Between Eleatics and Atomists: Gorgias’ Argument against Motion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_31_28Keywords:
Gorgias, Eleatism, Atomism, Motion, DivisibilityAbstract
The aim of my paper is to investigate Gorgias’ argument against motion, which is found in his Peri tou me ontos and preserved only in MXG 980a18. I tried to shed new light both on this specific reflection and on the reliability of Pseudo-Aristotle’s version. By exploring the so called “change argument” and the “argument from divisibility”, I focused on the particular strategy used by the Sophist in his synthetike apodeixis, which should be investigated in relation to the dispute between monistic and pluralistic ontology. In this regard, the puzzle from “divisibility everywhere” and its connection with the void as not-being can provide new elements to grasp the philosophical background in which the Sophist moves. On the one hand, Gorgias’ argument against motion is part of a broader dispute on the divisibility/indivisibility of being; on the other, his original elaboration of this puzzle seems to be perfectly understandable within the controversy between Eleatics and Atomists, and coherent with the argumentative style of the Sophist.Downloads
References
ALFIERI, V.E. (1936). (ed.), Gli Atomisti. Frammenti e Testimonianze Bari, Laterza.
APELT, O. (1888). (ed.), Aristotelis quae feruntur de Plantiis, de Mirabilibus auscultationibus, Mechanica, de Lineis insecabilibus, Ventorum situs et nomina, de Melisso Xenophane Gorgia Leipzig, B.G. Teubner
BANDINI, M., DORION, L.A. (2000). (ed. and transl.). Xénophon. Xénophon. Mémorables, I. Introduction générale. Livre I Paris, Les Belles Lettres.
BARNES, J. (1982). The Presocratic Philosophers London, Routledge.
BARNES, J. (2011). Zenone e l’infinito. In: ROSSETTI, L.; PULPITO, M. (eds.), Eleatica 2008: Zenone e l’infinito Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag, p. 37-118.
BOLLACK, J. (1969). Deux figures principales de l'atomisme après Aristote: l'entrecroisement des atomes et la sphère du feu. In: DÜRING, I. (ed.), Naturphilosophie bei Aristoteles und Theophrast Heidelberg, Stiehm, p. 32-50.
BREDLOW, L.A. (ed., transl., and comm.) (2016). Gorgias. Gorgias de Leontinos, De lo que no es o de la naturaleza. Los testimonios Barcelona, Anthropos.
BREMOND, M. (2015). Melissus’s So-Called Refutation of Mixture. Rhizomata 3, p. 143-58.
BREMOND, M. (2017). Lectures de Mélissos, Édition, traduction et interprétation des témoignages sur Mélissos de Samos Berlin-Boston, De Gruyter.
BREMOND, M. (2019a). Identity through time: Melissus’s demonstration that being is homoios Ancient Philosophy 39, p. 23-42
BREMOND, M. (2019b). Mélissos, Gorgias et Platon dans la première hypothèse du Parménide. Revue de philosophie ancienne 37, n. 1, p. 61-99.
BUCHHEIM, T. (ed.) (1989). Gorgias. Gorgias von Leontini, Reden, Fragmente und Testimonien, mit Übersetzung und Kommentar Hamburg, Meiner.
BURNET, J. (1914). Greek Philosophy from Thales to Plato London, MacMillan and Co.
CALOGERO, G. (1932). Studi sull’Eleatismo Firenze, La Nuova Italia.
CASSIN, B. (1980). Si Parménide. Le traité anonyme De Melisso Xenophane Gorgia Lille, Presses Universitaires de Lille.
CASSIN, B. (ed.) (1998). Parmenide. Sur la nature ou sur l’etant: la langue de l’etre? Paris, Edition du Seuil.
CERRI, G. (2018). I ragionamenti di Zenone contro la molteplicità. In: PULPITO, M.; RANZATO, S. (eds.). Dall'universo-blocco all’atomo nella scuola di Elea: Parmenide, Zenone, Leucippo Santk Augustin, Academia Verlag, p. 74-100.
CLASSEN, C.J. (1992). L’esposizione dei sofisti e della sofistica in Sesto Empirico. Elenchos 13, p. 57-79.
COOK WILSON, J. (1892a). Notice of Apelt’s Pseudo-Aristotelian Treatises. The Classical Review 6, n. 1/2, p. 16-19.
COOK WILSON, J. (1892b). Notice of Apelt’s Pseudo-Aristotelian Treatises. The Classical Review 6, n. 3, p. 100-7 .
COOK WILSON, J. (1892c). Notice of Apelt’s Pseudo-Aristotelian Treatises. The Classical Review 6, n. 4, p. 156-62.
COOK WILSON, J. (1892d). Notice of Apelt’s Pseudo-Aristotelian Treatises. The Classical Review 6, n. 5, p. 209-14.
COOK WILSON, J. (1892e). Notice of Apelt’s Pseudo-Aristotelian Treatises. The Classical Review 6, n. 10, p. 441-6.
COXON, A.H. (2009). Parmenides. The Fragments of Parmenides. A Critical text with Introduction and Translation, The Ancient Testimonia and a Commentary Revised and expanded edition. Las Vegas, Parmenides Publishing.
CURD, P. (1998). The Legacy of Parmenides Princeton, Princeton University Press.
CURD, P. (2006). Gorgias and the Eleatics. In: SASSI, M.M. (ed.). La costruzione del discorso filosofico nell’età dei Presocratici Pisa. Edizioni della Normale, p. 183-200.
DE LACY, P. (1972). Ou mallon and the Antecedents of Ancient Scepticism. In: ANTON, G.P.; KUSTAS, G.L. (eds.). Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy Vol. I. Albany, State University of New York Press, p. 593-606.
DE LEY, H. (1972). Aristotle, De Gen. et Corr A 8, 324b35-325b11: a Leucippean Fragment? Mnemosyne 25, n. 1, p. 56-62.
DI BENEDETTO, V. (1955). Il PERI TOU MH ONTOS di Gorgia e la polemica con Protagora. Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rendiconti della classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, ser. VIII, n.10, p. 287-307.
DIELS, H. (ed.) (1900). Aristotelis. Aristotelis qui fertur de Melisso Xenophane Gorgia libellus. Philosophische und historische Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin
DUPRÉEL, E. (1948). Les Sophistes. Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus, Hippias Neuchâtel, Editions du Grifon.
FOSS, H.E. (1828). Gorgias. De Gorgia Leontino commentatio. Interpositus est Aristotelis de Gorgia liber, emendatius editus Halle, Libraria Hemmerdeana.
FREEMAN, K. (1966). The Presocratic Philosophers . A Companion to Diels Fragmente der Vorsokratiker 2nd ed. Oxford, Blackwell.
FURLEY, D.J. (1967). Two Studies in the Greek Atomists. Princeton, Princeton University Press .
FURLEY, D.J. (1974). Zeno and Indivisible Magnitudes. In: MOURELATOS, A. (ed.). The Presocratics, A Collection of Critical Essays Garden City, Anchor Press, p. 353-67.
FURLEY, D.J. (1982). La replica degli atomisti all’eleatismo. In: LESZL, W. (ed.). I Presocratici Bologna, Il Mulino, p. 363-88.
GIGON, O. (1936). Gorgias Über das Nicht-sein Hermes 71, p. 186-213. (Also in: GIGON, O. (1972). Studien zur antiken Philosophie Berlin, de Gruyter, p. 69-97.).
GIOMBINI, S. (2018). Seguendo Sesto. L’argomentazione dimostrativa nel Peri tou me ontos di Gorgia. Peitho, Examina Antiqua 1, n. 9, p. 13-29.
GOMPERZ, H. (1914). Sophistik und Rhetorik Leipzig, B.G. Teubner
HETT, W.S. (1957). Aristotle. Aristotle, On the Soul. Parva Naturalia. On Breath Cambridge, MA, Loeb Classical Library.
HOURCADE, A. (2009). Atomisme et Sophistique. La tradition abdéritain Bruxelles, Ousia.
IOLI, R. (2007). Il silenzio di Platone e Aristotele sul Peri tou me ontos di Gorgia. Dianoia 12, p. 7-42
IOLI, R. (2009). Gorgia scettico? Una riflessione sulla presenza del sofista nelle opere di Sesto Empirico. Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 152, p. 331-57.
IOLI, R. (2010) Gorgia. Gorgia di Leontini. Su ciò che non è Hildesheim-Zürich-New York , Olms.
KIRK, G.S.; RAVEN, J.E.; SCHOFIELD, M. (1983). The Presocratic Philosophers . 2nd ed. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
LAKS, A.; MOST, G. (2016). Early Greek Philosophy Cambridge, MA, Loeb Classical Library.
LLOYD, G.E.R. (1966). Polarity and Analogy: Two Types of Argumentation in Early Greek Thought Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
LONG, A.A. (1984). Methods of Argument in Gorgias’ Palamedes In: BOUDOURIS, K. (ed.). The Sophistic Movement, First International Symposium on the Sophistic Movement, 27-29 Sept. 1982 Athens, Athenian Library of Philosophy, p. 233-41.
MAIER, H.; SANNA, G. (trans.) (1943). Socrate, la sua opera e il suo posto nella storia Firenze , La Nuova Italia.
MAKIN, S. (1982). Zeno on Plurality. Phronesis 27, p. 223-38
MALCOLM, J. (1991). On Avoiding the Void. Oxford Studies of Ancient Philosophy 9, p. 75-94.
MANSFIELD, J. (1985). Historical and Philosophical Aspects of Gorgias’ On what is not. Siculorum Gymnasium 38, p. 243-71 (Also in: MANSFIELD, J. (1990). Studies in the Historiography of Greek Philosophy, Assen-Maastricht, Van Gorcum, p. 97-125.)
MANSFELD, J. (1988). De Melisso Xenophane Gorgia Pyrrhonizing Aristotelianism. Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 131, p. 239-76 (MANSFIELD, J. (1990). Studies in the Historiography of Greek Philosophy, Assen-Maastricht, Van Gorcum, p. 200-37.)
MANSFELD, J. (1990). Aristotle, Plato, and the Preplatonic Doxography and Chronography. In: MANSFIELD, J. Studies in the Historiography of Greek Philosophy, Assen-Maastricht, Van Gorcum, p. 22-83.
MANSFELD, J. (2002). Aëtius,Aristotle and Others on Coming-To-Be and Passing-Away. In: CASTON, V.; GRAHAM, D.W. (eds.). Presocratic Philosophy. Essays in Honour of Alexander Mourelatos Aldershot, Ashgate, p. 273-92.
MANSFELD, J. (2016). Melissus between Miletus and Elea. In: PULPITO, M. (ed.). Eleatica 2012: Melissus between Miletus and Elea Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag , p. 71-112
MANSFELD, J.; RUNIDA, D.T. (2009). Aëtiana: The Method and Intellectual Context of a Doxographer, II: The Compendium, Part I, Macrostructure and Microcontext Leiden, Brill.
MAZZARA, G. (1982). Gorgia ontologo e metafisico Palermo, Ila Palma.
McKIRAHAN, R. (2010). Philosophy before Socrates 2nd ed. Indianapolis-Cambridge, Hackett Publishing Company.
MIGLIORI, M. (1973). La filosofia di Gorgia. Contributi per una riscoperta del sofista di Lentini, Milano, Celuc
MIGLIORI, M. (1999). Gorgia quale sofista di riferimento di Platone. Giornale di Metafisica, n.s. 21, p. 101-26
MONDOLFO, R. (1936). Problemi del pensiero antico Bologna, Bologna
MOURELATOS, A. (2008) The Route of Parmenides Revised and Expanded Edition, Parmenides Pub., Las Vegas
NESTLE, W. (1922). Die Schrift des Gorgias Über die Natur oder über das Nichtseiende Hermes 57, p. 551-62.
NEWIGER, H.-J. (1973). Untersuchungen zu Gorgias Schrift ‘Über das Nicht-seiende’ Berlin, de Gruyter.
OWEN, G.E.L. (1960). Eleatic Questions. Classical Quarterly, n.s. 10, p. 84-102
OWEN, G.E.L. (1975). Zeno and the Mathematicians. In: ALLEN, R.E.; FURLEY, D.J. (eds.). Studies in Presocratic Philosophy, vol. II. London, Routledge and Kegan, p. 143-65.
PALMER, J. (2003). On the alleged Incorporeality of What Is in Melissus. Ancient Philosophy 23, p. 1-10.
PALMER, J. (2009). Parmenides and Presocratic Philosophy Oxford-New York, Oxford University Press.
PALMER, J. (2016). The early tradition on Melissus and Parmenides. In: PULPITO, M. (ed.). Eleatica 2012: Melissus between Miletus and Elea Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag , p. 150-6.
PULPITO, M. (2018). Contro il moto. Nota su un’ipotesi di Cerri circa le aporie di Zenone. In: PULPITO, M.; RANZATO, S. (eds.), Dall’universo-blocco all’atomo nella scuola di Elea: Parmenide, Zenone, Leucippo Samkt Augsutin, Academia Verlag, p. 189-99
RASHED, M. (2005). Aristote. Aristote. De la Génération et la corruption Paris, Les Belles Lettres .
ROSSETTI, L. (2017a) La filosofia virtuale di Parmenide, Melisso e Zenone. Uno sguardo alle prossime lezioni eleatiche. Archai 21, p. 297-333.
ROSSETTI, L. (2017b). Trilemmi: Il PTMO di Gorgia tra Zenone e Melisso. Peitho, Examina Antiqua 1, n.8, p. 155-72.
SATTLER, B. (2019). The Notion of Continuity in Parmenides. Philosophical Inquiry, 43, n.1-2, p. 40-53
SCHMALZRIEDT, E. (1970). Zur Früh-geschichte der Buchtitel München, Fink.SCHOFIELD, M. (1970). Did Parmenides discover eternity? Archiv fur Begriffsgeschichte der Philosophie 52, p. 113-35.
SEDLEY, D.N. (1982). Two Conceptions of Vacuum. Phronesis 27, p. 175-93.
SEDLEY, D.N. (2008). Atomism’s Eleatic Roots. In: CURD, P.; GRAHAM, D. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy Oxford, Oxford University Press, p. 305-32.
SEDLEY, D.N. (2017). Zenonian Strategies. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 53, p. 1-32.
SICKING, C.M.J. (1976). Gorgias und die Philosophen. In: CLASSEN, C.J. Sophistik Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, p. 384407.
SPATHARAS, D.G. (2001). Patterns of argumentation in Gorgias. Mnemosyne 54, p. 393-408.
TARÁN, L. (1965). Parmenides. Parmenides, A text with translation, commentary, and critical essays Princeton, Princeton University Press .
UNTERSTEINER, M. (1961) (ed., transl., and comm.). Sofisti. Testimonianze e frammenti, vol. II: Gorgia, Licofrone e Prodico 2nd ed.. Firenze , La Nuova Italia.
UNTERSTEINER, M. (1996). I Sofisti 2nd ed. Milano, Bruno Mondadori.
WARREN, J. (2007). Presocratics London-New York, Routledge.
WESOLY, M. (1985). Le tecniche argomentative di Gorgia intorno alla tesi che nulla existe. Siculorum Gymnasium 38, p. 311-41.
ZELLINI, P. (2016). La matematica degli dei e gli algoritmi degli uomini Milano, Adelphi.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Roberta Ioli
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Given the public access policy of the journal, the use of the published texts is free, with the obligation of recognizing the original authorship and the first publication in this journal. The authors of the published contributions are entirely and exclusively responsible for their contents.
1. The authors authorize the publication of the article in this journal.
2. The authors guarantee that the contribution is original, and take full responsibility for its content in case of impugnation by third parties.
3. The authors guarantee that the contribution is not under evaluation in another journal.
4. The authors keep the copyright and convey to the journal the right of first publication, the work being licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License-BY.
5. The authors are allowed and stimulated to publicize and distribute their work on-line after the publication in the journal.
6. The authors of the approved works authorize the journal to distribute their content, after publication, for reproduction in content indexes, virtual libraries and similars.
7. The editors reserve the right to make adjustments to the text and to adequate the article to the editorial rules of the journal.
