1st Edition

The World of Parmenides Essays on the Presocratic Enlightenment

Edited By Jørgen Mejer, Karl Popper, Arne Petersen Copyright 1999

    This unique collection of essays, published together for the first time, not only elucidates the complexity of ancient Greek thought, but also reveals Karl Popper's engagement with Presocratic philosophy and the enlightenment he experienced in his reading of Parmenides. As Karl Popper himself states himself in his introduction, he was inspired to write about Presocratic philosophy for two reasons - firstly to illustrate the thesis that all history is the history of problem situations and secondly, to show the greatness of the early Greek philosophers, who gave Europe its philosophy, its science and its humanism.

    Preface; Introduction; 1. Back to the Presocratics 2. The Unknown Xenophanes 3. How the Moon Might Shed Some of Her Light upon the Two Ways of Parmenides (I) 4. How the Moon Might Shed Some of Her Light upon the Two Ways of Parmenides (1989) 5. Can the Moon Throw Light on Parmenides' Ways? (1988) 6. The World of Parmenides: Notes on Parmenides' Poem and its Origin in Early Greek Cosmology 7. Beyond the Search for Invariants 8. Comments on the Prehistoric Discovery of the Self and on the Mind-Problem in Ancient Greek Philosophy 9. Plato and Geometry 10. Concluding Remarks.

    Biography

    Jørgen Mejer, Arne Petersen, Karl Popper

    'Karl Popper's essays pick out the complexity of Parmenides' thought.' - Oxon Book Review

    'A fascinating collection ... seminal.' - Network