Parmenides

Parmenides (pärmĕn`ĭdēz), b. c.515 B.C., Greek philosopher of Elea, leading figure of the Eleatic school. Parmenides' great contribution to philosophy was the method of reasoned proof for assertions. Parmenides began his argument with the assertion that being is the material substance of which the universe is composed and argued that it was the sole and eternal reality. With this as a premise he proceeded to destroy by his dialectic argument the possibility of generation, destruction, change, and motion. All change and motion are illusions of the senses. Since being is spatially extended and is all that exists, there is no empty space, and motion is therefore impossible. Only fragments of his work have survived.

Bibliography

See Parmenides (text, tr., commentary, and critical essays by L. Tarán, 1965); study by A. P. Mourelatos (1970).

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Parmenides

(born c. 515 BC) Greek philosopher, leader of the Eleatics. His general teaching has been reconstructed from the few surviving fragments of his lengthy verse composition On Nature. He held that the multiplicity of existing things, their changing forms and motion, are but an appearance of a single eternal reality, “Being.” This doctrine, which was formulated as the principle that “all is one,” entails that all claims of change or of non-Being are illogical. Because of his method of basing claims about appearances on a logical concept of Being, he is considered a founder of metaphysics. Plato's dialogue Parmenides discusses his thought.