The Rout of Parmenides

by Mourelatos, Alexander P. D.

• ISBN13: 9781930972117
• ISBN10: 1930972113
• Edition: Original
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-28
• Publisher: Parmenides Pub

Summary

This study of the fragments of Parmenides? poem, ?On Nature? (early 5th century b.c.e.), combines traditional philological reconstruction with the approaches of literary criticism and philosophical analysis to reveal the thought structure and expressive unity of the best preserved and most important, influential, and coherent text of Greek philosophy before Plato. Originally published in 1970 and widely cited and discussed since then in the literature on Parmenides and on the pre-Socratics, The Route of Parmenides has been out of print for nearly three decades. This new edition?the first in paperback?includes a new introduction, and it reprints three essays by the author that significantly enhance and extend the argument of the original edition. Also included is a previously unpublished essay by Gregory Vlastos, ?Names of Being in Parmenides,? which serves both as a complement and as a foil to the corresponding argument in Route. Combining the approaches of philosophical, philological, and literary analysis, Alexander Mourelatos examines the morphology of images and metaphors in the fragments of Parmenides? poem ?On Nature? with the aim of articulating and interpreting the poem?s key concepts and component arguments. Relevant antecedents and parallels from the tradition of epic poetry, especially of Homer?s Odyssey, are explored in depth. Apart from the contribution the book makes toward understanding Parmenides? thought, it offers philosophi- cally substantial analyses of the Greek concept of aletheia, ?truth, reality,? and of the thematically important cluster of Greek terms that center, respectively, on the concepts of ?persuasion? (peithein, pistis, peitho) and ?seeming/be- lief? (dokein, doxa).A new revised edition with a new introduction, three additional essays and a previously unpublished paper by Gregory Vlastos

Table of Contents

Returning to Elea: Preface and Afterword to The Revised and Expanded Edition (2008)	p. xi
The Route of Parmenides: A Study of Word, Image, and Argument in the Fragments
Use of Greek and Treatment of Philological and Specialized Topics	p. liii
Abbreviations Used in Part I	p. lvii
Epic Form	p. 1
Parmenides' Hexameter	p. 2
Composition	p. 2
Vocabulary	p. 4
Epic Phraseology	p. 6
"Motif" vs. "Theme": A Distinction	p. 11
Some Epic Motifs in Parmenides	p. 12
The Relevance of Mythological Themes	p. 14
The-Journey as a Motif	p. 16
The-Journey in the Odyssey	p. 17
The-Journey in Parmenides	p. 21
The Theme of Fate-Constraint	p. 25
Unity of Motifs	p. 29
The Meaning of [characters not reproducible]	p. 30
"Motif" vs. "Theme": Relevance of the Odyssey	p. 31
Parmenides as a Poet	p. 34
The Uses of Metaphor	p. 37
Parmenides' Use of the Epic Framework	p. 39
The Relevance of Traditions Other than Epic	p. 41
The Religious Element	p. 44
Parmenides' Choice of the Epic Medium	p. 45
Cognitive Quest and the Route	p. 47
The Veridical Use of "Is"	p. 48
The Adverbial Construction	p. 49
[characters not reproducible] as a Sentence Frame	p. 51
"Speculative" Predication	p. 56
Availability of the Speculative "Is"	p. 60
The Concept of [characters not reproducible] in Parmenides	p. 62
The Concept of [characters not reproducible]	p. 63
The "Quest" for Reality	p. 67
[characters not reproducible] and the Quest for Reality	p. 68
"How It Is"	p. 70
Modality of the Routes	p. 71
The Vagueness of What-Is-Not	p. 74
The Rejection of "What-Is-Not": A Literary Analysis	p. 75
The Rejection of "What-Is-Not": A Logical Analysis	p. 78
The Crux of B8.54: Translation	p. 80
B9.4: Translation	p. 85
B8.54: Interpretation	p. 86
Parallels	p. 87
The Decision	p. 89
Structure of the Argument in "Truth"	p. 90
Signposts	p. 94
Program and Proofs	p. 95
The First Proof: "Ungenerable"	p. 96
First Stage: No Birth	p. 98
Second Stage: No Accretion	p. 100
Third Stage: No Coming-To-Be	p. 102
The [characters not reproducible] as Tenseless	p. 103
Parmenides' Awareness of Tenselessness	p. 105
Is the [characters not reproducible] a Timeless Entity?	p. 107
An Underlying Puzzle	p. 108
Scope of the Argument	p. 110
Second Proof: "Indivisible"	p. 111
The Bounds of Reality	p. 115
Third Proof: "Immobile"	p. 115
Locomotion as Egress	p. 117
Scope of the Argument	p. 119
The Final Proof	p. 120
"Complete": First Phase	p. 122
"Complete": Second Phase	p. 123
The Real as Perspectivally Neutral	p. 129
Parmenides' Monism	p. 130
Overview of the Argument in "Truth"	p. 134
Persuasion and Fidelity	p. 136
[characters not reproducible] and Cognates Generally	p. 136
The Concept [characters not reproducible]	p. 141
The Logic of [characters not reproducible], etc.: A Diagram	p. 142
The Relationship of [characters not reproducible]: Eumenides 794ff.	p. 144
[characters not reproducible] in Parmenides	p. 146
The Mighty Hold of Fidelity	p. 148
Justice, Persuasion, and the Real	p. 151
"Persuasive/Compliant Truth"	p. 154
The "Course of Persuasion"	p. 158
Constraint-Fate-Justice-Persuasion	p. 160
Belief	p. 163
Mind's Commitment to Reality	p. 164
B8.34: Questions of Context	p. 165
A Translation	p. 166
Permission and Necessity in B8.34	p. 167
The Double Import	p. 169
The Meaning of [characters not reproducible]	p. 170
B8.34-38: Interpretation	p. 173
Normative Necessity	p. 175
A Modern Parallel: Logical Atomism	p. 177
Ancient Parallels: Plato, Heraclitus	p. 178
Overview of the Argument	p. 180
B8.38 ff.: The Reading [characters not reproducible]	p. 180
Cornford's Fragment	p. 185
The Parallel with Empedocles B8-9	p. 188
B8.38 and Speculative Predication	p. 190
Thought "about" Reality	p. 191
Doxa as Acceptance	p. 194
"Appearance" or "Opinion"?	p. 195
"Acceptance"	p. 197
[characters not reproducible] and [characters not reproducible]	p. 201
The [characters not reproducible]- Words in B1.30-32	p. 203
The Sense of [characters not reproducible]	p. 205
B1.31-32: Initial Translation	p. 210
The Second Half of B1.32	p. 212
B1.31-32: Philosophical Significance	p. 216
The "Doxa" as a Framework	p. 219
Deceptive Words	p. 222
An Illustration: B14	p. 224
The Goddess and Her Double Audience	p. 225
B8.53 and 8.60	p. 228
The Record of Contrasts	p. 231
The Oxymora	p. 235
Ambiguity in the Contraries	p. 241
B10: The Ambiguity of [characters not reproducible]	p. 246
Ambiguity in the Basic Concepts of "Doxa"	p. 247
B16: "Wandering" and "Fullness"	p. 253
"Doxa" as a Study in Deception	p. 259
Poetry and the Speculative Use of Ambiguity	p. 260
Parmenides' Hexameter	p. 264
Interpretations of the Subjectless [characters not reproducible]	p. 269
The Meaning of [characters not reproducible] and Cognates	p. 277
Text of the Fragments	p. 279
Supplementary List of Works Cited in Part I	p. 285
Three Supplemental Essays
Abbreviations used in Part II	p. 297
Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the Naive Metaphysics of Things	p. 299
A World Merely of Things	p. 300
Characters-Powers, Quality-Things, Opposites	p. 306
Hesiod and Anaximander	p. 314
The Anti-Realism of Heraclitus	p. 317
Parmenides: Extreme Realist	p. 324
Beyond Heraclitus and Parmenides	p. 331
Determinacy and Indeterminacy, Being and Non-Being in the Fragments of Parmenides	p. 333
Some Alternatives in Interpreting Parmenides	p. 350
The Scope of Naming: Gregory Vlastos (1907-1991) on B8.38 and Related Issues (Essay Not Previously Published)
"Names" of Being in Parmenides	p. 367
Indexes to Parts I-III	p. 391
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