Part Two of this course will read Parmenides and the thinkers who followed him down to Socrates. Parmenides marks a watershed in the history of thought for bring attention to the deepest questions of being and intelligibility, questions which have had a decisive influence on classical and modern philosophy. Parmenides chose to express his thought in a famously enigmatic poem and we will continue our introduction to the ancient Greek language by reading some of his key verses in the original. We will read Philolaus, the only Pythagorean author of whom we have extensive fragments. We will then discuss the philosopher-statesman Empedocles, who appears to have anticipated the modern understanding of science as the source of power over nature, and we will conclude with a reading of some passages from Aristophanes, Xenophon and Plato that illustrate the pivotal turn in philosophy brought about by Socrates.

This course is provided in collaboration with the Platonic Academy of Melbourne: https://platonicacademy.com.au/