Parmenides
Change and multiplicity are illusions of the senses; reason shows that what truly exists is one, unchanging and eternal.
Placement
What is, is; what is not, is not: change and plurality are illusion, true Being is one and unchanging.
Key ideas
- What is, is; what is not, is not
- Way of Truth vs. Way of Opinion
Students: Zeno of Elea
Influence
Influenced by 2
Pythagoras
influenced by disputed
Diogenes Laertius reports that the Pythagorean Ameinias, rather than Xenophanes, turned Parmenides to a life of quiet; any Pythagorean influence on his doctrine is disputed. Diogenes Laertius IX.21 (Sotion); SEP “Parmenides”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Pythagoras › traditionally c. 570–495 BCE
Xenophanes
influenced by disputed ✓
Aristotle reports that Parmenides was said to be Xenophanes’ pupil (Metaphysics I.5, 986b22); a debt to Xenophanes’ unmoving god and his doubts about opinion is disputed. Aristotle, Metaphysics I.5, 986b21–25; Xenophanes, DK 21 B26, B34; Diogenes Laertius IX.21; SEP “Xenophanes”
Xenophanes › c. 570–478 BCE
Influenced 8
Empedocles
influenced ✓
Empedocles accepted Parmenides’ claim that nothing comes from nothing or perishes and explained change as the mixing and separating of four eternal roots (DK 31 B8, B11–12). Empedocles, DK 31 B8, B11–12, B17; SEP “Empedocles”
Empedocles › c. 494–434 BCE
Zeno of Elea taught
taught later tradition ✓
Known only from later sources – the dramatic scene of Plato’s Parmenides (127a–128e), written decades later, and Diogenes Laertius 9.25; that Zeno’s arguments defend Parmenides is widely accepted, a teaching relation as such is not independently attested. Plato, Parmenides 127a–128e; Sophist 216a; Diogenes Laertius 9.25; SEP “Zeno of Elea”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Zeno of Elea › c. 490–430 BCE
Democritus
influenced
With Leucippus, Democritus granted the Eleatics that nothing comes from nothing but posited void and indivisible atoms, so that plurality and motion become possible again. Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption I.8; SEP “Ancient Atomism”
Evidence: AI draft
Democritus › c. 460–370 BCE
Plato
influenced ✓
Plato took over Parmenides’ contrast between unchanging being, grasped by thought, and opinion about what changes, and in the Sophist revised his ban on not-being (241d). Plato, Republic V, 476d–480a; Sophist 241d–259d; SEP “Parmenides”
Plato › 428–348 BCE
Plotinus
influenced
Plotinus cited Parmenides’ ‘thinking and being are the same’ and found the One, Intellect and Soul in the first hypotheses of Plato’s Parmenides (Enneads V.1.8). Plotinus, Enneads V.1.8; Parmenides, DK 28 B3; SEP “Plotinus”
Evidence: AI draft
Plotinus › 204–270
Martin Heidegger
influenced ✓
Heidegger read Parmenides’ saying that thinking and being are the same as their belonging together (Introduction to Metaphysics, 1935; publ. 1953) and his goddess Aletheia as unconcealment (1942–43). M. Heidegger, Einführung in die Metaphysik (lectures 1935; publ. 1953); Parmenides (lectures 1942–43; publ. 1982); Identität und Differenz (1957); SEP “Martin Heidegger”
Martin Heidegger › 1889–1976
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Anaxagoras
influenced
Anaxagoras accepted Parmenides’ principle that nothing comes to be or perishes and reinterpreted change as the mixing and separating of ever-existing stuffs (DK 59 B17). Anaxagoras, DK 59 B17; SEP “Anaxagoras”
Evidence: AI draft
Anaxagoras › c. 500–428 BCE
Gorgias
influenced
In On Not-Being Gorgias turned Parmenides’ form of argument against Eleatic being: nothing is; if it were, it could not be known; if known, not communicated. Sextus Empiricus, Against the Logicians I.65–87; pseudo-Aristotle, On Melissus, Xenophanes and Gorgias; IEP “Gorgias”
Evidence: AI draft
Gorgias › c. 483–376 BCE
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Aristotle
criticised by
Aristotle objected that Parmenides’ argument for a single unchanging being fails because ‘being’ is said in many ways (Physics I.2–3). Aristotle, Physics I.2–3, 184b–187a; Metaphysics I.5, 986b
Evidence: AI draft
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Criticizes 1
Heraclitus
criticised disputed
Parmenides’ attack on ‘two-headed mortals’, for whom being and not-being are the same and not the same, is often read as aimed at Heraclitus; this is disputed. Parmenides, DK 28 B6.4–9; SEP “Parmenides”
Evidence: AI draft
Heraclitus › c. 535–475 BCE
Works
- c. 475 BCEOn Nature
The goddess reveals the Way of Truth: only Being is.
Position
Parmenides argued that thought must hold to what is: what is not can be neither thought nor spoken of. From this he concluded that being cannot come into existence or perish, cannot change, move or be divided – it is one, complete and unchanging, like a well-rounded sphere. The world of the senses, with its birth, death and motion, belongs to the “way of opinion”, not to the “way of truth”. This radical argument confronted all later Greek philosophy with a challenge: how to account for change and plurality without saying that something comes from nothing. Plato, the atomists and Aristotle all developed their positions in answer to him.
Life & context
Parmenides came from Elea, a Greek colony in southern Italy, and was active in the early fifth century BCE. According to Plato, he visited Athens in old age and met the young Socrates. He set out his philosophy in a poem in hexameters, in which a goddess reveals the truth to a young traveller; substantial parts of it survive.
Appears in
- Journey ‘From Mythos to Logos’ · Stop 5 of 8
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