Table Of Content

Plato’s Parmenides The Joan Palevsky Imprint in Classical Literature In honor of beloved Virgil— “O degli altri poeti onore e lume . . .” —Dante, Inferno Plato’s Parmenides TRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY BY Samuel Scolnicov UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution to this book provided by Joan Palevsky. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2003 by the Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Plato. [Parmenides. English] Plato’s Parmenides / translated with introduction and commentary [by] Samuel Scolnicov. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.) and indexes. ISBN 0-520-22403-5 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Socrates. 2. Parmenides. 3. Zeno, of Elea. 4. Ontology— Early works to 1800. 5. Reasoning—Early works to 1800. 6. Dialectic—Early works to 1800. 7. Plato. Parmenides. I. Scolnicov, Samuel. II. Title. B378.A5 S3613 2001 184—dc21 00-021808 Manufactured in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum require- ments of ANSI / NISO Z39 0.48-1992(R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).8 contents list of tables and figures / vii abbreviations / ix acknowledgments / xi Introduction / 1 Plato Versus Parmenides / 1 The Problem of Method / 3 Elenchus / 6 Aporia and Euporia / 8 The Method of Hypothesis / 9 Two Principles of Noncontradiction / 12 The Verb ‘to be’ / 16 Parmenidean Being and Platonic Being / 18 The Dialogue / 22 A Note on the Translation / 39 parmenides Proem / 43 The Frame Story / 43 The Problem: The Many Cannot Be / 45 The Thesis: Forms Participate in Each Other, and Sensible Things Participate in Forms / 48 Part I: Aporia / 53 The Dilemma / 55 The Necessity of Positing Forms / 73 The Method / 74 vi contents Part II: Euporia / 79 Hypothesis: The One Is / 80 Argument I / 80 Argument II / 94 Argument III / 139 Argument IV / 144 Hypothesis: The One Is Not / 147 Argument V / 147 Argument VI / 157 Argument VII / 159 Argument VIII / 163 General Conclusion / 166 bibliography / 167 index locorum / 175 index nominum / 183 index of greek words and expressions / 187 general index / 189 tables and figures TABLES 1. The sequence of the Theorems and their categories in Part II of Plato’s Parmenides / 30 2. Parallel categories in the Theorems in Part II of Plato’s Parmenidesand in the poem of Parmenides, fragment 28 B 8 DK / 33 FIGURES 1. The structure of the arguments in Part I of Plato’s Parmenides / 24 2. The structure of the Arguments in Part II of Plato’s Parmenides / 28 3. The categories of being and their relations in Part II of Plato’s Parmenides / 32 vii abbreviations In this volume, fragments of the poem of Parmenides are cited as they ap- pear in the edition of Diels and Kranz (1951), volume 1, number 28, sec- tion B. The other works cited in abbreviated form in the text and notes are listed immediately below. DK Hermann Diels and Walther Kranz, eds., Die Fragmente der Vor- sokratiker,6th ed., 3 vols. Berlin: Weidmann, 1951. LSJ H.G. Liddell and R. Scott, eds., A Greek-English Lexicon,9th ed., rev. H.S. Jones. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940. ix