Cosmogony, Monism, and PSR: Ancient and Modern

The issues raised by Parmenides’s deployment of monism and the principle of sufficient reason often become increasingly acute and interesting the more literally we take Parmenides. Here I explore taking Parmenides Fr. 8, 42–45 literally—“As there is an ultimate limit, it is complete, in all ways like the bulk of a well-rounded sphere, equivalent in all ways from the centre. For it must not be any larger or any smaller here or there.” I argue that it generates an interesting sufficient-reason critique of pre-Parmenidean cosmogony and poses ongoing problems for matter theory and cosmogony.