Synopses & Reviews
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 in
Plato's middle-period epistemology and metaphysics and then shows how in the later dialogues Plato confronts various sophistic appropriations of Parmenides.
Review
"This excellent and extensive survey is valuable reading for scholars and graduate students interested in Plato's metaphysics and epistemology."--Choice
Synopsis
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 in Plato's middle-period epistemology and metaphysics and then shows how in the later dialogues Plato confronts various sophistic appropriations of Parmenides.
Synopsis
A new and original account of Plato's use and understanding of one of his philosophical predecessors, Parmenides. Palmer examines the extent to which Plato's thinking departs from Parmenides, judged by many others to be great, and the influence of Parmenides' poem on the shaping of Plato's thinking. Palmer's} analyses of Plato's arguments are careful and sober, and his tracing of their antecedents in Plato's reading of Parmenides is innovative and valuable.'
About the Author
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
PART I: PLATO'S MIDDLE-PERIOD RECEPTION OF PARMENIDES 1. Introduction
2. Eschatology and epistemology
3. The argument from the possibility of knowledge
4. Sight-lovers, mortals, and doxa
PART II: PLATO AND THE SOPHISTIC APPROPRIATIONS OF PARMENIDES
5. Parmenides' thesis at issue
6. Sophistic Parmenideanism in the Sophist
7. Sophistic Parmenideanism in the Sophist and in the Parmenides' dialectical exercise
PART III: PLATO'S PARMENIDES IN THE LATER DIALOGUES
8. Parmenides and Xenophanes in the Sophist and Timaeus
9. Plato's Parmenides
10. Plato's Parmenides and the Parmenides' Second Deduction
Appendices
Bibliography
Index locorum
General index