Plato's Parmenides Hardcover - 2003 - 1st Edition

Summary

First line

Of all Plato's dialogues, the Parmenides is notoriously the most difficult to interpret.

From the rear cover

"Scolnicov's aim is to provide a new translation of Plato's Parmenides, with a commentary designed to show that the arguments of the second half of the dialogue, the purpose of which has long been a matter of scholarly dispute, make sense as an attempt to establish the necessary logical and epistemological conditions for Plato's own theory of forms and participation. In particular, Scolnicov attempts to show that the otherwise bewildering concatenation of arguments and hypotheses answers to a style of argument paralleled in other dialogues. Scolnicov also argues that the dialogue is intended as a serious rebuttal of Parmenides' monist philosophy. Scolnicov's thesis is thus diametrically opposed to those who think that the dialogue is intended as a successful critique of Plato's own theory in the light of arguments adapted from Parmenides."--Denis O'Brien, author of Etudes sur Parmnide; Empedocles' Cosmic Cycle: A Reconstruction from the Fragments and Secondary Sources

"Scolnicov's introduction presents a very clear account of Parmenides' method and the contrast that Plato's use of hypothesis presents to it as early as the Meno. Scolnicov then offers a clear account of Plato's method and the way it establishes an idea of philosophical method in general: not a reasoning from first principles but a disclosing of the principles at the foundation of one's prior convictions in order to test those principles. He subsequently takes up the principle of noncontradiction in particular before tackling the questions Parmenidean philosophy might raise about the doctrine of participation. An immensely clear and interesting introduction and way into the Parmenides."--Georgia Warnke, author of Justice and Interpretation: Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought