Plato | Parmenides - Full audiobook with accompanying text (AudioEbook) 

I am writing a novel about Ancient Greece, set just after the death of Plato. Since one of the characters is a Platonist, I was reading the Parmenides, which is reputed to be nearly unreadable, even in the original Greek. I got pretty excited when I read the Second Antinomy (142 to 157a). I suddenly realised that I understood what Plato was saying. I immediately wrote a scene in my novel in which the character explains what I understood to Philip of Macedon. Since then I have found academic articles that, to my chagrin, seem to show that I was not alone in my insight. The same basic idea has been spotted before. Nevertheless I still get excited when I read the Parmenides, because I do think that the vast majority of academics do not understand how important the Antinomies of the Parmenides are, or how they relate to what little we know of the Unwritten Doctrines. The best book on the Unwritten Doctrines in English is Kramer's Plato And The Origin Of Metaphysics, sadly badly written and even more badly translated into English. In this book, early testimonies from ancient authors are gathered together to reconstruct pitiful remnants of Plato's Unwritten Doctrines. One of these Doctrines is that the One is the source of all the Forms, which it creates by the admixture of two principles, the Great and the Small. I think that if you read the Second Antinomy of the Parmenides, and combine it with clues as to the Unwritten Doctrines, you get a sense of the true meaning of the book. It only seems confusing until you realise that Plato's point is that, if you posit an ABSOLUTE unity in the form of the One, then it must ipso facto be subject to multiple contradictory features (absolute oneness and absolute multiplicity, absolute existence and absolute nonexistence etc etc). This is not a weakness; it is the whole point of the One. I think Plato, thinking about the absolute One posited by the real philosopher Parmenides, saw the contradictions inherent in trying to comprehend the One as being, rather than a problem, instead the very source of its power. At the end of the Second Antinomy (156-157a) Parmenides says casually that the One, since it possesses stillness and movement, oneness and multiplicity, and bigness and smallness, must participate in the Instant (in Greek, the Exaiphnes). Since no object can, in the real world, move and not-move at the same time, the transformation of an object from a state of stillness to a state of motion (say, kicking a football) must occur outside ordinary reality; and in fact such transformation is actually proof of the interaction of the Instant with the real world. The Second Antinomy ends with Parmenides casually saying something like: "And this is why the One can be both moving and stationary, single and multiple, big and small. It does so by participating in the Instant". I believe Plato deliberately cuts off the Antinomy at this point to preserve the Unwritten Doctrine; because the next thing Parmenides SHOULD be saying is: "And the One can exist ONLY at the Instant; and the occurance of apparent change in real-world objects is actually the One at work, handling the creation, transformation and destruction of all things in the universe. None of this would occur if it were not for the One residing solely at the Instant. The One is responsible for all Forms; and it creates, transforms and destroys all things, in accordance with its natural virtue, using as its tools the Big and the Small." I think that is the intended meaning of the second half of the Parmenides, and an explanation for why it is so confusing. If you are aware of ancient testimonies of the Unwritten Doctrines, then you can see how the Antinomies are intended to demonstrate how the One exists and operates, without giving too much away to the layperson.

Man that's crazy.

This never ceases being new and interesting. Thanks for your reading, friend

Oh my God I just found the origin of being qua being in the metaphysics of Martin Heidegger. Unlike other dialogues I have read so far, I would say without mincing words that this is pure metaphysics. Thank you so so much brother.

I'm eighteen minutes in and I am astonished that plato wrote this

Parmenides is metaphysical dialogue. Plato is a Pythagorean( those tendencies show themselves in Timaeus). A prose piece can be found in Aristotle's Metaphysics which the essence of all the Platonic dialogues is contained.

Reconciling the absolute and relative perspective, one may come to the conclusion of a conscious universe. Universal Law of mentalism.

Very similar to the Tao, Plato' s One is.

Thank you for posting this.

Thank you very much for posting. This is the hardest and most challenging dialogue to understand. Need all the help from God. Paideia Society

"But perhaps Miss Judith Butler would be most likely to engage us, from a few thousands years away, one of the best and brightest, the very excellent. Gender, you say, it has finally come to that. Sounds very complicated, please lead us, Old, ahead." :P

Thank you for posting this

Excellent reading.! I tried it once . Much more difficult than it appears ie. throat goes dry / speak too slow / too fast / voice goes up an octave / breathing too heavily ......etc It was a nightmare..!

29:48 If the one is 25:49 training

Thank you, this is great!🙏🏻

I wish you can add Malay or Indonesian subtitle.. I'm sure the views will be skyrocket :)

Thank you 🙏🏾

Great reading, great voice, I particularly like your accent,

35:23 this is insane, stumbling across this would confuse any random person. unless you knew what you were looking at of course

Gosh... I'll be back after graduate school.

Thank u 🕊️

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The craziest part is that someone thought this from beginning to the end, and that Plato never wrote his dialogues but this were notes of his students.

Legend

Lee you have a great reading voice, thank you for this. I wonder if you've heard of a book called After Virtue? A very difficult to read but I think you would do it justice.

Do you know a teacher, a leading Platonic philosopher name Pierre Grimes Ph.D, taught Golden West College over the last 50 years. Paideia

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Putain, les mafieux ils ont trouvé une bête d'au moins 2 tonnes, on dirait Eva Longoria dans la jungle afghane !

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