Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Format (B × H): 151 mm x 211 mm, Gewicht: 517 g
Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Format (B × H): 151 mm x 211 mm, Gewicht: 517 g
ISBN: 978-0-19-783488-6
Verlag: Oxford University Press
Parmenides and the Origin of Metaphysics offers a novel and comprehensive solution to one of the oldest interpretive puzzles in the history of ancient Greek philosophy: the so-called "problem of the Doxa." This puzzle arises out of an apparent conflict between the main part of Parmenides' poem, called "the Aletheia," and the cosmological part, called "the Doxa." Whereas in the Aletheia he seems to argue that nothing is generated, divided, or changing, in the Doxa he seems to presuppose that lots of things are. Over the last century, the standard solution to this puzzle has been to marginalize the Doxa, and hold that, according to Parmenides, the theory presented there is logically or rationally incoherent.
Matthew Evans defends an alternative solution: the two parts of the poem are not at odds with each other, because each of them is about a distinct kind of thing. Evans argues that the cosmological part is about the things we encounter in the world around us, while the main part is about the underlying nature or reality of such things. By working carefully and systematically through the poem's most challenging passages, the book shows how this alternative solution makes surprisingly good sense. It also shows, at a deeper level, how continuous the discipline of metaphysics has been, from the beginning, with the theory-building enterprise of the empirical sciences.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on Sources
- Introduction
- The Problem of the Doxa
- 1. Our Task
- 2. The Traditional View
- 3. Why Bother?
- 4. In Light of the Moon
- 5. Hints of Knowledge
- 6. Looking Ahead
- Starting Points
- 1. The Argument of B2
- 2. Roads
- 3. Destinations
- 4. Logic First
- 5. The Copular Reading
- 6. World and Mind
- 7. An Initial Interpretation
- Moving Forward
- 1. Signs and Subjects
- 2. The Plan
- 3. Justice
- 4. Problems
- 5. The Causal Reading
- 6. The Status of B8.11
- 7. Roadblock
- Looking Back
- 1. Laying Down the Law
- 2. Rebuilding the First Two Roads
- 3. For Thinking
- 4. Epistemology First
- 5. The Argument of B2 Reconsidered
- Mortal Error
- 1. Two Mistakes
- 2. The Case for a Third Road
- 3. Instability and Unsuitability
- 4. Thinking, Reference, and What-Is
- 5. Referent and Cause
- 6. Thinking as a Kind of Naming
- 7. Names as Features
- 8. Being and Not-Being
- Wanderers
- 1. Forms and Names
- 2. Bodies and Features
- 3. A Couple of Ideals
- 4. Three Against Privilege
- 5. Long's Reading
- 6. The Trouble with Fire and Night
- 7. Sameness, Difference, and Opposition
- The Possibility of Cosmology
- 1. Does Cosmology Rest on a Mistake?
- 2. The Moderate Reading
- 3. Indivisible
- 4. Perfect
- 5. Unchanging
- 6. The Radical Reading
- How to Know
- 1. The Contenders
- 2. Cosmological Learning
- 3. Mortal Beliefs
- 4. Counterfactual or Not
- 5. The Disapprovals
- 6. Truth
- 7. Trust
- 8. The Prohibitions
- 9. Knowing Something
- 10. Deceptiveness
- 11. Forever Undefeated
- 12. A Verdict
- Back to the Beginning
- 1. An Introduction to Metaphysics
- 2. Revolution From Within
- 3. Invariance Prevails
- 4. Reliability and Enforcement
- 5. Two Dimensions of Necessity
- 6. The Living Truth
- 7. An Illusory Alternative
- 8. Life or Death
- Appendix: A Translation of Selected Fragments
- Bibliography
