Greece & Rome · c. 515 – after 450 BCE
Parmenides
Founder of the Eleatic school and of deductive argument
In his poem a goddess reveals that only “what is” can be thought, so being is one, eternal, unchanging and whole. The “way of opinion”, full of change, is presented as deceptive.
Life and thought
Parmenides lived in Elea, a Greek colony on the west coast of southern Italy. Plato has him visit Athens at about sixty-five and talk with a young Socrates, which would put his birth around 515 BCE, and ancient reports say he gave his city laws. He wrote a poem in epic verse in which an unnamed goddess shows a young man two paths: the way of truth and the way of mortal opinion.
The way of truth is an argument. You cannot think or say what is not, since there would be nothing to think. So there is no coming-to-be from what is not and no perishing into it, no gaps of emptiness and no change: what is must be one, whole, unmoving and complete. If our senses report a changing, many-coloured world, so much the worse for the senses. It was the first sustained deductive argument in Western thought, and every later Greek physics, from the pluralists and atomists to Plato, had to answer it.
Works
Students
c. 490–430 BCEZeno of EleaParmenides’ pupil, famous for paradoxes of motion and pluralityShaped
c. 494–434 BCEEmpedoclesSicilian poet, healer and statesman of the four rootsc. 500–428 BCEAnaxagorasFirst philosopher to settle in Athens; tried for impiety5th c. BCELeucippusAristotle presents atomism as a reply to the Eleatics: keep unchanging being, but add the void.c. 428–348 BCEPlatoSocrates’ student, founder of the Academy, master of the dialogueArgued against
c. 535–475 BCEHeraclitusParmenides’ attack on “two-headed mortals” who say things both are and are not is often, though debatably, read as aimed at Heraclitus.Criticised by
c. 483–375 BCEGorgiasGorgias’ On Non-Being parodies Parmenides’ arguments about being.Meanwhile, in other traditions
traditionally 6th c. BCELaoziLegendary sage credited with the Daodejingfl. 6th–5th c. BCEAjita KesakambalīMaterialist teacher of the Buddha’s time, named for his hair blanket551–479 BCE (traditional)ConfuciusTeacher from Lu who sought to revive the Zhou wayc. 480–400 BCE (debated; an older dating is c. 563–483 BCE)The Buddha (Siddhārtha Gautama)Founder of Buddhism, who taught a middle way out of sufferingc. 470–391 BCEMoziFounder of Mohism and critic of Confucian partialityOn the record
Parmenides’ attack on “two-headed mortals” is often, though debatably, read as aimed at Heraclitus.
Fragment 6 condemns mortals for whom “to be and not to be are the same and not the same” but names no one. Some scholars hear Heraclitus in it; others see a general target, and recent work stresses how much the two thinkers share. Even their relative dates are uncertain.
Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Parmenides” · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Heraclitus”