Plato's Parmenides

Plato’s Parmenides presents the modern reader with a puzzle. Noted for being the most difficult of Platonic dialogues, it is also one of the most influential. This new edition of the work includes the Greek text on facing pages, with an English translation by Arnold Hermann in collaboration with Sylvana Chrysakopoulou. Hermann's Introduction provides an overview and commentary aimed at scholars and first time readers alike. 

“In his 70-page introduction, Arnold Hermann himself is somewhat more restrained. He sees the First Part of the dialogue as targeting 'naive misreadings' (15) of the Theory of Forms, and the Second Part as 'a successful attempt to illuminate the difficulties raised by the First' (17). For instance (to take an easy example), a form is 'itself by itself', and such simplicity or straightforwardness is explored in Argument I of the Second Part. Or again, since Forms have to interweave, they can be seen as complex, such as the 'One Being' of Argument II. These are not original lines of thought, but the introduction well conveys the author's enthusiasm for a dialogue that strikes many as rather dry. Throughout, Hermann corroborates his views by drawing connections with the thought of the Parmenides and Zeno, and other Platonic passages"". - Heythrop Journal”

In his 70-page introduction, Arnold Hermann himself is somewhat more restrained. He sees the First Part of the dialogue as targeting ‘naive misreadings’ (15) of the Theory of Forms, and the Second Part as ‘a successful attempt to illuminate the difficulties raised by the First’ (17). For instance (to take an easy example), a form is ‘itself by itself’, and such simplicity or straightforwardness is explored in Argument I of the Second Part. Or again, since Forms have to interweave, they can be seen as complex, such as the ‘One Being’ of Argument II. These are not original lines of thought, but the introduction well conveys the author's enthusiasm for a dialogue that strikes many as rather dry. Throughout, Hermann corroborates his views by drawing connections with the thought of the Parmenides and Zeno, and other Platonic passages"". - Heythrop Journal

Arnold Hermann is an independent researcher and philosopher specializing in Presocratic philosophy, Metaphysics, and methods of thinking. He is the author of To Think Like God: Pythagoras and Parmenides—The Origins of Philosophy (Parmenides Publishing, 2004 & 2005), both the illustrated as well as the fully annotated edition. He is currently working on Plato's Eleatic Project.

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