Parmenides?

Google

Did you mean | Travel | Economics | Finance | Marketing | Business | Culture | Geography | History | Life | Mathematics | Science | Society | Technology | New site added |

Add a link on the top of this Parmenides page Express submission by secure payment !


Parmenides of Elea (5th century BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher born in Elea, a Greek city on the southern coast of Italy. He is reported to have been a student of Xenophanes. He is one of the most significant of the pre-Socratic philosophers. He argued that the every-day perception of reality of the physical world (the "Way of Seeming") is mistaken, and that the reality of the world is 'One Being' (the "Way of Truth"): an unchanging, ungenerated, indestructible whole.

He was the founder of the Eleatic school, which also included Zeno of Elea and Melissus.

When one says that Parmenides "argued" something, one cannot think about "argue" in the modern sense. Parmenides was a prophet, magician and healer (just like Pythagoras, Empedocles and many others), and his philosophy is presented in verse, through mythology and obscure mystic visions. The philosophy he argued was, he says, given to him by the Goddess of the underworld (Tartaros):

Welcome, youth, who come attended by immortal charioteers and mares which bear you on your journey to our dwelling. For it is no evil fate that has set you to travel on this road, far from the beaten paths of men, but right and justice. It is meet that you learn all things - both the unshakable heart of well-rounded truth and the opinions of mortals in which there is not true belief.

Under 'way of seeming', in the same work, he set out a contrasting but more conventional view of the world, thereby becoming an early exponent of the duality of appearance and reality. For him and his pupils the phenomena of movement and change are simply appearances of a static, eternal reality.

In Plato's dialogue Parmenides the Eleatic philosopher and Socrates argue about dialectic. In the Theaetetus, Socrates says that Parmenides alone among the wise (Protagoras, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Epicharmus, and Homer) denied that everything is change and motion.

Have to see

Contents

Italian FriendFinder - Italian Personals
FriendFinder - Traditional Personals
Asia FriendFinder - Chinese Personals
Filipino FriendFinder - Filipino Personals
OutPersonals - Gay Sex Personals
Gay FriendFinder - Gay Dating Personals
ALT.com - Fetish AND1 BDSM Personals
Korean FriendFinder - Korean Personals
Senior FriendFinder - 40+ Personals
German FriendFinder - German Personals
BigChurch - Christian/Catholic Personals
Indian FriendFinder - Indian Personals
French FriendFinder - French Personals
Jewish FriendFinder - Jewish Personals
Amigos.com - Spanish/Portuguese Personals
Adult FriendFinder - Sex Personals

Metaphysics

His work On Nature exists only in fragments and is made up of two parts as well as an introductory discourse. The Way of Truth discusses that which is real and the Way of Seeming discusses that which is illusory. Under the Way of Truth, he stated that there are two ways of inquiry: that it is, that it is not. He said that the latter argument is never feasible because nothing can not be and be an object of speech and thought:

For never shall this prevail, that things that are not are.
Thinking and the thought that it is are the same; for you will not find thought apart from what is, in relation to which it is uttered.
For thought and being are the same.
It is necessary to speak and to think what is; for being is, but nothing is not.
Helplessness guides the wandering thought in their breasts; they are carried along deaf and blind alike, dazed, beasts without judgment, convinced that to be and not to be are the same and not the same, and that the road of all things is a backward-turning one.

Furthermore, he implied that it could not have "come into being" because "nothing comes from nothing."

Moreover he argued that movement was impossible because it requires moving into "the void", and Parmenides identified "the void" with nothing, and therefore (by definition) it does not exist. That which does exist is The Parmenidean One which is timeless, uniform, and unchanging:

How could what is perish? How could it have come to be? For if it came into being, it is not; nor is it if ever it is going to be. Thus coming into being is extinguished, and destruction unknown.
Nor was it once, nor will it be, since it is, now, all together, / One, continuous; for what coming-to-be of it will you seek? / In what way, whence, did it grow? Neither from what-is-not shall I allow / You to say or think; for it is not to be said or thought / That it is not. And what need could have impelled it to grow / Later or sooner, if it began from nothing? Thus it must either be completely or not at all.
What exists is now, all at once, one and continuousw/. Nor is it divisible, since it is all alike; nor is there any more or less of it in one place which might prevent it from holding together, but all is full of what is.
And it is all one to me / Where I am to begin; for I shall return there again.

Works

  • On Nature (written between 480 and 470 BC) 1

References

  • Melchert, Norman (2002). The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy, McGraw Hill. ISBN 0195175107

External Links


This article is part of The Presocratic Philosophers series
Thales | Anaximander | Anaximenes of Miletus | Pythagoras | Philolaus | Archytas | Empedocles | Heraclitus | Parmenides | Zeno of Elea | Melissus of Samos | Xenophanes | Anaxagoras | Leucippus | Democritus | Protagoras | Gorgias | Prodicus | Hippias | Pherecydes

What does Parmenides mean ? Search with Google !

Google

Article on Parmenides, category, different spelling or sense



Did you mean: Culture | Geography | History | Life | Mathematics | Science | Society | Technology
Economy finance business money economy: Economics | Finance | Marketing | Business | Money | Real Estate | Insurance | Retirement | Microeconomics | Economics

Top Search: Kazaa | Sex | Pornography | Games | MySpace | Google | Ebay | Paris Hilton | Carmen Electra | Jessica Simpson | Eminem | MapQuest | Dogs | Jokes | Obituaries | MSN Messenger | Splogs | Ringtones | Casino | Poker | Gambling | Lyrics | Anime |

Continents and countries in the world: Japan | United Kingdom | Canada | France | Amsterdam | Monaco | Spain | Capitals Cities | Continents | World | Americas | North America | South America | Europe | Africa | Eurasia | Oceania | Antarctica | Asia | Australia


A web travel guide for your holidays, hotel and plane tickets: Travel guide and holidays
French Version, guide de voyage dans le monde: Voyage et vacances
Visit partners of Did you mean Travel: Partners
Site Map articles begining from 0 to 9 and A to Z: Site Map 0 to A | Site Map B to C | Site Map D to Z

Cours d'anglais, cours de langues pour debutant: Cours d'anglais
Annuaire france regions et tourisme: Annuaire OuiX
Sexe sur AbSexe, videos porno et annuaire sexe: Ab Sexe

Url Rewriting by Atuvu Referencement

This work is licensed under a GNU Free Documentation License.
Texts derived from WikiPedia Parmenides
©2006 Did you mean Copyright Notice

Page Parmenides cached on Friday 05th of September 2008 11:23:54 AM