Volume 56

This text exposes and analyses the references to the Eleatics starting from the hints to Gorgias and Zeno in the Phaedrus 261c–d and from the eristic arguments of Euthydemus which are evidently influenced by the way of arguing of the Eleatics. Naturally, the greatest attention is reserved for the dialectical dialogues: with a real coup de théâtre, the Eleatics pass from being (almost) unknown figures to becoming masters. First Parmenides and then the Stranger of Elea give Socrates important suggestions about method and content. This sequence is even more exceptional because it is the only case in which we find some internal references in Plato’s corpus, where the author usually never mentions his own writings. These analysis highlights, among other issues, the importance of dialectics, the treatment of not being as different, the denial of the so-called parricide by the Stranger of Elea.

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The Eleatic Elements in the Metaphysical Reflection and in the Physical Mentions of the Parmenides

Francesca Eustacchi

ORGANON, Volume 56, 2024, pp. 35 - 52

https://doi.org/10.4467/00786500.ORG.24.004.20206

In the Parmenides, it is possible to identify affirmations that are clearly of Eleatic origin and which are re-elaborated by Plato who includes them ad hoc when developing his arguments. The dialectical contribution on the question of the multiplicity of entities given to the Parmenidean philosophy by Zeno is discussed not only in the first part of the dialogue (see 127d–128d) but also in the second. In the latter, Parmenides adopts an ontological-metaphysical setting through which Plato gives an example of the various uses of Zenonian dialectic. Here all the hypotheses concerning the One are analysed (see 136a–c).

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The Ontology of Parmenides According to Plato’s Parmenides

Luc Brisson

ORGANON, Volume 56, 2024, pp. 53 - 64

https://doi.org/10.4467/00786500.ORG.24.005.20207

For Proclus, the subject of Parmenides’ hypothesis is the One and the verb to be has an existential meaning. Modern commentators acknowledge the existential function of the verb, but propose different subjects. I try to explain why I give a predicative function to the verb to be, giving the world as its subject, one being the predicate.

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Everything in Its Right Place: Zeno’s Paradox of Place: Zeno’s Paradox of Place in Part 2 of the Parmenides

Saloni de Souza

ORGANON, Volume 56, 2024, pp. 65 - 87

https://doi.org/10.4467/00786500.ORG.24.006.20208

Part 2 of the Parmenides is an obvious place to examine Plato’s reception of Zeno; after all, it is a demonstration apparently based on Zeno’s method and one of the main characters of the dialogue is Zeno. Nevertheless, it has received little attention as a source for understanding Plato’s engagement with the historical Zeno. Here, I show that Plato engages with Zeno’s paradox of place in the first deduction of Part 2 of the Parmenides—and in sophisticated and interesting ways.

I begin by addressing some methodological issues. I then examine Eudemus’ account of Zeno’s paradox of place as reported by Simplicius and Aristotle’s account in his Physics 4.3 in order to reconstruct it. I proceed to examine the arguments for the one’s being nowhere, if it is, in the first deduction of the Parmenides. I argue that there are good reasons to suppose that Zeno’s paradox of place is at issue there. Finally, I reflect on what these arguments reveal about Plato’s engagement with Zeno’s paradox of place.

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What Socrates Learned From Parmenides. Part 1. Parmenides’ Gymnasia and Socrates’ Intellectual Virtues

Annie Larivée

ORGANON, Volume 56, 2024, pp. 89 - 117

https://doi.org/10.4467/00786500.ORG.24.007.20209

This is the first of two studies in which I examine Plato’s account of Parmenides’ contribution to Socrates’ education. This account suggests, I argue, that Socrates became a virtuoso of the elenchos and the embodiment of fundamental intellectual virtues thanks to the gymnasia depicted in the Parmenides. I show how Parmenides’ eightfold routine is not a method of philosophical investigation strictly speaking; rather, it is a skill-building exercise that relies on memory and whose virtue is partly defensive. My demonstration is based on three sets of distinctions required to do justice to the preparatory character of Parmenides’ gymnasia. The first differentiates three types of intellectual virtues, the second two kinds of training methods, and the third, three telic modes.

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What Socrates Learned From Parmenides. Part 2. Hypothesis, Antilogy, and Philosophical Self-Defense in the Phaedo

Annie Larivée

ORGANON, Volume 56, 2024, pp. 119 - 138

https://doi.org/10.4467/00786500.ORG.24.008.20210

My first study identified the cognitive abilities and argumentative skills developed by the gymnasia presented in Plato’s Parmenides. Since the correspondence with the intellectual virtues Socrates displays in other dialogues is too remarkable to be a coincidence, I concluded that Socrates must have trained with Parmenides’ eightfold routine in his youth. My second study supports this conclusion by drawing attention to textual evidence found in the Phaedo. The autobiographical account Socrates shares in that dialogue indicates how the gymnasia impacted his intellectual development, mostly through the action of hypothesizing. This strategic move used by the Eleatics transformed the originally sectarian way Socrates related to Forms and enabled him to protect his theory from attacks in a secure yet non-dogmatic way.

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Zeno and Antilogic

Chloe Balla

ORGANON, Volume 56, 2024, pp. 139 - 155

https://doi.org/10.4467/00786500.ORG.24.009.20211

This paper sheds light on Plato’s representation of Zeno in the Phaedrus as a master of antilogic. It examines the evidence in the Phaedrus drawing attention to a certain distribution of labour between the followers of Palamedes, who practice antilogic, on the one hand and those of Nestor and Odysseus, who practice logography, on the other. I suggest that the reason for which Plato prefers to associate Zeno with antilogic rather than Protagoras, who might strike us as an obvious choice, is that the former, unlike the latter, would serve the purposes of his Socratic apologetics, removing from his teacher the reputation that Aristophanes’ Clouds had bequeathed him. This reading ties in with and draws support from Zeno’s remarks concerning the nature of his book in the Parmenides, a dialogue that Plato intends us to understand as a prequel that—again along the lines of an apologetic agenda—claims Socrates’ philosophical pedigree establishing his ties with the Eleatic tradition.

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Authors and Editors

ORGANON, Volume 56, 2024, pp. 157 - 160

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Słowa kluczowe: Gorgias, Zeno, Eleatics, dialectics, eristic, Plato’s Parmenides, Zeno, Gorgias, Melissus, Uni–multiple, Dialectic, Parmenides, Plato, Proclus, to be existential or predicative, the world as its subject, one as its predicate., infinite regress, paradox, place, space, reception, pedagogy, training, intellectual virtues, skills, dialectic, pedagogy, elenchos, antilogy, gymnasia, hypothesis, Antilogic, writing, rhetoric, sophistry, logography, Socratic apologetics

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