Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Parmenides Pooh-poohed
Below is a short comment on an interesting recent article on Parmenides,
Parmenides—father of modern thought
Published by
Tom Nuttall
December 19, 2007 in Science and technology and Philosophy.
Read more Greek history, and less Greek philosophy, and I think you’ll have a very different understanding of the rise of the ancient importance of reason than the one given by this article however.
Internal to cities: wealth, intermarriage and force held far more importance than reason. But the ancient Greek historians recount again and again how critical reason and rhetoric were as a military force multiplier amongst diverse city states without permanent alliances. Conflicts in such multiplayer games were won by those who could persuade others to join temporary alliances of interest, faith, heritage, or anything else that seemed appealing.
Reason was a desperately important survival skill, and a competitive blood sport as well - emissaries from both camps would often be simultaneously appealing for help from prospective allies, and if memory serves: not infrequently, debating each other in front of them.
(I can't help sneakily thinking, though, that Parmenides could very well have been trying to discourage or satirize the use (or merely misuse) of reason in human life, with a poem that was simply hilarious to contemporary farmers - and farmers today for that matter.)
Parmenides—father of modern thought
Published by
Tom Nuttall
December 19, 2007 in Science and technology and Philosophy.
Read more Greek history, and less Greek philosophy, and I think you’ll have a very different understanding of the rise of the ancient importance of reason than the one given by this article however.
Internal to cities: wealth, intermarriage and force held far more importance than reason. But the ancient Greek historians recount again and again how critical reason and rhetoric were as a military force multiplier amongst diverse city states without permanent alliances. Conflicts in such multiplayer games were won by those who could persuade others to join temporary alliances of interest, faith, heritage, or anything else that seemed appealing.
Reason was a desperately important survival skill, and a competitive blood sport as well - emissaries from both camps would often be simultaneously appealing for help from prospective allies, and if memory serves: not infrequently, debating each other in front of them.
(I can't help sneakily thinking, though, that Parmenides could very well have been trying to discourage or satirize the use (or merely misuse) of reason in human life, with a poem that was simply hilarious to contemporary farmers - and farmers today for that matter.)
