives fresh readings of Parmenides' poem in the light ofthe Platonic reception, and discusses Plato's view of Parmenides' relation to such key figures as Xenophanes, Zeno, and Gorgias. By tracing connections among the uses of Parmenides over the course of several dialogues, Palmer both demonstrates his fundamental importance to the development of Plato'sthought and furthers understanding of central problems in Plato's own philosophy.

Author Biography

John A. Palmer is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He was previously Research fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Editions and Abbreviations	xi
PART I PLATO'S MIDDLE PERIOD RECEPTION OF PARMENIDES
Introduction	3	(14)
Eschatology and Epistemology	17	(14)
The Argument from the Possibility of Knowledge	31	(25)
Sight-Lovers, Mortals, and Doxa	56	(35)
PART II PLATO AND THE SOPHISTIC APPROPRIATIONS OF PARMENIDES
Parmenides' Thesis at Issue	91	(27)
Sophistic Parmenideanism in the Sophist	118	(30)
Sophistic Parmenideanism in the Sophist and in the Parmenides's Dialectical Exercise	148	(37)
PART III PLATO'S PARMENIDES IN THE LATER DIALOGUES
Parmenides and Xenophanes in the Sophist and Timaeus	185	(22)
Plato's Parmenides	207	(14)
Plato's Parmenides and the Parmenides's Second Deduction	221	(40)
Appendices
I. MXG vs. Sextus on the first division of Gorgias' `On What-Is-Not'	255	(2)
II. Gorgias on the impossibility of falsehood	257	(2)
III. Plato's quotation of Parmenides at Theaetetus 180d7-eI	259	(2)
References	261	(18)
Index Locorum	279	(12)
General Index	291