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PARMENIDES OF ELEA (Velia)
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PARMENIDES OF ELEA (See also:Velia) in See also:Italy, See also:Greek philosopher. According to See also:Diogenes Laertius he was " in his See also:prime " 504–500 B.C., and would thus seem to have been See also:born about J39. See also:Plato indeed (Parmenides, 127 B) makes See also:Socrates see and hear Parmenides when the latter was about sixty-five years of See also:age, in which See also:case he cannot have been born before 519; but in the See also:absence of See also:evidence that any such See also:meeting took See also:place this may be regarded as one of Plato's anachronisms. However this may be, Parmenides was a contemporary, probably a younger contemporary, of Heraclitus, with whom the first See also:succession of physicists ended, while See also:Empedocles and Anaxagoras, with whom the second succession of physicists began, were very much his juniors. Belonging, it is said, to a See also:rich and distinguished See also:family, Parmenides attached himself, at any See also:rate for a See also:time, to the aristocratic society or brotherhood which See also:Pythagoras had established at Croton; and accordingly one See also:part of his See also:system, the See also:physical part, is apparently See also:Pythagorean. To See also:Xenophanes, the founder of Eleaticism—whom he must have known, even if he was never in any strict sense of the word his See also:disciple—Parmenides was, perhaps, more deeply indebted, as the theological speculations of that thinker unquestionably suggested to him the theory of Being and Not-Being, of the One and the Many, by v hich he sought to reconcile Ionian " See also:monism," or rather " henism," with Italiote See also:dualism. Tradition relates that Parmenides Lamed See also:laws for the Eleates, who each See also:year took an See also:oath to observe them. Parmenides embodied his tenets in a See also:short poem, called Nature, of which fragments, amounting in all to about 16o lines, have been preserved in the writings of Sextus Empiricus, See also:Simplicius and others. It is traditionally divided into three parts—the " Proem," " Truth " (See also:ea trpds aXifOetav), and " See also:Opinion " (ea trpbs Wait). In " Truth," starting from the See also:formula " the Ent (or existent) is, the Nonent(or non-existent) is not," Parmenides attempted to distinguish between the unity or universal See also:element of nature and its variety or particularity, insisting upon the reality of its unity, which is therefore the See also:object of knowledge, and upon the unreality of its variety, which is therefore the object, not of knowledge, but of opinion. In " Opinion " he propounded a theory of the See also:world of seeming and its development, pointing out however that, in accordance with the principles already laid down, these cosmological speculations do not pretend to anything more than See also:probability. In spite of the contemptuous remarks of See also:Cicero and See also:Plutarch about Parmenides's versification, Nature is not without See also:literary merit. The introduction, though rugged, is forcible and picturesque; and the See also:rest of the poem is written in a See also:simple and effective See also:style suitable to the subject. Proem.—In the " Proem" the poet describes his See also:journey from darkness to See also:light. See also:Borne in a whirling See also:chariot, and attended by the daughters of the See also:sun, he reaches a See also:temple sacred to an unnamed goddess (variously identified by the commentators with Nature, See also:Wisdom or See also:Themis), by whom the rest of the poem is spoken. He must learn all things, she tells him, both truth, which is certain, and human opinions; for, though in human opinions there can be no "true faith," they must be studied notwithstanding for what they are See also:worth. Truth.—" Truth " begins with the See also:declaration of Parmenides's principle in opposition to the principles of his predecessors. There are three ways of See also:research, and three ways only. Of these, one asserts the non-existence of the existent and the existence of the non-existent [i.e. Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes suppose the single element which they respectively postulate to be trans-formed into the various sorts of See also:matter which they discover in the world around them, thus assuming the non-existence of that which is elemental and the existence of that which is non-elemental]; another, pursued by " restless " persons, whose " road returns upon itself," assumes that a thing " is and is not," " is the same and not the same " [an obvious reference, as See also:Bernays points out in the Rheinisches Museum, vii. 114 seq., to Heraclitus, the philosopher of See also:flux]. These are ways of See also:error, because they confound existence and non-existence. In contrast to them the way of truth starts from the proposition that " the Ent is, the Nonent is not." On the strength of the fundamental distinction between the Ent and the Nonent, the goddess next announces certain characteristics of the former. The Ent is uncreated, for it cannot be derived either from the Ent or from the Nonent; it is imperishable, for it cannot pass into the Nonent; it is whole, indivisible, continuous, for nothing exists to break its continuity in space; it is unchangeable {for nothing exists to break its continuity in time]; it is perfect, for there is nothing which it can want; it never was, nor will be, but only is; it is evenly extended in every direction, and therefore a See also:sphere, exactly balanced; it is identical with thought [i.e. it is the object, and the See also:sole object, of thought as opposed to sensation, sensation being concerned with variety and See also:change]. As then the Ent is one, invariable and immutable, all See also:plurality, variety and mutation belong to the Nonent. Whence it follows that all things to which men attribute reality, See also:generation and destruction, being and not-being, change of place, alteration of See also:colour are no more than empty words. Opinion.—The investigation of the Ent [i.e. the existent unity, extended throughout space and enduring throughout time, which See also:reason discovers beneath the variety and the mutability of things] being now See also:complete, it remains in " Opinion " to describe the plurality of things, not as they are, for they are not, but as they seem to be. In the phenomenal world then, there are, it has been thought [and Parmenides accepts the theory, which appears to be of Pythagorean origin], two See also:primary elements—namely, See also:fire, which is See also:gentle, thin, homogeneous, and See also:night, which is dark, thick, heavy. Of these elements [which, according to See also:Aristotle, were, or rather were analogous to, the Ent and the Nonent respectively] all things consist, and from them they derive their several characteristics. The See also:foundation for a cosmology having thus been laid in dualism, the poem went on to describe the generation of " See also:earth and sun, and See also:moon and See also:air that is See also:common to all, and the milky way, and furthest See also:Olympus, and the glowing stars "; but the scanty fragments which have survived suffice only to show that Parmenides regarded the universe as a See also:series of concentric rings or See also:spheres composed of the two primary elements and of combinations of them, the whole system being directed by an unnamed goddess established at its centre. Next came a theory of See also:animal development. This again was followed by a See also:psychology, which made thought [as well as sensation, which was conceived to differ from thought only in respect of its object] depend upon the excess of the one or the other of the two constituent elements, fire and night. " Such, opinion tells us, was the generation, such is the See also:present existence, such will be the end, of those things to which men have given distinguishing names." In the truism "the Ent is, the Nonent is not," 6a going ut) 6v o w gain, Parmenides breaks with his predecessors, the physicists of the Ionian succession. Asking themselves—What is the material universe, they had replied respectively—It is See also:water, It is pe-See also:rat(J et, It is air, It is fire. Thus, while their question meant, or ought to have meant, What is the single element which underlies the apparent plurality of the material world? their answers, Parmenides conceived, by attributing to the selected element various and varying qualities, reintroduced the plurality which the question sought to eliminate. If we would discover that which is common to all things at all times, we must, he submitted, exclude the See also:differences of things, whether simultaneous or successive. Hence, whereas his predecessors had confounded that which is universally existent with that which is not universally existent, he proposed to distinguish carefully between that which is universally existent and that which is
and See also:Marie See also:Louise, daughter of See also: The fundamental truism is the epigrammatic assertion of this distinction. In short, the single corporeal element of the Ionian physicists was, to See also:borrow a phrase from Aristotle, a permanent oboia having 1-6.8,t which change; but they either 'neglected the ,raOn or See also:con-founded them with the o$Qia. Parmenides sought to reduce the variety of nature'to a single material element; but he strictly discriminated the inconstant aaOn from the See also:constant actin, and, understanding by " existence " universal, invariable, immutable being; refused to attribute to the raft anything more than the semblance of existence. Having thus discriminated between the permanent unity of nature and its superficial plurality, Parmenides proceeded to the See also:separate investigation of the Ent and the Nonent. The universality of the Ent, he conceived, necessarily carries with it certain characteristics. It is one; it is eternal; it is whole and continuous, both in time and in space; it is immovable and immutable; it is limited, but limited only by itself; it is evenly extended in every direction, and therefore spherical. These propositions having been reached, apart from particular experience, by reflection upon the fundamental principle, we have in them, Parmenides conceived, a See also:body of See also:information resting upon a See also:firm basis and entitled to be called " truth." Further, the information thus obtained is the sum See also:total of " truth "; for, as " existence " in the strict sense of the word cannot be attributed to anything besides the universal element, so nothing besides the universal element can properly be said to be "known." If Parmenides's poem had had " Being " for its subject it would doubtless have ended at this point. Its subject is, however, " Nature "; and nature, besides its unity, has also the semblance, if no more than the semblance, of plurality. Hence the theory of the unity of nature is necessarily followed by a theory of its seeming plurality, that is to say, of the variety and mutation of things. The theory of plurality cannot indeed pretend to the certainty of the theory of unity, being of See also:necessity untrustworthy, because it is the partial and inconstant See also:representation of that which is partial and inconstant in nature. But, as the material world includes, together with a real unity, the semblance of plurality, so the theory of the material world includes, together with the certain theory of the former, a probable theory of the latter. " Opinion " is then no See also:mere excrescence; it is the necessary sequel to " Truth." Thus, whereas the See also:Ionians, confounding the unity and the plurality of the universe, had neglected plurality, and the Pythagoreans, contenting themselves with the reduction of the variety of nature to a duality or a series of dualities, had neglected unity, Parmenides, taking a hint from Xenophanes, made the antagonistic doctrines See also:supply one another's deficiencies; for, as Xenophanes in his theological system had recognized at once the unity of See also:God and the plurality of things, so Parmenides in his system of nature recognized at once the rational unity of the Ent and the phenomenal plurality of the Nonent. The foregoing statement of Parmenides's position differs from See also:Zeller's See also:account of it in two important particulars. First, whereas it has been assumed above that Xenophanes was theologian rather than philosopher, whence it would seem to follow that the philosophical See also:doctrine of unity originated, not with him, but with Parmenides, Zeller, supposing Xenophanes to have taught, not merely the unity of God, but also the unity of Being, assigns to Parmenides no more than an exacter conception of the doctrine of the unity of Being, the See also:justification of that doctrine, and the denial of the plurality and the mutability of things. This view of the relations of Xenophanes and Parmenides is not borne out by their writings; and, though See also:ancient authorities may be quoted in its favour, it would seem that in this case as in others, they have fallen into the easy See also:mistake of confounding successive phases of doctrine, "construing the utterances of the See also:master in accordance with the principles of his See also:scholar—the vague by the more definite, the simpler by the mere finished and elaborate theory " (W. H. See also:Thompson). Secondly, whereas it has been argued above that " Opinion " is necessarily included in the system, Zeller, supposing Parmenidesto deny the Nonent even as a matter of opinion, regards that part of the poem which has opinion for its subject as no more than a revised and improved statement of the views of opponents, introduced in See also:order that the reader, having before him the false doctrine as well as the true one, may be led the more certainly to embrace the latter. In the See also:judgment of the present writer. Parmenides, while he denied the real existence of plurality, recognized its apparent existence, and consequently, however little value he might attach to opinion, was See also:bound to take account of it : " pour celui meme qui nie 1'existence reelle de la nature," says See also:Renouvier, " it reste encore a faire une histoire naturelle de l'apparence et de 1'illusion." The teaching of Parmenides variously influenced both his immediate successors and subsequent thinkers. By his recognition of an apparent plurality supplementary to the real unity, he effected the transition from the " monism " or " henism " of the first physical succession to the " See also:pluralism " of the second. While Empedocles and See also:Democritus are careful to emphasize their dissent from " Truth," it is obvious that " Opinion " is the basis of their cosmologies. The doctrine of the deceitfulness of " the undiscerning See also:eye and the echoing See also:ear " soon established itself, though the grounds upon which Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Democritus maintained it were not those which were alleged by Parmenides. Indirectly, through the See also:dialectic of his See also:pupil and friend See also:Zeno and otherwise, the doctrine of the inadequacy of sensation led to the humanist See also:movement, which for a time threatened to put an end to philosophical and scientific See also:speculation. But the See also:positive See also:influence of Parmenides's teaching was not yet exhausted. To say that the See also:Platonism of Plato's later years, the Platonism of the Parmenides, the Philebus and the See also:Timaeus, is the See also:philosophy of Parmenides enlarged and reconstituted, may perhaps seem paradoxical in the See also:face of the severe See also:criticism to which Eleaticism is subjected, not only in the Parmenides, but also in the Sophist. The criticism was, however, preparatory to a reconstruction. Thus may he explained the selection of an Eleatic stranger to be the See also:chief See also:speaker in the latter, and of Parmenides himself to take the See also:lead in the former. In the Sophist criticism predominates over reconstruction, the Zenonian See also:logic being turned against the Parmenides metaphysic in such a way as to show that both the one and the other need revision: see 241 D, 244 B seq., 257 B seq., 258 D. In particular, Plato taxes Parmenides with his inconsistency in attributing (as he certainly did) to the fundamental unity See also:extension and sphericity, so that " the worshipped 6v is after all a pitiful .u) ov " (W. H. Thompson). In the Parmenides reconstruction pre-dominates over criticism—the See also:letter of Eleaticism being here represented by Zeno, its spirit, as Plato conceived it, by Parmenides. Not the least important of the results obtained in this See also:dialogue is the See also:discovery that, whereas the doctrine of the " one" and the " many " is suicidal and barren so See also:long as the "solitary one" and the "indefinitely many" are absolutely separated (137 C seq. and 163 B seq.), it becomes consistent and fruitful as soon as a " definite plurality " is interpolated between them (142 B seq., 157 B seq., 16o B seq.). In short, Parmenides was no idealist, but Plato recognized in him, and rightly, the precursor of See also:idealism. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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