THESIS
THESIS
Ph.D THESIS: PARMENIDES
Another factor preparing me well to write a book on Rousseau is my Ph.D in Philosophy that included a 322 page dissertation. This dissertation was supervised by Professor Josiah B. Gould Jr. An abstract of this dissertation reads as follows:
This dissertation is an analysis of Plato's Parmenides based on a new translation of its text. It brings together the features of two earlier interpretations. Just as in the Diès edition, the Greek text and its translation I reproduced side-by-side. Furthermore, just as in Cornford's interpretation, the text is divided into sections each one immediately followed with its commentary. The dialogue is divided into three parts: I. Difficulties in the theory of Forms (126a-135b), II. Concise statement of the method to solve these difficulties (135c-137c), III. Demonstration of the method to solve these difficulties (137C-166c). The dramatic and the philosophical introductions are treated as part of the first part.
In the first part, Zeno's reading of his treatise is seen as setting the stage for Socrates's specific context of the presentation of his theory of Forms. Socrates explanation is followed by Parmenides criticism of the theory of Forms. Parmenides; however, recognizes that the existence of the Forms is needed if anyone is going to get to the truth. Parmenides suggests that Socrates's mistake was to engage in definitions of the Forms without proper training.
The second part of the dialogue is interpreted as the presentation of a method to solve these difficulties. Parmenides proposes a training base on a succession of deductions. This program is seen as Plato's approach to dealing with the various entities making up his ontology.
The third part of the dialogue is interpreted as giving an illustration of this method. Parmenides had stated that we could use any Form for our dialectical exercise; however, when we proceed with the exercise we are not dealing with any single conception of a Form but with various notions of this Form which has arisen in our minds according to the state of the procedure. The conclusion to this dialogue is seen as ostensible. It forces the students to go back to the first part, and with his new gain insight in the theory of Forms, to evaluate Parmenides's criticism.
In each part the interpretations of various commentators (Allen, Cornford, Grote, Miller, Robinson, Ryle, and Zeller) are presented and criticized.
LANGUAGES
To meet the language requirement for the Ph.D, I learned how to read Classical Greek and German. English should have been my third language but the rule states that it had to be French, the only language I spoke until I was 24. I also took at least one year of Spanish and one year of Latin. Knowledge of more than one language provides a writer with a different cultural perspective on his subject. Teaching French for more than 20 years provides me with a good understanding of our public school system. Education is an important element of Rousseau's political philosophy.
