Anaxagoras’ Encounter with Parmenides: A Critical Analysis of the Theory of Continuity and Expansion
Subject Areas : یافتههای جدید در سیر فلسفه باستان غرب (یونانی و یونانیمآبی)
Ghasem Pourhasan
1
,
Zahra Hajishakaram
2
,
Pedram Pourhasan
3
1 - Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
2 - PhD in Sociology, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
3 - PhD Candidate of Philosophy of Art, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran
Keywords: narrative, nature of reality, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, agreement and disagreement,
Abstract :
The important question regarding the encounter involves the triadic of interpretation, expansion, and opposition of an idea. Should Anaxagoras’ philosophical system be considered in opposition to Parmenides’ philosophy or as a continuation, explanation, and interpretation of it? Interpretations and short writings indicate neither mere opposition nor continuity and expansion; rather, they primarily point to an interpretive approach and even an independent approach. The prevailing view is that Anaxagoras based his theory on the background of Greek philosophy and earlier philosophers, and it is particularly thought that he sought to provide an answer to Parmenides’ account of the nature of reality. Parmenides is the first Greek philosopher to argue that anything that fundamentally exists can neither come into being nor perish. Anaxagoras’ approach, concepts, and interpretations show that he incorporated this idea into his system. Nevertheless, it can be said that Anaxagoras’ philosophy was formed in relation to Parmenides’ philosophy, although it is not merely a continuation or expansion of it. This paper attempts to examine and evaluate the various views of researchers regarding Anaxagoras’ intellectual relationship with Parmenides in order to clarify that, contrary to the common belief, Anaxagoras was not merely a continuation of Parmenides’ thought and diverged from him in certain areas, even adopting an independent approach regarding three topics: affirmative cosmology, numerical monism, and teleology. Historical sources and interpretive evidence suggest that Anaxagoras largely adopted a different and opposing approach in his encounter with Parmenides.
ابن ابیاصیبعه، احمدبن قاسم (1965م) عیون الانباء فی طبقات الاطباء، ج2، تحقیق الدکتور نزار رضا، بیروت: مکتبة الحیاة.
ارسطو (1389) متافیزیک، ترجمة شرفالدین خراسانی، تهران: حکمت.
پورحسن، قاسم (1400) ابن¬سینا و خرد ایرانی، تهران: صراط.
پورحسن، قاسم (1403) خوانشی نو از فلسفه فارابی، تهران: نقد فرهنگ.
دوشن گیمن، ژاک (1385) اورمزد و اهریمن: ماجرای دوگانه باوری در عهد باستان، ترجمة عباس باقری، تهران: فرزان روز.
Bagnall, R. S. and et.all (eds.). (2013). The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Blackwell.
Carter, J. W. (2017). How Aristotle changes Anaxagoras’s mind. Aperion, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 1-28.
Chroust, A. H. (1980). Zoroastrian teachings influence on Plato, Aristotle, and Greek philosophy in general. New Scholasticism, No. 54, pp. 342-357.
Curd, P. (1988). The Legacy of Parmenides: Eleatic Monism and Later Presocratic Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Curd, P. (2007). Anaxagoras of Clazomenea: Fragments and Testimonia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Curd, P. (2011). A Presocratics reader: selected fragments and testimonia. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Driscoll, J. (1992). The Anaxagorean assumption in Aristotle’s account of Mind. In Essay in Greek philosophy: Aristotle’s ontology, ed. by A. Preus and J. Anton, New York: State University of New York Press, pp. 273-292.
Furth, M. (1974). Elements of Eleatic Ontology. In A. P. D. Mourelatos (ed.). The Presocratics: A Collection of Critical Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 241-270.
Gallop, D. (1991). Parmenides of Elea: Fragments; A text and translation with an introduction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Graham, D. (1999). Empedocles and Anaxagoras: Responses to Parmenides. In A. A. Long (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 159-180.
Guthrie, W. K. C. (1965). The Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus: A History of Greek Philosophy. vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Laertius, D. (1925). Socrates with Predecessores and followers: Anaxagoras. Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. 1:2. trans. by Robert D. Hicks, Loeb Classical Library.
Marmodoro, A. (2017). Everything in Everything: Anaxagoras’s Metaphysic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mourelatos, A. P. D. (1987). Quality, Structure, and Emergence in Later Pre-Socratic Philosophy. in J. Cleary (ed.). Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, 2, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, pp. 127-194.
Roisman, H. M. (ed.). (2014). The Encyclopedia of Greek Tragedy, John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Schofield, M. (1980). An Essay on Anaxagoras. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sedley, D. (1999). Parmenides and Melissus. In A. A. Long (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 113-133.
Shields, C. (2016). Aristotle: De Anima. trans. with an introduction and commentary, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Sisko, J. E. (2003). Anaxagoras, Parmenidean Cosmology: Worlds within Worlds within the One. Apeiron, vol. 36, pp. 100-101.
Sisko, J. E. (2010). Anaxagoras betwixt Parmenides and Plato. Philosophy Compass, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 432-442.
Taran, L. (1975). Academic: Plato, Philip of Opus and Pseude-Platonic Epinomis. Philadelphia Publishers.
