Integrated dialectic in Plato’s Parmenides: a comparative analysis of Proclus’ and Ficino’s Commentaries on Parmenides
Published:
Nov 29, 2024
Keywords:
Proclus Ficino Plato’s Parmenides Proclus’ Commentary on Plato’s Parmenides Ficino’s Commentary on Plato Parmenides Pachymeres’s Commentary on Plato Parmenides Platonic dialectic
Abstract
Plato’s Parmenides was considered as the main ontological work of the ancient philosophy and used for this reason as the summit of the philosophical curriculum of the New Platonic Academy established by the Neoplatonists after Iamblichus. Proclus’ Commentary, based on Syrianus, serves as a key reference text for understanding of the sophisticated concepts of the dialogue. After the not fully survived commentaries of Proclus and Damascius, a great enterprise was undertaken by Georgios Pachymeres in Late Byzantium for a complete commentary and later in Renaissance by Marsilio Ficino, the founder of the revived Platonic Academy in Florence. In this article the focus is given in those passages of Parmenides where Ficino has given comments differentiated from the respective comments of Proclus. Lastly, some remarks are presented concerning the structure of dialectical schema of Parmenides, which can be considered as a great standard for an in-depth analysis of the various levels of being in ontological theories.
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