Chapter 16

Parmenides

Parmenides was born about 514 B.C. at Elea. Not much is
known of his life. He was in his early youth a Pythagorean,
but recanted that philosophy and formulated a philosophy
of his own. He was greatly revered in antiquity both for
the depth of his intellect, and the sublimity and nobility of
his character. Plato refers to him always with reverence.
His philosophy is comprised in a philosophic didactic poem
which is divided into two parts. The first part expounds
his own philosophy and is called “the way of truth.” The
second part describes the false opinions current in his day
and is called “the way of opinion.”

The reflection of Parmenides takes its rise from observation
of the transitoriness and changeableness of things. The
world, as we know it, is a world of change and mutation. All
things arise and pass away. Nothing is permanent, nothing
stands. One moment it is, another moment it is not. It is
as true to say of {44} anything, that it is not, as that it
is. The truth of things cannot lie here, for no knowledge

of that which is constantly changing is possible. Hence

the thought of Parmenides becomes the effort to find the

eternal amid the shifting, the abiding and everlasting amid

the change and mutation of things. And there arises in

this way the antithesis between Being and not-being. The

absolutely real is Being. Not-being is the unreal. Not-

being is not at all. And this not-being he identifies with

becoming, with the world of shifting and changing things,

the world which is known to us by the senses. The world

of sense is unreal, illusory, a mere appearance. It is not-

being. Only Being truly is. As Thales designated water the

one reality, as the Pythagoreans named number, so now for

Parmenides the sole reality, the first principle of things, is

Being, wholly unmixed with not-being, wholly excludent

of all becoming. The character of Being he describes, for

the most part, in a series of negatives. There is in it no

change, it is absolutely unbecome and imperishable. It has

neither beginning nor end, neither arising nor passing away.