1 - The Problem of the Parmenides

Summary

Prior Schools of Interpretation

To speak of Plato's Parmenides as a work of political philosophy seems at best counterintuitive, at worst a distortion of the text. At once revered as “the most sublime dialectic there's ever been” and yet dismissed as a mere joke, this elusive little book still isn't so elusive as to be thought predominantly political. Such a claim seems on its face ridiculous, he who advances it guilty of wasting words on a fool's errand. Evidence in favor of this accusation lies in the scholarly treatment of the dialogue and the schools of interpretation generally. Those readers who emphasize the dramatic and political character of Plato's dialogues and Socratic philosophy usually shy away from the Parmenides, which consequently remains almost entirely under the sway of the Anglo-American tradition and what we might call its ontological and epistemological focus. Is the present study's novelty thus an attempt to maintain the integrity of the dramatic and political interpretation of Socratic-Platonic philosophy—to bring the Parmenides firmly into its fold, by hook or by crook? Far from it. Rather, the goal of the present study is to articulate the challenge the Parmenides poses to both schools of readers. The wondrous power of the Parmenides lies in its ability to undermine our general tendencies to dismiss metaphysics as too highfalutin for the real work of politics and to brush away politics as too dirty a business for the majesty of metaphysics.

Articulating the Parmenides’ challenge means giving an account of the centrality of political philosophy to philosophy generally, so as to arrive at the original meaning of political philosophy. Of course, only upon the conclusion of the present study may an adequate statement of this meaning be ventured. Nevertheless, a preliminary understanding of political philosophy is necessary to guide our thinking going forward, and is available to us through a brief meditation on the relationship of the Parmenides to the Republic, the dialogue on the nature of justice, the central topic of political philosophy.