ΠΑΡΜΕΝΙΔΗΣ
Thomas Taylor (1804)
Plato · Thomas Taylor (1804)
Scene: The Ceramicus
The Parmenides is the most demanding and enigmatic of Plato's dialogues. It depicts a dramatic meeting in which the aged Parmenides and his pupil Zeno visit Athens and engage a very young Socrates, who eagerly puts forward the theory of Forms — only to have the venerable Eleatic gently take it apart.
In the first part Parmenides presses a series of famous objections. How can many things participate in one Form without it being split among them? Does explaining the many large things by Largeness not require a further Form to cover them all, and so on without end — the 'third man' regress? Are there Forms of trivial or base things? And if the Forms are utterly separate, how can we, in this world, ever know them, and how can the divine know us? Socrates is left unable to answer, yet Parmenides insists the theory cannot simply be abandoned, for without stable Forms thought and discourse themselves collapse.
The second, longer part is a relentless dialectical exercise in which Parmenides examines the consequences of supposing that 'the one is' and that 'the one is not', running through a sequence of intricate, often contradictory hypotheses about the One and its relation to being. Whether this is a logical puzzle, a parody, or a serious metaphysics has been argued ever since.
The Neoplatonists had no doubt: they read the hypotheses as a map of all reality, taking the first — a One so transcendent that it cannot even be said to be — as the supreme revelation of the One beyond being. Proclus and Damascius wrote great commentaries on it, and for them this baffling text was the summit of Plato's theology.
In the library: the complete Parmenides, with the critique of the Forms and the dialectical hypotheses.
From the Plato Scroll Encyclopedia · open this entry in the reader
When we arrived at Athens from Clazomenia, the place of our abode, we fortunately met with Adimantus and Glaucus in the forum: and Adimantus, taking me by the hand, I am glad to see you (says he), Cephalus; and if you are in want of any thing here, in which we are able to assist you, I beg you would inform me. Upon which I replied, I came for this very purpose, as being indigent of your assistance. Tell me, then (says he), what you are in want of. And I replied, What was your brother’s name? for I do not remember: as he was almost a child when I first came here from Clazomenia; and, since that circumstance took place, a great length of time has intervened. But his father’s name was, I think, Pyrilampes. Entirely so (says he), and my brother’s name was Antiphon. But what is it you principally inquire after? I replied, These my fellow-citizens are very philosophic, and have heard that this Antiphon was frequently present with one Pythodorus, the familiar of Zeno, and that he treasured in his memory the discourses which Socrates, Zeno, and Parmenides had with each other, and which had frequently been heard by Pythodorus. You speak the truth (says he). These discourses, therefore (says I), we are desirous to hear. But this (says he) is no difficult matter to accomplish: for the young man has made them the subject of vehement meditation; and now with his grandfather, who bears the same name as himself, very much applies himself to equestrian affairs. But if it is necessary, we will go to him: for he just now went from hence home; and dwells very near, in Melita. After we had thus spoke, we proceeded to the house of Antiphon; and found him at home, giving a certain bridle to a coppersmith, to be furnished in a proper manner. But as soon as the smith was gone, and the brothers had told him the cause of our arrival, Antiphon knew me, in consequence of my former journey to this place, and very kindly saluted me: and upon our begging him to relate the discourses, at first he seemed unwilling to comply (for he said it was a very operose undertaking); but afterwards, however, he gratified our request. Antiphon, therefore, said that Pythodorus related that Zeno and Parmenides once came to celebrate the great Panathenæa: that Parmenides was very much advanced in years, extremely hoary, but of a beautiful and venerable aspect, and about sixty-five years of age; but that Zeno was nearly forty years old, was very tall and graceful to the view, and was reported to be the bosom friend of Parmenides. He likewise said that he met with them, together with Pythodorus, in the …
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The Athenian who turned Socratic conversation into a written philosophy and founded the Academy.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy and politically prominent Athenian family; through his mother Perictione the family traced kinship to the lawgiver Solon, and his relatives Critias and Charmides were among the oligarchs of the Thirty. A late tradition says his given name was Aristocles and that 'Plato' — from the word for 'broad' — was a nickname. He grew up during the long agony of the Peloponnesian War and came of age amid the violence and disillusion that followed Athens' defeat.
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