Abstract
The aim of this essay is to examine an aspect of Parmenides’ poem which is often overlooked: the psychological grounds Parmenides uses to construct his view. While it is widely recognized by scholars that following Parmenides’ view requires addressing mental activity, i.e. both the possibility of thinking the truth, as well as thinking along the wrong path that mortals follow, a closer examination of the psychological assumptions involved have, to my knowledge, not yet been attempted. I argue that by identifying and analyzing the psychological vocabulary in his poem, it is revealed that Parmenides was a keen observer of human mental behavior. Through these psychological (perhaps “cognitivist,” following some recent categories) observations of thought processes, Parmenides gains insight into the structure of thought itself. The outcome of this inquiry reveals three notable conclusions: First, the poem contains a remarkably extensive use of strictly psychological vocabulary. Second, the presence of this psychological material and the lack of scholarly attention to it means there is a significant aspect of Parmenides intellectual legacy that remains unexplored — Parmenides as psychologist, keen observer of human mental behavior. Furthermore, the recognition of this material helps shed important light on Parmenides’ philosophical message. Ultimately, I intend to provide an exhaustive treatment of Parmenides’ psychological language, which requires close examination of DK B 1, 2, 6, and 7. Due to spatial constraints, I have divided the inquiry into two parts, and will only address DK 1-2 below.
Highlights
No 20, may-aug. 2017 legacy that remains unexplored — Parmenides as psychologist, keen observer of human mental behavior
When Parmenides employs the phrasing ‘since it is being and nothing is not in DK 6.1-2, he is referring back to and further clarifying the fundamental theses he first advanced in DK 2.5
Parmenides’ criticism of traditional perspectives can be realized without the need to appeal to anachronistic appeals to “reason” as the differentiating and superior epistemic standard between mythic discourse and Parmenides’ argumentation. This investigation set out to focus on the psychological aspects of Parmenidespoem, trying to make evident the authors insightful engagement in the observation of human mental behavior
Summary
This investigation set out to focus on the psychological aspects of Parmenidespoem, trying to make evident the authors insightful engagement in the observation of human mental behavior. B) Fragment 2: Parmenides presents his reflections about how the mind works, positing two paths for thinking As this inquiry is not focused upon following the philosophical upshots of this distinction, the main point of analyzing this fragment is to extract Parmenides’ special usage of νοεῖν as picking out cognitive operations. This cultural habituation depends upon discourse which is seductive to the sense organs and senses (ears/hearing, eyes/sight, tongue) As these ways of thinking tend to unreflectively accept traditional views, and reject those which are contrary to traditional views out of prejudice, the wise man should not allow himself to be forced in this mental mode, but to judge the speech/argument on its merits. 11 As we will soon see below, this problematic mental behavior arises in response to an initial problem—a certain lack of resources in the mind
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