The Eleatics

Abstract

In summarizing current scholarly literature on Parmenides, one could write the same word as used previously to describe the state of Pythagorean studies: “controversy.” In 1959 the Dutch scholar, J. H. M. M. Loenen, admitted that “almost everything is still problematic.” He listed as problems the third way (e.g., whether this is directed against Heraclitus), the structure of Fragment 8, the relationship between being and thinking (Fr. 3), the place and meaning of Fr. 16, the subject of estin and the meaning of to me eon (Fr. 2), the relationship between being and light, the relation between truth and opinion, and so on.117 The situation has not changed radically since 1959. Let us sample some relevant literature beginning with the fourth edition of John Burnet’s Early Greek Philosophy (London: A. and C. Black, Ltd., 1930) and ending with Leonardo Tarán’s Parmenides: A Text with Translation, Commentary and Critical Essays (Princeton, New Jersey: University Près, 1965). Such sampling will help clarify our own position, also.