Mortal and Divine in Early Greek Epistemology
A Study of Hesiod, Xenophanes and Parmenides

This book rethinks the relations between reasoning and revelation and, therefore, the nature of philosophy and religion in archaic Greece.

Shaul Tor (Author)

9781009069847, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 July 2021

420 pages
21.6 x 13.9 x 2.3 cm, 0.548 kg

This book demonstrates that we need not choose between seeing so-called Presocratic thinkers as rational philosophers or as religious sages. In particular, it rethinks fundamentally the emergence of systematic epistemology and reflection on speculative inquiry in Hesiod, Xenophanes and Parmenides. Shaul Tor argues that different forms of reasoning, and different models of divine disclosure, play equally integral, harmonious and mutually illuminating roles in early Greek epistemology. Throughout, the book relates these thinkers to their religious, literary and historical surroundings. It is thus also, and inseparably, a study of poetic inspiration, divination, mystery initiation, metempsychosis and other early Greek attitudes to the relations and interactions between mortal and divine. The engagements of early philosophers with such religious attitudes present us with complex combinations of criticisms and creative appropriations. Indeed, the early milestones of philosophical epistemology studied here themselves reflect an essentially theological enterprise and, as such, one aspect of Greek religion.

Introduction
1. Rationality and irrationality, philosophy and religion
2. Hesiodic epistemology
3. Xenophanes on divine disclosure and mortal inquiry
Introduction to the chapters on Parmenides
4. Why did Parmenides write Doxa?
5. How could Parmenides have written Alêtheia?
6. Retrospect and prospect
Appendix: The trajectory of the kouros' journey and eschatological topography in Parmenides: some inconclusive remarks.

Subject Areas: Ancient religions & mythologies [HRKP], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], European history [HBJD]