Høffding read this treatise to the Royal Danish Academy on 16 January 1920, and
it was printed that June as the second number of the Academy’s new
Filosofiske Meddelelser. He was 76. Its thesis is stated on p. 4: the
objections Parmenides raises against the young Socrates really do hit the
doctrine of Ideas, and they matter not only for Plato but for “every attempt at
metaphysics (in the sense of a concluding knowledge of existence)”. Plato, he
says, rose in his eyes for having let them be put so sharply.
The text
The whole treatise: the title page, pp. 3–65 with their 34 footnotes, and the
print’s Indhold. It has an Indledning (pp. 3–6) and four chapters: 1. Kritik af
Idelæren (p. 6); 2. Dialogens anden Del (p. 26); 3. Begrebet det Pludselige
(τὸ ἐξαίφνης) i Platons Filosofi (p. 38); 4. Senere Dialoger i Forhold til
Problemerne i „Parmenides“ (p. 53). The English translation is Remarks on
Plato’s Dialogue Parmenides.
Connections in Høffding’s later work
- Relation som Kategori (1921) cites the treatise twice. On p. 6 it is the
evidence that Plato, with the objections he lets Parmenides voice and with
the weight his later dialogues put on judgment as the relating of concepts,
stands at the head of the critical-sceptical line of Greek thought. The note
on p. 17 cites chapter 3: Plato found it hard to find a logical transition
from one Idea to another, but as a psychologist he never doubted that even a
sudden experience has its definite place in a series of experiences.
- Høffding’s annotated copy of Relation som Kategori has a note on the act
that singles out the subject of a judgment. It sends the reader to
»Kierkegaards ›Spring‹« and to »min Afhandling om Platons ›Parmenides‹
p. 38–57« (see the note on Høffding’s annotated
copy). Those pages are chapter 3 and the opening
of chapter 4. On pp. 40–41 Høffding sets Plato’s τὸ ἐξαίφνης (Parm. 156 D)
against Kierkegaard’s reading of it in a note to Begrebet Angst (ch. 3), and
against his own account in Søren Kierkegaard som Filosof. Kierkegaard, he
argues, places the leap between two moments, although Plato denies that the
sudden is in time at all.
- Begrebet Analogi (pp. 37–38) corrects the treatise. Høffding says there
that he spoke too strongly when he wrote (p. 28) that Plato “expressly
declares” unity and identity to be the same. The more careful wording on
p. 30, that the identity “is betrayed”, is the one he stands by. He cites the
treatise there as „Vid. Selsk. filosofiske Meddelelser Nr. 3“; it is in fact
I, 2, and Nr. 3 is Relation som Kategori.
- Mindre Arbejder II (1905) holds an earlier and different piece,
»Parmenides fra Elea« (1901), on the philosopher rather than the dialogue.
The treatise cites it in the note on p. 12.
Editorial note
- Edition. The edition is a diplomatic transcription of the Royal Danish
Library’s scan of the only printing, compared word by word with an
independent OCR of the images. Every disagreement was settled at the image,
and the notes, the Greek, the headings, the title page and the Indhold were
read whole. A blind check of three pages and the title page (889 words) found
no word errors.
- Misprints. These are printed as is and marked at the site: „Invendinger“
(p. 4), „Aristotetes’“ (p. 17), „for-|forsøger“ (p. 19), „«Staten«“ with its
opening guillemet turned (p. 32), „BURNÉT“ (p. 62).
- Greek. The Greek is given as printed, breathings and accents included,
even where the editions differ (αὐτὰς p. 23, ἥ pp. 26 and 50, ἐίπερ p. 47,
οὖδὲ p. 50). The print’s ϑ is set θ.
- Page map. Page numbers are those of the print: printed page = PDF page − 2
of the scan.
- Indhold and headings. The Indhold gives the Indledning as p. 1 and prints
chapter 3’s title without the Greek. Both are recorded as printed.
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