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Parmenides The Assault on A Posteriori Knowledge

Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

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Page 1: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

Parmenides

The Assault on A Posteriori Knowledge

Page 2: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

Orientation to Parmenides

Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples

Diogenes Laertius tells us that Parmenides was a student of Xenophanes, but ‘did not follow him.’

Presumably this means that he did not join him in his scepticism.

If so, Diogenes is correct: Parmenides is no sceptic.

Page 3: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

The A Priori/A Posteriori Distinction

The Character of this Distinction

This is an epistemological distinction.

The Distinction

One has a priori knowledge that p iff one knows p by reason or conceptual resources alone (that is, the extra-mental world makes no contribution to the justification of p).

A posteriori knowledge is knowledge that is not a priori.

N.b. this is a point about justification, not genesis.

Page 4: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

Parmenides and the Assault A Posteriori Knowledge

1. If we have any a posteriori knowledge, then we are able to know that there are plurality and change.

2. We are not able to know that there are plurality and change.

3. Hence, we have no a posteriori knowledge.

4. We do, however, have knowledge.

5. So, (given that the a priori/a posteriori distinction is exclusive and exhaustive), all of our knowledge is a priori.

Page 5: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

Some Startling Pronouncements (1)

For in no way may this prevail, that things that are not are; but hold your thought back from the route of inquiry and 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 logos the much contested examination [or proof] spoken by me (8 = DK B6 = Sexts AM7.114)

.

Page 6: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

Some Startling Pronouncements (2)

Just one story of a route remains: that it is [or: it is; being is]. Of this there are signs aplenty, that what is is ungenerated and imperishable, a whole of a single kind, unbroken, complete. Nor was it ever, nor will it be, since it is now, all together one, holding together. For what generation will you seek out for it? How and from what did it grow? From what-is-not [or from non-being] I will allow you neither to say nor to think; for it is not to be said or thought that it is not [or: is not; or non-being is]. (8 = DK B8 = Simp., Comm. in Ar. Pays. 145.1 ff)

Page 7: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

Some Startling Pronouncements (3)

Thus generation has been extinguished and perishing cannot be investigated. Nor is it divisible, since it is all alike and is not at all more in any way, which would keep it from holding together, nor at all less, but is full of what-is. (8 = DK B8 = Simp., Comm. in Ar. Phys. 145.1 ff)

Page 8: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

Some Startling Pronouncements (4)

It is right both to say and to think that what-is is [or: it is what-is; or that being is]; for it can be, but nothing is not; these things I bid you to ponder. For I hold you back from this mode of inquiry, and then from that on which mortals, knowing nothing, wander two-headed; for helplessness in their breasts steers their wandering mind. They are borne along deaf and blind alike, dazed, hordes without judgment, for whom to be and not to be are thought to be the same and not the same, and the path of all is backward-turning. (6 = DK B6 = Comm. in Ar. Phys. 86.27-28, 117.4-13)

Page 9: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

Dominant Claim

There is no generation ex nihilo.

This is a priori impossible.

Indeed, it is not even possible to conceive such a thing.

Page 10: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

Two Presuppositions

The Relational Theory of Thinking (RT): Every instance of thinking involves a thinker standing in relation to something thought.

The Co-extensivity of Thinking and Being (CTB): It is possible to think any arbitrary o if, and only if, o exists.

Page 11: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

Three Consequences

Thinking of nothing is impossible.

This would violate RT.

There being absolutely nothing is impossible.

This is guaranteed by CTB: non-being is only if we can think of non-being, but we cannot

Generation ex nihilo is impossible.

For there is generation ex nihilo only if there is non-being (nihil)—and there is and could not be non-being.

Page 12: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

The Dominant Parmenidean Argument

1. It is not possible to think nothing.

2. It is possible to conceive of generation only if it is possible to think nothing.

3. Hence, it is not possible to conceive of generation.

4. It is possible to conceive of alteration only if it is possible to conceive of generation.

5. It is, by (3), not possible to conceive of generation.

6. Hence, it is not possible to conceive of alteration.

7. It is possible for there to be alteration only if it is possible to conceive of alteration.

8. Hence, it is impossible for there to be alteration.

N.b. We can now run the argument once more, substituting ‘distinctnesss’ for ‘generation’ and ‘plurality’ for ‘alteration’. ‘

Page 13: Parmenides - Christopher Shieldscjishields.com/3-parmenides-.pdf · Orientation to Parmenides Parmenides of Elea (born c. 515), in present day Velia, near Naples Diogenes Laertius

So, what do we know?

It is right both to say and to think that what is is [or: it is what-is; or being is]; for it can be, but nothing is not; these things I bid you to ponder. (6 = DK B6 = Comm. in Ar. Phys. 86.27-28)