Proclus and the Overcoming of Eleaticism without Parricide

This paper aims to examine Proclus’ estimation of Plato’s debt to his Eleatic predecessors. On Proclus’ account, Plato brilliantly developed Eleatic theories on being, integrating them within a metaphysical-theological system that makes it possible to identify Parmenides’ one in the second hypothesis of Plato’s Parmenides. It will be shown how, in his commentary on the dialogue, Proclus succeeds in passing from Eleatic ontology to Platonic hen-ontology without any mention of the Platonic criticism of Eleaticism and the issues that made the ‘parricide’ of Parmenides necessary. Proclus sees the importance of Eleatic ontology to lie in the inescapable unity of Being, while he credits Plato with bringing to completion what is inherent in the works of Zeno and Parmenides, applying the training theorised by the former and tracing the latter’s enquiry back up to the actual One.