Kindle Price: $34.00

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the author

Nestor-Luis Cordero
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

By Being, It Is: The Thesis of Parmenides Kindle Edition

by Nestor-Luis Cordero (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 6 ratings
See all formats and editions
The adventure of philosophy began in Greece, where it was gradually developed by the ancient thinkers as a special kind of knowledge by which to explain the totality of things. In fact, the Greek language has always used the word onta, "beings," to refer to things. At the end of the sixth century BCE, Parmenides wrote a poem to affirm his fundamental thesis upon which all philosophical systems should be based: that there are beings.
In By Being, It Is, Néstor-Luis Cordero explores the richness of this Parmenidean thesis, which became the cornerstone of philosophy. Cordero's textual analysis of the poem's fragments reveals that Parmenides' intention was highly didactic. His poem applied, for the first time, an explicative method that deduced consequences from a true axiom: by being, it is. To ignore this reality meant to be a victim of opinions.

This volume explains how without this conceptual base, all later ontology would have been impossible. This book offers a clear and concise introduction to the Parmenidean doctrine and helps the reader appreciate the imperative value of Parmenides's claim that "by being, it is."
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    230 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    October 5, 2004
  5. File size
    1157 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
Next page
  Report an issue with this product or seller
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

NÉSTOR-LUIS CORDERO is professor of ancient philosophy at the University of Rennes, France. He is the author of Les deux chemins de Parménide.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0029F2I5O
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Parmenides Publishing (October 5, 2004)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 5, 2004
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1157 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 230 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Nestor-Luis Cordero

Nestor-Luis Cordero

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
6 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

prediger maria
5.0 out of 5 stars it feels like Parmenides himself is talking to you
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2016
Verified Purchase
While reading it, it feels like Parmenides himself is talking to you!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Richard Geldard
4.0 out of 5 stars Truth and Opinion
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2006
Verified Purchase
The value of working with the fragments of Parmenides, as Cordero does with skill and thoroughness, is the purity of the material. Here, after all, are pieces of one of the earliest and most important presocratic documents from the Axial Age, when the great teachers of philospohy and religion were all alive. As someone who has also worked with these fragments for some time, I found Cordero's interpretation of the Greek and his conclusions about form and meaning highly informative. This is a masterful piece of work. My only reservation has to do with his fairly traditional interpretation of the important issue of truth vs opinion. This, of course, is the crux of the poem and we wll wish we had more of it to study.
20 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Dan
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2020
Verified Purchase
Wonderful book! It’s philology and philosophy, with the balance toward the former. I particularly liked going into the weeds on the translation of Ancient Greek and the challenges therein. Very thought provoking. You’ll literally catch yourself thinking about nothing for long stretches of time. If you know Parmenides you’ll know why.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
WB, Zeno
4.0 out of 5 stars Cordero's name is deceptive: he is really a tiger, burning bright.
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2008
I first read, some years ago, Heidegger's "Parmenides". Then I purchased Cordero's book (in Spanish; the author's name means "lamb") quite a while ago, but I waited to review it until I had read Curd's version (The Legacy of Parmenides), and could compare the three. In my opinion, this is the best, although more restricted than Curd's, which, as the title implies, also includes her views on Anaxagoras, Empedocles, the atomists, etc.
The leitmotiv (and title) is more forceful and meaningful in Spanish ("Siendo, se es" instead of the English "By being, it is"), but I trust not much will have been lost in translation.
The good point of this book is that it is authoritative. Cordero has spent most of his life studying the ancient texts, including the first printed (Venetian) edition, in 1526 if I remember rightly, and thus doesn't have to rely on third parties' interpretations, but can form his own opinion first hand. He is quite sure of what he's saying, and, while that's not a guarantee of being right, it imparts to his writing a charm that Curd's, to my taste, lacks.
As to who's "right", that's to my mind a secondary question, the more so as P. himself might have been totally "wrong". There are as many interpretations as there are readers (or at least writers: Mourelatos, Vlastos, Guthrie, Cornford, etc., etc., etc.), and nobody can demonstrate irrefutably that the particular case he's advocating is decisively better that the others, the more so as most of the second part of P.'s poem [the Doxa: something like "Opinion" in archaic Greek; the first part, on which we have much more data, is called the "Aletheia": something like "Truth" in archaic Greek)] is missing and its content, aside from a few fragments, is conjectural. So, much of the "fun" of reading this type of book (which is heavily philological: for example Cordero devotes about a page, and a long footnote, to defend a correction he makes to the original text of the Diels edition, namely to substitute Diel's "eirge noema" by "arkhei" -"arkhestai" in middle voice second person of the aorist-, against a further modification introduced by Nehamas two years later, who, inspired by Cordero, nonetheless believes that the right word is "arkho" -same verb but active voice first person future-) resides in following the writer's arguments and comparing them to others'. It's rather like a VERY arcane Ellery Queen mystery, with multiple endings, of which you can choose the one you think best suited to the facts as presented or presumed.
So yes, definitely buy this book, but beware!, it's not for everybody. I would say its level of difficulty is a little higher than Curd's, and comparable for example to Detienne's "The Masters of Truth in Archaic Greece", if that's the correct title in English.
18 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Elizabeth
5.0 out of 5 stars Spiegazione di un enigma filosofico
Reviewed in Italy on December 29, 2012
Verified Purchase
Naturalmente il libro del Prof. Cordero è eccellente. Il Prof. Cordero è un grande conoscitore e traduttore degli antichi Autori greci ed è un grandissimo filologo. Però la sua interpretazione dell'Essere di Parmenide è parziale: egli sottolinea l'aspetto logico-concettuale ed in parte quello ontologico, trascurando quello metafisico e quello cosmologico. Credo che la mia interpretazione - contenuta nel libro "Che cos'è l'essere di Parmenide: spiegazione di un enigma filosofico", venduto da AMAZON sotto forma di e-book, e nel sito omonimo, che si trova al 2°-3° posto su circa 700.000 digitando Parmenide su Google Italia - sia più completa. Cordiali saluti ed auguri di un felice e prospero anno 2013. Albino Nolletti.
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report