TO SAVE THE LEGOMENA

Abstract

Since antiquity up to the present, several great thinkers have put into perspective the absolute truth claims of an unreal and 'un-worldly' scienceto save the phenomena (sozein ta phainomena). The late classical Neo-Platonist Simplicius ascribes the expression to Plato, who asks the astronomers which hypotheses do justice to the celestial phenomena (Heiberg, 1894, 492-493). Parmenides ofElea, a precursor of Socrates and Plato, is traditionally taken to be the father of westem metaphysics, which aims at what is 'al-ways', necessarily and invariably true. In the philosophical and scientific mode of thought as inaugurated by Parmenides, the concept of a flexible, relative and relational -human truth seems to be in principle excluded. "I don't imagine", Socrates argues unanimously, "there's time for the person who truly has his mind fixed on what is to glance down at the affairs of men, or compete with them, and be filled with envy and ill-will. ( ... ) The entire soul has to turn with it [the instrument with which a