Parmenides has never ceased to inspire interpretations, but it is not usual that these new perspectives shake the foundations of our knowledge in the area. However, this book is a rara avis. On the one hand, it is born in a curious place, the very Elea, nowadays Ascea, in the Italian province of Salerno, where Parmenides lived and wrote his famous poem. For more than fifteen years, the Eleatica conferences were held there, and many scholars, such as N.-L. Cordero, L. Gemelli, J. Barnes, A. Mourelatos, J. Mansfeld and A. Bernabé, among others, have offered their lectures. The tenth meeting was dedicated to a particular community member: Livio Rossetti, the founder of this project. This is not a minor point, given that he was also an initiator of the International Plato Society and promoted the Socratica conferences that gave rise to the International Society for Socratic Studies. These achievements indicate the extent and significance of his contributions to ancient philosophy and its contemporary echoes.
This volume is also unusual because of its explicit aim. It seeks to offer an intelligible version of Eleatic philosophy beyond traditional interpretations based on a structure that reflects dialogue in line with the spirit of the meeting. The editors offer a comprehensive introduction to guide those entering this book as a place where people who have met before were talking. It whispers who is who and prepares readers to enter the text with enough information to comprehend and assess the complete scene. This initial text has another relevant aspect because it offers a synthesis of Rossetti's thought. Given his importance within contemporary historiography, it is a significant testimony to understand this practice at the transition between the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries.
The central part of the text consists of Rossetti's lectures, centred on Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus. Their original title was ‘La filosofia virtuale degli Eleati’ (‘The virtual philosophy of the Eleatics’), calling attention to Rossetti's particular approach. The notion of ‘virtual philosophy’ establishes a difference between Presocratic thought, which lacked the notion of ‘philosophy’, and the later practice with disciplinary self-consciousness that he associates with Plato. In this framework, the approach provides tools to assess distinct phenomena, such as the difference between cognition and meta-cognition, epistemic quotient and systemic potential, which illuminate relevant philosophical aspects.
We cannot summarise the richness of these developments, but it is worth highlighting some striking and controversial aspects. In contrast to the profile of a philosopher of being, Rossetti's Parmenides is a multifaceted thinker, with many argumentative abilities that should not be severed or blurred to underline only one, in line with the views presented in Rossetti's volume Un altro Parmenide (2017). Parmenides, the scientist, is the protagonist of this view. He explored the earth theoretically, inferred its spherical form, its climate regions and the location of the Mediterranean, together with original insights on astronomical, biological and gender issues. A comprehensive analysis of the extant testimonies and fragments underlines the feature of diversity: Parmenides is diverse because he is variegated and rich, and he is diverse because his thought cannot be identified with the doctrine of being.
The following lecture assesses Zeno's thought, confronting previous studies on this topic. Rossetti emphasises the significance of paradoxical literature, presents penetrating analyses of Zeno's testimonies and offers strong reasons to avoid logicist interpretations, which seem to be quick to solve difficulties, but do not pay due attention to Zeno's aims. From this perspective we could try to grasp his ‘mental world’, thus comprehending that the very building of these paradoxes is more important than their solutions. Zeno appears to be interested in mental exercises in order to broaden the horizon of what is thinkable. This central feature is not visible enough, underlines Rossetti, if we only look at Zeno as Parmenides’ advocate. Under this new light, Zeno reveals himself as an entirely innovative figure.
The third lecture deals with Melissus, who appears as Parmenides’ counter figure and acquires a crucial function in this study. Far from the profile of a mere epigone, this interpretation attaches to him the responsibility of the outline that impacts and shapes the intellectual horizon of the classical period. Gorgias’ and Plato's Parmenides is, in fact, that of Melissus. As a result of these explorations, Parmenides’, Zeno's and Melissus’ contributions and their transmission in antiquity appear in a new light, different from the scheme that has dominated the scene.
The reader's reaction to these views is well reflected in the second part of the volume, where ten well-known scholars confront and discuss Rossetti's interpretation. These scholars come from different origins, backgrounds and traditions, which offers a helpful instance of joint research about the origins of Western thought. In the case of Parmenides, all of them include more or less directly the attempt to defend the place of ontology. Even conferring relevance to physical developments, the hierarchy between the first and the second parts of the poem remains controversial. In some interventions this is the main point. For instance, W. Fratticci understands physical issues as a concrete manifestation of the doctrine of being, and N.-L. Cordero recalls the long discussion with Rossetti regarding the notion of opinion and its extent to insist on the connection with being.
In other contributions the central point is explicitly oriented to the physical developments. On the one hand, J. Mansfeld analyses Rossetti's category of epistemic quotient and calls attention to the status of human perspectives that allow thinking of a ‘doxastic quotient’, stressing the contrast with the doctrine of being. On the other hand, A. Mourelatos draws a line between astronomical and biological theories, taking into account their level of development. The same spirit and incisiveness are also present in the presentations on Zeno and Melissus. R. Cherubin takes Rossetti's view as a starting point to list other issues that could be addressed by future research in a suggestive prognosis of future historiography. N. Galgano raises some doubts about the notion of virtual philosophy, appealing to traditional parameters that do not hesitate to consider the Presocratics as philosophers, even if the notion is not fully developed.
V. Fano, focusing on Zeno, makes a case for the mathematical side of the paradoxes and the value of the analyses that look for solutions. M. Brémond deals with Melissus and his role in transmitting the Eleatic ideas. She agrees with Rossetti about the relevance of Melissus, but calls attention to the importance of Zeno and Gorgias in this process. Given the significance of Eleatism in classical philosophy, surely the growing attention to this issue will be among the main outcomes of this change of framework related to ancient philosophies.
Rossetti draws on these interventions to clarify aspects of his approach, especially through his criticism of the subordination of the physical theories to the doctrine of being, emphasising the lack of textual support and the traditional confidence based on weak assumptions. With argumentative ability, Rossetti demonstrates the plausibility of his approach and promotes research on new issues. The result is a lively exchange that brings out the best in all the perspectives and fosters new studies on the reception of Eleatic ideas. If the framing of this original scene is changed, what awaits us in the years to come is a reassessment of many assumptions about Greek thought, which will indeed disclose new general pictures.
This detailed version, an editio maior, has its editio minor, oriented to the presentation of the main ideas and novelties in the volume Parmenide e Zenone, sophoi ad Elea (2020), together with the previous Spanish version (Buenos Aires, Teseo Press, 2019). It is worth noting that the paradigm shift is ongoing, indicating the vitality and dynamism within classical studies, and within this framework we can witness the enhancement of many aspects related to Eleatism. This volume is proof of this turn and invites us to extend the dialogue, adding our own commentaries and opinions on these striking figures of the Western past.
