PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

PARMENIDES:
THE WORLD AS
MODUS COGITANDI
Michael M. Nikoletseas
Third edition

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

Third edition
Copyright 2016 by Michael M. Nikoletseas
ISBN-13: 978-1518891205
ISBN-10: 1518891209
First published in the USA in 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1492283584
ISBN-10: 1492283584
Second edition published in USA in 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1500840952
ISBN-10: 1500840955
Published in USA
No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and microfilm, without permission in writing from the author.

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

I dedicate this book to the memory

of my father

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

My recent work on Heraclitus and Parmenides
(2015a; 2015b) and the discoveries therein led to
the necessity for revisions both in translation as well
as interpretation of the thought of Parmenides as
detailed in the first and second editions of this title.
The present third edition has incorporated the major
new finding of my recent work: The poem of
Parmenides is based on the work of Heraclitus. The
degree of concordance is such that we can safely
draw the conclusion that Parmenides paraphrased
Heraclitus in verse. The original thesis expressed in
the title of this book remains. Lastly, in this edition I
have included new translation of the fragments
relating to eon (1-8), deleted redundancies, and in
general made the text more readable.
The intelligent reader immediately understands that
in addition to the philological, historical
significance, the new findings that I report here
raise new questions for scholarship not only on
Parmenides, but also philosophy of science, and
certainly metaphysics. The vast volume of writings
of the past twenty-five centuries devoted to the
thought of Parmenides and the unparalleled impact
it has had on Philosophy and Physics need to be
revised.
June 2016
Michael M. Nikoletseas
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

The thought of writing a book on Parmenides crept
in my mind only recently, in the course of writing a
book (which is still in the early stages of writing) on
consciousness, conceived philosophically but
mainly from a neurophysiologist's point of view.
The tentative title of the book is De Deo
Abscondito. Contrary to what the title may indicate
it is a philosophical essay on method in search of
consciousness, universally conceived. As I soon
realized the vastness of such a project and my
ignorance in philosophy, I decided to place limits to
my ambition and concentrate on Parmenides, who
of course, would figure prominently in my book.
The present project may appear as a change in
direction in my writing, and to some degree it is
indeed. My poetry, prose and literary criticism have
been a search for myself in a phyletic perspective.
This must be translated as a search into the soul of
man, and here I mean the male of our species. A
link between the themes of my work so far and
Parmenides is not immediately apparent. However,
there is certainly a link between Parmenides'
(at least in the sense it is used by many scholars)
and universal consciousness, the theme of my bookin-writing. Under the bias of my training and
profession in the natural sciences and mathematics,
I ended up disappointed as a poet, because in this
book I demystify Parmenides. However, I am
excited that I found considerable evidence that
Parmenides was a visionary in that he anticipated
the progress in natural science that was to come two
millennia later with Galileo and Newton.
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

Guthrie noted that "No interpretation of Parmenides

today can be entirely novel [...] " (1979, p. 49).
However in the present book I do believe that I am
proposing a novel perspective, one coming mainly
from natural science and mathematics. I cannot of
course deny the indebtedness I owe to the scholars
before me. With these confessions I submit this
book to the scholarly community which, I am
certain, will not fail to find, along with possible
errors, an inordinate measure of boldness in my
thinking.
October 2013

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION p. 11
THE POEM AS AN ESSAY ON METHOD p. 19
TRANSLATION AND INTERPETATION OF
INDIVIDUAL FRAGMENTS
p. 23
EPILOGUE p. 69
BIBLIOGRAPHY p. 71
APPENDIX p. 89
Paraleipomena p. 90
Peri physeos, the poem in Greek p.

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

10

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

INTRODUCTION
The impact that the thought of Parmenides has had
on western thought, both in philosophy and natural
science, has been universally acknowledged; it has
invariably been seen as germinal for Plato' s forms.
In this book, I essay to present Parmenides as a
natural scientist who envisioned science as we view
it today.
It has been said that "The safest general
characterization of the European philosophical
tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to
Plato" (Whitehead, A. N., 2010, p. 39). It has also
been claimed that Plato is a footnote to Parmenides
(see e.g. Gallop, D. 1991). Both of these statements
contain an element of exaggeration.
It is widely accepted that the impact of Parmenides
has not fully been evaluated because of the alleged
mystical character of his poem and his intentional
use of ambiguity.
Another factor that has prevented scholars from
seeing through his poem is the fact that Parmenides
broke away from the constraints of the
weltanschauung of his time and proposed
something novel; the originality of Parmenides'
thought stood as an impediment in the effort of
scholars to grasp his thesis, mainly because its true
meaning was distorted and buried under the weight
of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy.
Parmenides of Elea lived approximately between
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

515445 BC. Diogenes Laertius wrote that

Parmenides philosophized through poetry, like
Hesiod, Xenophanes and Empedocles. (Diog. IX
22, in Diels, H., Kranz, W., 1903, p. 40; cf.
Simplicius:
, 9:36, 2831
Diels).
Ancient sources have Parmenides as a disciple of
Xenophanes whom, however, he did not follow but
instead followed a Pythagorean:
" .
" (Lives of
Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius,
. '. ).
Pythagoras is said to have been the student of
Pherecydes of Syros. There may be a relation
between the elaborate description of the gate in the
prologue of Parmenides' poem and the gates
described in Pherecydes' work:
...


." (Diels, H., Kranz, W, 1903, p. 506;
Diogenes Laertius, 1925, p. 321).
Although not all scholars take Parmenides to be a
Pythagorean, evidence shows that he was influenced
by Pythagoreanism. "He was really the 'associate' of
a Pythagorean, Ameinias, son of Diochaitas, 'a poor
but noble man to whom he afterwards built a shrine
12

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

as to a hero'." (Burnet, J., 1920, p. 138). It was

Ameinias and not Xenophanes that "converted"
Parmenides to the philosophic life.
Xenophanes wrote epic poems and elegies and
iambic poems (Diels, H., Kranz, W., 1903, p. 38). A
look into Xenophanes's writings readily reveals
substantial similarities: , , ,
, , , , .
I quote here a few such fragments of Xenophanes:
" ,"
(Diels, H., Kranz, W., 1903, p. 39).
"
"
(Diels, H., Kranz, W., 1903, p. 39).
Ontological questions were not asked first by
Parmenides. Xenophanes wrote of being and notbeing, and of one being.
"
" (Diels p.
42).
" < >
.
<>
,
,
" (Diels, p. 42).
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

" <> , . (9)

, ,

" (Diels, p. 42).
Compare the above with
"[]
,
, ."
(Hippolytus (Antipope), 1986, pp. 71-72; also in
Diels, H., and Kranz. W. 1903, p. 112).
Simplicius owned a complete copy of Parmenides'
poem. He quoted fifty-three lines which he said
were the part of the poem which referred to the
what-is (Guthrie, W. K. C., 1979, p. 3). The text is
not easy to translate, perhaps because Parmenides
was trying to convey novel philosophical schemata
for which the needed concepts did not exist yet
(Guthrie, W. K. C, 1979. p. 4).
The poem is in hexameter verse after Hesiod and
Homer (Davidson, T., 1869, p. 8). It also appears as
enigmatic and mysterious, perhaps a Pythagorean
influence, but also an influence of his sometime
mentor Xenophanes who placed god at the center of
his philosophy (Aristot. Met. 1.986b). Parmenides
dethroned god and in his position he placed
(eon), the what-is, which in some way later
translators and commentators reinstated in disguise
as a being or Being, the meaning of which is often
implicitly understood as an agent*.
It may be more correct for us to say that Parmenides
14

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

did not write about Being. The question that

---------*On my view, Parmenides thus draws attention to what has come to
be a perennial metaphysical problem: what status is to be given to
possible beings? (Goldin, O., 1993).

remains unanswered to date is what exactly he was

referring to when he spoke about , eon,
something-that- is (see also Guthrie, W. K. C., 1979,
p. 16). For example, Riezler viewed the problem of
Parmenides as "the being of being" (in Ehrhardt, A.
1968, p. 61). This question has often been set aside
as scholars gave precedence to ontological issues. I
am convinced that the task facing researchers of the
Parmenidean poem is to identify that 'something.'
Consider Kahn's statements in regard of the verb to
be:
"In the construction with infinitive, what the
same verb asserts as present and given is not this
action as a fact but as a goal or project to be carried
out." (Kahn, C. H., Verhaar, J. W. M., 1972, p. 118;
also in Goldin, O. 1993, p. 23).
Ultimately, from the point of view of philosophy of
science it is of little significance whether the poem
contains elements of Orphism or Pythagoreanism,
or whether it is apocalyptic. It is the philosophical
thesis that primarily concerns Philosophy and
Physics. Given the various conflicting
interpretations of Parmenides' thesis, and the impact
that it has had on western thought, the task at hand
is to find ways to get as close as possible to the
15

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

essence of his thought. Surely, we may get closer to

Parmenides' mind by tracing proactive and
retroactive influences or parallels, (e.g. with
Xenophanes, the Pythagoreans, or even Plato and
Aristotle, Descartes, or the British empiricists, Kant
and the post-Kantians). I believe that such scholarly
activities may obfuscate the core of Parmenidean
thought, as, I am convinced, the homonymous
Platonic dialogue has done. (For a similar view see
Roecklein, R. J., 2010, p. 11). However, a closer
understanding of Parmenides, imperfect and
approximate as it may be, may come from a careful
analysis of the poem itself in Greek.
Another potentially fruitful path for us to follow is
to test Parmenides' thesis against notions that
natural scientists hold today. The risk of falsely
reading meanings in the ancient text that are not
there is of course as real as totally missing what
Parmenides had in mind, and instead exhaust
ourselves in the traditional reading of the poem
along Platonic lines of thought. This is an analogous
situation to type I and type II error in Statistics. As
with all written works of past eras, we may be
overly ambitious in hoping that we can interpret or
understand ancient writers, including Parmenides
accurately and completely (See Nikoletseas, M. M.,
2012, and 2013).
In defense of a thesis which claims that an
examination of the ancient text through the eyes of
modern science, we may recall that the human mind
has in the past proven that it is capable of
conceiving, as in giving birth, of insights in times
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

when natural science did hardly exist. Plato's

philosophy of forms (ideas) anticipated Galileo's
and Newton's formal representation of nature by
many centuries. It is of course the thesis of the
present book that this insight started with
Parmenides, which in fact was first conceived by
Heraclitus (Nikoletseas, M. M., 2015a; 2015b).

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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

18

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

THE POEM AS AN ESSAY ON METHOD

"I hold it to be true that pure thought is
competent to comprehend the real, as the
ancients dreamed"
(Einstein, A., 1934, p. 167).
According to Simplicius, Parmenides devotes fiftythree lines on what he calls the "One Being". Today,
154 lines have survived. An additional six lines
have survived in Latin. The poem may be divided
into three parts: A prologue (proem) describing the
journey (the personae, the action, as well as the
gear) to the domain of the goddess, and the
remaining two parts devoted to the words of the
goddess regarding the way that leads to truth
(), and the way of the mortals that leads to
opinion () only.
The poem is about nature, peri physeos. The part
devoted to cosmology is of little significance for
epistemology and science and it overshadowed by
the part of the poem which speaks of (eon). The
latter is translates as what-is rather than the
frequency proposed translation "Being". Gallop
considers what-is-not the cardinal principle
of Parmenides (Gallop, D., 1991, p. 23). In the
present book, I argue in support of a thesis
that views Parmenides as a philosopher who
proposed a method for doing natural science (cf.
Tejera, V, 1997, p. 29).
The important part devoted to the way to
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

(truth), an inquiry (), has, most likely,

survived in its entirety. However, it is possible that
Simplicius did not copy the entire part that related
to the way of the truth. Being a Neo-Platonist, he
could perhaps have considered unimportant an
allegorical account that would essay to put forth
details of a formal method and perhaps allusions to
its implementation on the empirical (cf. Tejera, V.,
1997, p. 29).
Here, I examine the text of the poem
by Parmenides for evidence supporting the thesis
that the poem is an essay on method. My
interpretation of the poem, I must admit, is heavily
influenced by my personal work and views in
natural science. Aristotle habitually interpreted the
works of others according to his own philosophy
(Tarn, L. 2001, p. 7). My intuition is that
Parmenides, as poets often do, was here attempting
to put in words his thoughts on the correct (true)
method that leads to a fair picture of the world.
Although peri physeos is a poem, it is in fact an
epistemological essay (cf. transcendent apriorism
by M. R. Burgess, 2011; also Kahn, C., 2007, p.
44).
Although we have only fragments on which to base
our argument, we have evidence that the method
was a rational one, and that concepts, reasoning and
support of his contentions were, in the absence of a
natural science, almost certainly drawn from
everyday experience as far as we can surmise from
the existing fragments. Support drawn from the
Platonic dialog Parmenides must be used with
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

extreme caution. Plato's dialogue misses the thesis

of Parmenides and may ultimately be seen as an
obstacle that has acted as a distorting prism, which
has, so far, prevented the Parmenidean thesis from
been comprehended.
It is doubtful that Parmenides' use of refers to
'Being' as traditionally conceived in ontological
writings. In ancient times, the first part of the poem
was given the title On Truth or On the Intelligible,
while the second part On Opinion or On the
Perceptible. (Parmenides, Davidson, T., 1869, p. 3).
Of interest in this connection is Kahn's statement:
"So construed, Parmenides' assertion of what-is will
posit whatever there must be in the world
corresponding to true speech and true cognition"
(Kahn, C. H. 2009, p.12). Kahn's 'whatever', I
propose, is 'method' as construed by natural
scientists.
Nothing I could write as a sequence to this
proposition of mine could support my insights better
than the Kahn's words:
"Still, the radical nature of his claims, in both
ontology and epistemology, and his acute sense of
the distance from the views of ordinary mortals,
strongly suggest that Parmenides had experienced a
revolutionary insight, which he has chosen to
present to us in this imaginative form. As far as I
know, we have no real parallel to this proem in the
literature of archaic Greece."(Kahn, C., 2007, p.
44).
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

Doubts that eon points to Being have been voiced.

For example, "Kahn, (1966, 1973) showed that
as a verb of occurrence, in which an abstract verbal
noun is the subject of , is developed from the
locative sense of , in which it is said that there
is something of a certain kind at some place. When
the infinitive is employed instead of the verbal
noun, the infinitive denotes an action not 'as fact but
as a goal or project to be carried out'." (Goldin, O.,
1993, p. 23). However, a detailed, direct account
relating eon to a formal system, a calculus, akin to
those used in modern Physics, has not been made to
date. The thesis of the present book is therefore
groundbreaking () as it is daring.

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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

TRANSLATION AND INTERPETATION OF

INDIVIDUAL FRAGMENTS
In this section I offer translation and comments of
the verses that relate to eon (fragments 1.22-8.49).
Fragment 1
, ' ,
, '
, '

[5] , ' .
'
-
-,
, ,
[10] ,
.
,

'
.
[15]
.
,

'

[20] '

' .

23

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

Comments
Fragment 1 describes the personae, the route, the
action as well as the gear of the journey to an
unnamed goddess (Themis according to Davidson,
T., 1869, p. 11) that will reveal to the poet the road,
i.e. the method of inquiry, that leads to the truth
about physis. The symbolism is obvious and has
been described by various investigators (e.g.
Davidson, T., 1869, p. 8ff.).
The poem opens with the image of the poet setting
out on a road ( ) on his journey to the domain
of a goddess who will reveal her wisdom to him, the
road () that leads to truth (
); occurs nine times throughout the
poem and it
always stands for a way of inquiry, a method as the
term is used in epistemological and natural science
discussions.
In the following pages I will comment on what is
relevant to the thesis of this book, i.e. that the main
point of the poem is that there is a method, a formal
system, that can describe physis as it is. In the
verses quotes below, Parmenides develops his
thoughts on eon.

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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

,
, '
' ,
[25] ,
',
' - '
-,
.

[30] , .
,
.
Translation
and the goddess received me with kindness and
prudence,
and took my right hand in hers, and addressed me
saying these words:
Young man, you who, accompanied by the immortal
charioteers,
[25] carried by horses to my domicile,
rejoice, since no ill fortune sends you
on this road, which no human can set foot on;
it is Themis and Dike that sent you. It is necessary
that you learn all,
both the stable heart of round (symmetrical) Truth,
[30] and the opinions of humans, opinions which
cannot have true credibility.
But you will come in and you will learn even of
these, how opinions
must, after scrutiny, be, for ever and for all things.

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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

Comments
First, we are told that the route the poet has taken is
not the route that mortals take.
' - '
We may infer therefore that the poet is in a domain
that can be reached by special means, e.g.
philosophical, scientific means. We surmise that this
is what the goddess alludes to because we are
immediately told that this route is the route in which
law reigns, . This is a reference to the
relentless laws of nature, and the consequence of
these laws that may be punishment (cf. ).
The route that the poet took leads to a domain
where there is order and lawful relations amongst its
elements, i.e. a formal system which is stable,
, related to truth (), with internal
consistency, (cf. , , Frag. 8).
My thesis that the poem of Parmenides is a poem on
method is further supported by the fact that Law
( .) has
control of the kingdom of the goddess that knows
the method that leads to a true picture of nature. The
road which the goddess claims that leads to a true
depiction of the world is a road governed by laws. I
propose the following translation for
: inviolable law.
An important characteristic of an optimal method
would be that which leads to a synthesis, gestalt,
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

and parsimony, ideally by the use of formal (e.g.

mathematical) means. I propose that
expresses this characteristic of such a method. In
fragment 5
,

Parmenides may be attempting to express the same
idea, i.e. a formal system that, like a circle,
possesses certain characteristics that allow for a
formal and parsimonious way of 'describing it'.
Additionally, a circle is an obvious symbol of
gestalt, of, literally, closure, in other words of
internal consistency and a logical, lawful and
necessary connection of one part to the other.
If we follow this method we will paint a picture of
the world that would be close to reality, and
therefore we can say that understanding arrived at
by following this method is having a picture of
reality.

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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

Fragment 2
' ' , ,

,
* - ** - ,
' ,
*** ***
***
- 6 .
---------* is usually translated as 'persuade' which does not fully render
the correct meanings of having someone accept my proposition by
peaceful means, i.e. by not using force or deceit. Perhaps another
term or periphrasis should be used, e.g. conceded to my proposal,
accepted my thesis, agreed with me at the end of a logical argument.
Examples:/
;
Sophocles, Philoctetes, S.Ph.102

. Il.9.112,
;
Plato, ,
Pl.Sph.248e.
:
. Aeschylus, Eu.724.
**, true, from and , without concealment.
, forgetfulness, oblivion; escape notice
*** 'faire comprendre, indiquer' par des
signes ou par la parole 'expliquer' ce que l'on pense, ce que l'on veut
dire [...] aprs Homre 'parler' pour se faire comprendre, 'dire,
annoncer'. : 'penser, rflchir, avoir un avis', mditer,
imaginer un dessein (Chantraine, P., Vol. 1, Paris, 1968)
Continued on next page.
Continued from previous page
****; , , learn by inquiry, ascertain,
hear tell of ; not inquired into, unknown, . .
Od.3.88
, , ,
, ' ' .
Od.3.184-3.185

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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

" [...] "

Translation
Come, I will relate to you and you carry my story
of which are the only roads of research that can be
conceived of and understood.
The one that exists and it is impossible that it does
not exist
because it is the road of Persuasion, because it is
related to aletheia (truth).
[5] The other road (method) does not exist and it is
necessary that it does not exist;
this road (method) I tell you is an utterly
inscrutable path
because you cannot come to know what does not
exist, it is not feasible
nor can you describe it in speaking.

Comments
In this fragment (2), we may get a good impression
of the point of view of Parmenides' thought, as well
as his style. We should remind ourselves that he was
writing poetry, as this was the form that
philosophers of his time used (cf. Simplicius:

, 9:36, 2831 Diels). In this
fragment of eight verses the verb to be, , occurs
ten times. We may read this as a deliberate act in
order to create an effect and an analogous
-------from previous page
", [...]
. (Eustathius, 1825, p. 114).
qui nihil audivit aut resciit de ea re.

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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

***** : ,
6, ready, easy, possible; , to finish to effect, fulfill.

impact on his audience (cf. Parmenides, Davidson,

T., 1869, p. 3). It is very likely that he was striving
for an effect through ambiguity, equivocation,
amphiboly (see also Furth, M., 1968) and other
techniques like the use of, ostensibly, tautology. It is
endemic amongst poets to resort to such presumably
witty tactics; a good example is surrealistic poetry.
The use of ambiguity may have its source in
unconscious processes. During the act of creation a
poet engages in a struggle to grasp and verbalize
objects and phenomena yet unseen.
In the absence of concepts in the language of a
given era, ambiguity is recruited in the arsenal of of
thinker's art. Homer, whom Parmenides consciously
imitates, uses this technique in the Iliad
(Nikoletseas, 2013). "Furth (1968) has argued that
within Parmenides' poem, has a 'fused sense,
according to which the verb simultaneously has
what we distinguish as its existential, predicative,
and veridical senses' " (Goldin, O. 1993).
I consider fragment 2 important, in fact the most
important of the entire extant poem. In the longer
description of fragment 8, it is evident that he used
epithets and concepts of his times in a poetical
fashion that do not provide any further insights with
regard to the proposed method. This fragment (2),
which contains the first statements regarding the
famous ontological question, does not refer to a
Being or domain that is, but to a method that is.
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

This removes a great deal of the mystique

and much of the alleged ambiguity that has been
attributed to the poem.
Considering the essence of Parmenides' poem, it is
certain that he could have spelled out his
philosophical thesis in a less obscure (but not
necessarily more complete and precise) manner by
using prose. Of course, we should not fail to see that
poetry is an excellent medium even today when one
is struggling with expressing insights and new
concepts for which there are no words already
available (cf. Parmenides, Davidson, T., 1869, p. 8;
also Simplicius:
, 9:36,
2831 Diels). In the absence of a natural and a
mathematical science, poetry may be the optimal
genre that can convey novel insights (see also
Nikoletseas, M. M., 2013).
The goddess states that there are two roads of
inquiry, one that leads to , truth, and the
other to opinion, i.e. it does not lead to a true picture
of physis.
,
- By the statement
the goddess does not present
Parmenides with axioms or tautologies, as it may at
first appear, but instead she alludes to a formal
system and, surprisingly, much more. Parmenides is
considered "the father of Western rationalism"
31

PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

(Mourelatos, A., 1970, p. xi). Logical problems

would arise were we to claim that Parmenides'
assertion that only one of the two roads of inquiry is
(the one that is and it cannot not be), only by simply
arguing that the other road that is not, it needs must
not be. In addition to the apparent axiomatic
character of the above assertions, we could
obviously argue that there is a third road that leads
to truth. However, scholars (e.g. Gallop, D., 1991,
p. 7) who read Parmenides in this manner fail
to see that Parmenides, as this book intends to show,
provides information relating to the method he uses
in arriving at these conclusions regarding the two
roads of inquiry. In short, as it will become clear in
the course of this book, the famous statements by
Parmenides are not given as axioms or purely
rational statements, instead they appear as valid
conclusions which refer to a formal system which is
to be used on the material physis in order to provide
an intelligible account of physis. Regrettably
Parmenides stays only briefly on the road that leads
to truth.
To follow further my proposition that there is no
axiom or tautology in

we should note that Parmenides in the very next line
proceeds to explain why the statement that the one
road (method) that exist indeed exists. (It is not
possible that it does not exist or it is necessarily so
i.e. that we cannot say it does not exist). It is the
method that exists, it can be formulated, phrased or
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

written down (), it employs logical

discourse, , and produces a 'description' of
nature that is lasting, i.e. it is , true. (I intend
'exist' here devoid of ontological or existential
philosophical halos).
is contrasted with
. The one method involves logical and
perhaps empirical modes () while the other
cannot be brought to completion, , a gestalt,
. In other words one is the method of
science that uses formal systems of thought and is at
the disposal of trained wise men, while the other is
the method of common man, using common
language*, lacking order and discipline and
consequently leading to circular conclusions and
contradictory results that in the long run escape the
attention of men, that is they are not true ().
There is an allusion to a connection between the
formal system and empiricism. Parmenides'
proposition that a method of inquiry is, is defended
by reference to an extension of the method to the
empirical domain, and this is what defines ,
in the primitive sense of the word. This detail has to
my knowledge escaped the attention of scholars.
The relation of formal systems to material physics
has not been given adequate attention in
Parmenidean scholarship. Theophrastus discusses
this issue and exempts Xenocrates and Hestiaeus
from a one sided philosophical activity
(Theophrastus 6 a 15, 6 q 23).
The magnitude of the difficulty of the mode by
which abstract, formal systems make contact with
material nature becomes evident in Theophrastus.
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

Surprisingly he dismisses Mathematics as

------------*Note here the difference between Parmenidean and Platonic method.
"In the case of the science that Plato's Socrates presents and develops,
expert knowledge is wholly dependent upon knowledge of fact which
is held, in Plato's doctrine, to belong to ordinary opinions...".
(Roecklein, R. J., 2010, p. 11).

inappropriate to serve as first principles, because, he

says, it has not independent existence and it does
not connect to physical objects (Theophrastus, 4 a
17). According to Theophrastus Parmenides dealt
with both the abstract and material aspects of
physis.
' ,

- . Frag. 2
Here the goddess tells Parmenides that the second
road or method by necessity does not exist. As a
method of inquiry it can be shown, not simply by
words, but also communicated in other ways,
, i.e. clandestine, not open to scrutiny,
; it is a method that leads nowhere, not a
proper direct road but an ill defined path, .
Consequently it cannot be understood,
, as it is not a method, , as it
cannot be brought to completion, , neither
can it communicated, demonstrated, .
The goddess does not mean here that you cannot
talk about it with words, instead she refers to a
manner of communication other than words of
natural language, perhaps something similar to
logical or mathematical symbols, ( frag. 8;
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

cf. , frag. 8). may be

rephrased as . The intention here is to
communicate the fact that a formal system that is
lacking the appropriate structure, e.g. and a
cognitive engine other than that of the primitive
natural language of humans, is not possible to be
constructed, , and therefore it cannot be
understood , e.g. as a geometrical
statement could; neither can it be communicated,
, although the absence of a logical
structure and other characteristics of this false
system can be demonstrated
.
Now the goddess turns to the second limb of her
promise, which is the road that does not exist, which
however, strangely, she has described as not a
proper road, perhaps Daedalean, . Let us
remember that Parmenides is talking allegorically.
The two roads are two methods of inquiry. If we
were to take his words literally, we should
necessarily conclude that he is contradicting
himself, as he is saying that this second road does
not exist and you cannot talk about it, and at the
same time he describes it as winding. Then he
immediately shift to , being,
- -
. Here he states that it is not possible to
know what-is-not, , because, he continues,
it is not feasible, it, as a method, a formal system,
cannot be brought to completion. Strangely, some
translators have the goddess end this statement by
saying neither can you talk about it, at the very
moment that he is 'talking' about it ( ).
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

is not interchangeable with . , as

stated before, has the meaning of point out,
communicate possibly in non-verbal ways, perhaps
akin to demonstrative definitions.
Parenthetically, we should not miss noting at this
point that is first introduced as ,
assuming that the extant fragments have been set in
the correct sequence. This I argue is one more
indication that Parmenides use of the verb to be is
devoid of ontological allusions that later
philosophers attributed to him.
Consistent with the thesis advanced in the present
book, Parmenides is talking about method, a formal
system with signs, , that would be capable of
'describing' physis in the way of . Guthrie
translated as 'marks', "certain attributes
which whatever is must possess" (Guthrie, W. K. C.,
1979, p. 16). What he has in mind when he speaks
about the second road is a method of inquiry, a
primitive formal system that mortals use (natural
language, loose logic, and absence of what we today
call a paradigm) which was and is known as leading
to contradictory representation of phenomena, and
fallacious statements. Parmenides is saying, this
formal system does not qualify as a method of
inquiry because it is unintelligible (
), and it cannot be completed in the sense of
constructing a formal system which can be said to
be a gestalt.
The criticism that the famous ontological statement
of Parmenides
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

is tautological and axiomatic may at first glance be
seen as legitimate. Similarly, views that the thesis of
the poem is based on logical grounds (taking this
verse to be intended as proof for the existence of
eon) cannot be defended. For example, Popper talks
of a logical proof:
"Parmenides based this theory of an unchanging
reality on something like a logical proof, a proof
which can be presented as proceeding from the
single premise, "What is not is not". From this can
derive that the nothing-that which is not-does not
exist..." (Popper, K. R. 2012, p. 18).
Failing to see that Parmenides' what-is and what-isnot refers to an epistemological question and only
secondarily, if indeed at all, to an ontological
question leads to an impasse which has been given
quixotically distorted philosophical solutions such
the one by Popper. On a false premise, "What is not
is not" a logical syllogism will arrive at the
conclusion that what is not does not exist. The
thesis of the present book makes such acrobatics
unnecessary, by simply reading the roads as formal
systems* and pointing in the direction of a possible
identity of method and what-is. If we view
Parmenides' statement from the perspective of the
present book, nebulous arguments and logical
proofs such as those of Popper, become redundant.
It must not escape us that Parmenides is speaking
about a road, a way, a mode of thinking,
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

, a method in
the service of natural science. Parmenides is saying
that there are two methods that can be used in an
---------*A formal system, sometimes called a logical calculus, or a
logical system, possesses a finite set of symbols, which may be
viewed as the alphabet. These symbols, unlike symbols of natural
languages, do not refer to anything in the physical world, else the
system would not be formal. Another key feature of formal systems is
a deductive apparatus. For a more detailed account read Thompson,
P., 1989, p. 27ff.

effort to understand nature, one that is correct and

leads to knowledge and the other that is not and
leads to opinion, . The line

may be taken to state an a priori, that there is and
there must necessarily be a mode of thinking that
leads to a true depiction of , and, if we accept
this statement, we logically, necessarily
(consequently ) cannot say that it does not exist.
However, we must reject this interpretation because
Parmenides proceeds to provide support ('proof') of
the existence of such a method by referring to
details of the modus operandi of this method. The
widespread interpretation that Parmenides defines
what-is against what-is-not cannot be supported.
. It is a road of Peitho,
persuasion, not meaning compulsion but on the
basis of evidence and discourse. Parmenides speaks
as an empiricist here when he supports his claim
that there is a method which, if followed, leads to
truth, .
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

His proposition possesses the characteristics of
permanence, , what we would today call
'statistical significance' (see Nikoletseas, M. M.,
2010; also 2013, for a more complete treatment of
this issue). complements .
Similarly, there is no tautology in
'
because Parmenides again immediately proceeds to
justify his assertion. He is saying the other method
(road) does not exist. it cannot be formulated,
written down, necessarily so . it is a
winding road, implying lack of a logical structure,
lack of parsimony, and problematic circular
definitions: , a road that
goes nowhere, that turns back on itself. A road,
method, like this does not exist (as is the case even
in our times, i.e. there is no method that can
describe the world in common, natural language).
Consequently, you cannot know this method
because there is none, and time (history) has shown
that there can be none.
. You cannot know it because it is not possible to
construct such a method in the language of humans,
, you cannot even communicate for
the purpose of understanding, . When
we refer to such a method, we refer to the mode of
thinking of humans, which is based on habit and
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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

lacks the discipline and structure of formal systems.

In the context of my thesis, when Parmenides
speaks of is or is not, and of the possibility of
knowing of or , he has no intention of
exploring ontological questions, neither Kantian
representational constraints on knowing physis. He
is simply stating that there is a method, it can be
created, a formal system that can lead to a reliable (I
use the term here in a statistical sense).
Reading more complex meanings in the poem such
as ontological beings, philosophical issues of
nonexistent objects (see Hume 2000, Book 1, Part 2,
Sect. 6; Kant 2003, B 627; Frege 1966, pp. 37f,
Meinong, A., 1960) cannot be justified; these are
distortions of the Parmenidean thesis that began
with the homonymous Platonic dialogue and
continued with the Neo-Platonists and theologians
to Descartes and more modern philosophical and
mathematical theories.

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PARMENIDES: THE WORLD AS MODUS COGITANDI

Fragment 3
... .
Translation
...because conceiving and understanding is the
same as what is
END OF PREVIEW

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