Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2014
This paper is devoted to the Parmenides’ methodological preamble, in which Parmenides teaches how one is to lead a dialectical inquiry. The method presented there recalls the goddess’s advice, as presented by the historical Parmenides in his Poem, to think “the way of being and the way of non-being.” In Plato’s Parmenides, these two ways are seen as manners of examining a hypothesis. I explain that the method is exhaustive insofar as it requires repeatedly asking what the consequences are if a thing does exist, or does not. Lastly, I suggest that the method should be distinguished from other dialectical practices found in Plato’s work.
Cette étude se consacre à l’exergue méthodologique du Parménide où Parménide explique comment fonctionne l’enquête dialectique. Cette méthode reprend les indications que le Parménide historique prêtait à la déesse, une méthode d’enquête qui se déploie en «pensant la voie de l’être et la voie du non-être». Dans le Parménide, ces voies de la recherche sont présentées comme la manière d’examiner une hypothèse. Cette démarche prend des aspects d’exhaustivité : il faut se demander, en alternance et un grand nombre de fois, ce qu’il en découle si la chose en question existe ou si elle n’existe pas. Elle peut enfin se distinguer des autres pratiques de la dialectique chez Platon.
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