Upon reading Parmenides' poem, I was surprised, because it seemed as if he was reverting to the ways of Homer and Hesiod. In part, I think he has. He uses the same musing style of the Greek poets to talk about how he figuratively journeyed to visit a goddess who dispensed Truth and wisdom to him. An allegorical understanding of his poem is crucial to deriving its meaning. Parmenides mentions the roads of Night and Day - Night and Day are two goddesses - which lead to a gate opened by a being named Justice. The goddess which actually dispenses Truth to Parmenides is Night, who just happens to be Zeus's counselor. Night is known for counseling Zeus in how to maintain unity in all he does. This turns out to be a key point for understanding Parmenides' metaphysics, which deal quite heavily with the concept of unity throughout the cosmos. Hence, I think it is safe to conjecture from his allegorical poem that Parmenides believes in an absolute, unified Truth which lights the way to Justice, a concept Plato later explores (I actually just really love Plato, so I have to talk about him in every blog post. I would say I'm sorry but......it's Plato......)
In aphorism 7, Parmenides says "do not let habit, rich in experience, compel you along this route, to direct an aimless eye and an echoing ear and tongue, but judge by reasoning...". It would seem that here he is rejecting the senses as a way to empirically gather truth; thus, he is no materialist. He continues with an interesting exploration into what he dubs "what-is" and "what-is-not". Throughout all of his aphorisms, he seems to be saying that Truth will reveal itself and sort itself out. Truth is that which is "what-is", and as the name reveals, it just simply is. Falsity is that which is "what-is-not" and is sure to pass away, leaving Truth behind - as long as we use the logos of our wisdom and judgment, that is.
My favorite quote of Parmenides' is when he says "Nor will the force of true conviction ever permit anything to come to be." If you allow it to sink in for a moment,
No
Really
Let it sink in.
It's really quite profound. What-is will always be. What is Truth will always be. What is Right will always find its way to the surface, leaving what-is-not behind. It doesn't matter what we want Truth to be. It doesn't even matter what we think Truth must be. It doesn't matter what our senses tell us Truth is. Truth is still there, lingering, unified, one, whole, complete. Because any falsity in our thoughts and convictions simply is-not. The pure conviction on our part that Truth is this or that means nothing, because we cannot bend Truth to our will. Truth will simply always be there, waiting for us to discover it, giving us glimmers here and there if only we stop and think and perceive. And even if we never find Truth, maybe that's ok. Maybe it's only about the journey, and about searching, and in the end, Truth will always be, and we'll find out what what-is is anyways.
I think you have a wonderful sense of what Parmenides is upto. You really might like Peter Kingsley's work on Parmenides given that you have a sense of the existential immediacy in Parmenides. http://www.peterkingsley.org/
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteI appreciate your eloquent reflections on what-is and what-is-not. Here's somethings to consider about aphorism 7 - perhaps here he's criticizing the failure to think critically and simply follow habitual ways of thinking and speaking (hence the aimlessness and echoing) rather than criticizing materialism.
ReplyDeleteOh, ok, I understand! I guess I was taking the eye and the ear literally rather than metaphorically (also I'm reading Descartes for another Philosophy class, so I may have ben too eager to make a random connection).
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