Abstract

The Introduction discusses the main themes of the present volume, which explores the middle section of Parmenides’ magnificent poem, the _Way of Truth_ (_WT_). The book focuses on the logical form of Parmenides’ arguments in _WT_, and pursues this by offering reconstructions of _WT_’s deductions, in their entirety. Part I focuses on what is termed the Master Argument. It consists of three deductions: the Governing Deduction (against the possibility of what is not), the Corollary of the Governing Deduction (for the necessity of what is), and the rejection of the mixed path of what both is and is not. The Governing Deduction is so called because its conclusion is required for the other deductions of the Master Argument, as well as for Fr. 8’s general characteristics of what is. Part II considers these deductive consequences of the Governing Deduction. Part III considers and rejects the chief competing interpretations.