The Virtual Philosophy of Parmenides, Zeno, and Melissus A Glance to the Upcoming Eleatic Lectures
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_21_10Keywords:
Parmenides, Zeno, Melissus, Eleatics, Presocratics, Philosophy, Being, Contradiction, Paradoxes, Riddles, Reason, Peri Physeos, Treatise, PlatoAbstract
This paper aims to provide a preview of the El-eatic Lectures on the virtual philosophy of the so-called Eleat-ics. The Lectures are on schedule for September 28-30, 2017 during ELEATICA, in the premises of the Fondazione Alario, Ascea Marina SA, Italy. These pages, as well as the details of the event, are (or will be) available in Italian and English on www.eleatica.it and possibly elsewhere. Why ‘virtual philosophy’? Because in all likelihood neither Parmenides nor Zeno or Melissus had the least idea of what, in later times, was considered to be ‘philosophy’, and therefore they had not even the opportunity to outline a philosophy of their own. So, they may have been, at the most, unaware and involuntary (thus merely virtual) philosophers. Moreover, there is ample evidence of the fact that, once the foundations of his doctrine of being are set, Parmenides failed to develop a comprehensive theory rooted in them, while he was able to offer a lot of doctrines on sky, earth and living or-ganisms. Now, if that is the case, where should he lay his own virtual philosophy? Similary, Zeno ended up not outlining a virtual philosophy of his own, while Melissus did.
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