Parmenides

[KJKARTTU]

Dear Colleagues,

a few additional references and comments on Parmenides and ZaGkara:
Before Deussen the possibility of Indian connections of Parmenides were
discussed by

Aug. Gladisch, Einleitung in das Verständniss der Weltgeschichte. II(?).
Die Eleaten und die Indier. Posen 1844.

I have not seen this work myself, but without doubt it is much
antiquated. A contemporary of Deussen was:

Josef Kohler, "Die Eleaten und das VedAnta", Archiv für Rechts- und
Wirtschaftsphilosophie 10, 1917, 125-140.

I have also written down a reference to a long Italian article as
relevant for the possible eastern connections in Parmenides, but have
never had the reason to search it out and read it:

M. Timpanaro Cardini, 1967. "Saggio sugli Eleati", Studi Classici e
Orientali (Pisa) 16, 149-255.

I cannot say, whether VedAnta is included in  it. As to that, I think it
is unlikely that there is any real connection. ZaGkara was centuries
later than Parmenides and there hardly was much knowledge of Greek
philosophy preserved in India, where it seems never to have aroused much
interest.
For the question of early connections between Indian and Greek
philosophy I think the best account is still:

George P. Conger, "Did India Inuence Early Greek Philosophies?",
Philosophy East & West 2, 1952, 102-128.

An account of Parmenides and his contemporaries is easily found in:

W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy. II. The Presocratic
Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus. Cambridge 1965.

It is a standard work, though it is true that the author tends to ignore
any outside influence in Greek thought. This kind of making Greek
civilization a hermeneutic whole was actually antiquated even then and
is no more generally accepted in classical philology (perhaps it is in
philosophy, I don't know). There probably was never much Indian
influence in Greece (think about the distance), but certainly much
Egyptian, Near Eastern and Iranian. See also

M. L. West, Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient. Oxford 1971.

Regards
Klaus Karttunen