Philosophy Weekends in The Cilento

Philosophy under the Olive Trees

The encounters are a kind of forum for the discussion and investigation into three important areas of human affairs that bear significantly on the quality of life. Simply, the idea of the Parmenideum is constructed around the following three questions:

• What is it that exists, and why does it exist rather than nothing?
• How wll we know when we have arrived at truths about the world?
• How should we live our lives, once we are satisfied we have the truths? In other words, what might we do when we find answers to these questions that, even if they do not provide definitive replies, do nonetheless appeal to reason?

Essentially, the idea centres around the standard, ancient themes in philosophy since the time of the Eleatics (and brought to a good focus by Socrates, though he cared mainly for the last in the list):

• Ontology
• Epistemology
• Ethics (governance/politics/society)

By no means might these questions be addressed simply and definitively, let alone in a few weekends! Religion, philosophy and science have been trying to do that for millennia as we know. However, these questions are a good starting point and framework for the study and investigation into knowledge in general. And in a particular regard, they are essential for the formation of the kind of rational, critical thinking that removes a person from dependency on the thinking and declarations of others, and develops his or her own independent thought based on reason and not opinion.

It is, in fact, the very thesis of Parmenides himself (As Nestor Cordero illustrated at the Eleatica 2006 Conference at Elea, and also in his meticulous study of Parmenides' poem On Nature, in his book By Bieng, It Is.)

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