Q3: Explain the significance of the opening Parmenides’ Proem for our understanding of Parmenides’ conception of Being

3. Explain the significance of the opening Parmenides’ Proem for our understanding of Parmenides’ conception of Being.

1. Some relevant features of the opening of the proem:

a.     Introduction to the two paths of inquiry

                                               i.     The opening of proem affords Parmenides the opportunity to outline his program.  The goddess’s revelation will come in the following two phases:

1.   along the path of Persuasion (“the unshaken heart of well-persuasive Truth”)  This path “is and it is necessary that it be”.

2.   along the unlearnable path of mortal opinion (“in which there is no true trust”, “a path entirely unable to be investigated”)  This path “is not and it is necessary that it not be.”

b.     Involves divinity

                                               i.     The proem provides justification for Parmenides’ account of being because it enables him to distinguish his view of being from common mortal opinion (i.e. put it firmly along the path of Persuasion). Here’s how:

1.   The goddess is divine and so distinct from common mortals.  So the account is revelatory, not merely as a product of mortal reflection.

                                             ii.     Bonus: even though the goddess reveals the account of Being, it is also one that can be reached by reason (as long as it’s purely abstract), so Parmenides can (and does) provide arguments for support.

2. Parmenides’ conception of Being

a.     Being is one, whole, eternal, unchanging

b.     ONE, WHOLE

                                               i.     What would divide being?  Non-being?  Nope.

                                             ii.     “what-is draws to what-is”

c.     ETERNAL

                                               i.     Everything that comes into being either comes from being or from nonbeing.

                                             ii.     If it comes from being, then it already is. (so: ungenerated)

                                            iii.     If it comes from nonbeing, then nonbeing is. (absurd)

                                            iv.     Nothing can come from nonbeing.

                                             v.     So being always is.

(Run the argument along similar lines to get that Being is imperishable.  If it goes into nonbeing, it would become nothing, but nothing doesn’t exist.)

  possibly helpful secondary source: “To see why Parmenides drew this conclusion we have to assume that he thought that 'being water' or 'being air' was related to 'being' in the same way as 'running fast' and 'running slowly' is related to 'running'. Someone who first runs fast and then runs slowly, all the time goes on running; similarly, for Parmenides, stuff which is first water and then is air goes on being.” (Kenny 12)

d.     UNCHANGING

                                               i.     If generation and destruction are impossible, then change is impossible.

                                             ii.     Generation and destruction are impossible (see 2c here.)

                                            iii.     So, change is impossible

“But unchanging in the limits of great bonds / it is without starting or ceasing, since coming-to-be and perishing / have wandered very far away” (8.26)

e.     What is this argument for?

                                               i.     Anything we can think or speak about either exists or it doesn’t.

                                             ii.     What does not exist is nothing.

                                            iii.     So we cannot think or speak about nothing. (Because unbeing is that of which nothing is true.)

                                            iv.     We can only think or speak about what exists.

3. The proem and the account

The path that Parmenides took in defending his account (i.e. abstract, rationalistic, removed from the deceit of mortal (sensation riddled) judgment) is the way of persuasion that the goddess introduced in the proem.