Parmenides (28B16DK) in Theophrastus’ De Sensibus: perception or cognition?

Abstract

Being among the fragments of Parmenides’ poem whose hallmark is a high conceptual density, 28B16 DK was transmitted by the two main Peripatetic thinkers, i.e. Aristotle and Theophrastus, who discussed it more or less deeply and inserted their quotations of it in widely divergent contexts. Given the not at all negligible complexity inherent in that fragment —which is alternatively seen as a doctrine by Parmenides on sense perception or cognition—, not only consideration of the quotation context is required for it to be correctly interpreted, but also taking into account the eventual accompanying commentary. Therefore, an analysis will be performed on the exegesis that Theophrastus carried out of Parmenides’ quatrain in the De Sensibus. This will consist of an accurate examination of the main lexical and conceptual equivalences between Parmenides’ own terms and their translation by Theophrastus into the vocabulary of the Peripatos.