171PASCAL, BLAISEPANTHEISM. From the Greek pan- +
theos, meaning “God is everything.” The
belief that everything is God. Contrast
with PANENTHEISM.
PA R A D I G M. An ideal, governing case
that serves to categorize similar cases. If,
for example, Judaism, Christianity, Islam,
Hinduism, and Buddhism are paradigm
cases of religions, one can use them to
assess whether other traditions count as
religions.
PARADIGM CASE ARGUMENT.
Arguments that appeal to ideal cases.
So, someone might take an ideal case of
when one person knows X and then use
it to offer a full account of what it is to
possess knowledge. See also PARADIGM.
PA R A D O X. From the Greek paradoxos,
meaning “beyond belief.” Often used to
refer to an unacceptable thesis, the term
can also refer to that which seems anoma-
lous or mysterious, e.g., the paradox of
omnipotence.
PARMENIDES OF ELEA (c. 6th/5th
century BCE). Arguably the most
important pre-Socratic philosopher,
Parmenides was a pioneer in metaphys-
ics. He was a monist, and he held that
true being is unchanging, eternal, and
indivisible. His one surviving work is a
cosmological poem, written in Homeric
hexameters. In it Parmenides contrasts
Doxa (“opinion” or “seeming”) with Truth,
arguing that the proper way to under-
stand the world is through a priori
reasoning. He argued, against earlier phi-
losophers, that time, change, void, and
plurality were all contrary to reason, since
only that which is can be thought; non-
being is unthinkable. Changes would
require that which currently is to cease to
be itself, or that which is not to come to
be. Therefore, becoming and ceasing to be
are not to be countenanced; either things
are or they are not. While difficult to con-
template, this idea of the essential and
unchanging unity of all being supported
the notion that there is uniformity in
nature that can be understood through
reason. Parmenides exercised a strong
influence on the development of Plato’s
thought, and his idea of the unity of being
probably also supported early versions of
the world-soul in Platonic philosophical
theology.PARSIS. See ZOROASTRIANISM.PASCAL, BLAISE (1623–1662). A French
philosopher, mathematician, physicist,
and devout religious practitioner who
sought to challenge the laxity of contem-
porary Jesuit teaching. Pascal offered a
sustained, incisive portrait of human
frailty, vanity, and weakness. He stressed
the passionate and affective dimension of
thought over against what he saw as an
excessively intellectual, detached use of
reason promoted by Descartes: “Le coeur