On the Change of Immutable Being: Evaluating Interpretations of Parmenides

Abstract

In this thesis, I look into the relation between the logical part and the cosmological part of Parmenides' poem. Their relation is problematic because halfway the poem, the Goddess who narrates it declared that the part about truth is now over and that the second part will now be told in a deceptive manner. Many scholars have interpreted this deceptiveness differently, and the Stanford Encyclopedia classifies five types of interpretations. In this thesis, I critically discuss one exemplar from each group. Afterwards, the merits and complications of each interpretation will be made explicit in a diagram. At the end of the thesis, I conclude that scholars should place more emphasis on the cosmological part.