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Questions tagged [parmenides]

Parmenides of Elea (late sixth to early fifth century BCE) was a Greek philosopher and founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy.

The following are some sources for more information on Parmenides:

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Did a lot of Greek philosophers believe lying is impossible?

As I understand it, Parmenides and Heraclitus were two pre-Socratic Greek philosophers whose views could not be farther apart. Parmenides believed that all change is illusory, and that there is just one indivisible entity which exists in reality. …
Keshav Srinivasan
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What is Quine's response to Parmenides's argument against change?

I was recently reading Russell's chapter on Parmenides in The History of Western Philosophy, and I came across a fun little argument for the absence of change. Essentially, it says that word meaning cannot refer to anything in the past or anything…
Apodictic Apple Juice
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Is Heraclitus really a Mobilist?

I learned that Heraclitus stressed the importance of change and the ephemeral nature of things in the cosmos. However, it seems that Heraclitus refers to a "logos": The opening of Heraclitus' book refers to a “logos which holds forever.”[3] There…
Delforge
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Why does Parmenides impose a limit on his Being?

Parmenides mentions twice in the poem what-is has limit in the part where he talks that what-is is “like the bulk of ball” (B8: lines 42, 49, pages 60, 61). 42: But since the limit is ultimate, it [namely, what-is] complete 49: for equal to…
dekross
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Easy way to think about Parmenides' argument against change?

I've had the hardest time grasping the bite of Parmenides' argument against change. His argument is summarized in ch. 5 "Article One: Potency Really Distinct From Act" of Reality: A Synthesis of Thomistic Thought by Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange: If…
Mark
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What did Parmenides mean when he argued that there can be no change and no time?

In the ongoing trouble with Parmenides' cryptic poem, which contains his argument against change, I finally stumbled upon an interpretation that is radically different than the usual one. It is by Ronald C. Hoy in Parmenides' Complete Rejection of…
viuser
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Explanation of Parmenides 'perfect' fragment?

From this site, one of Parmenides' fragments is translated: Since, then, it has a furthest limit, it is complete on every side, like the mass of a rounded sphere, equally poised from the centre in every direction; for it cannot be greater or…
QCD_IS_GOOD
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Reductionism and Parmenides

Though I thought about it multiple times, I never understood Parmenides' argument for the impossibility of change. Now studying Aristotle's Physics, it popped up again and I still have the same problems – including with Aristotle's criticism of it,…
viuser
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Plato's Parmenides conclusion

Reading this http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-parmenides/ and at the end it says that Plato rescues the existence of forms and shows "that Purity-F, Uniqueness, and No Causation by Contraries are all false".. but if those three principles are…
Ilya Grushevskiy
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How does Parmenides' argument against the reality of change work?

Garrigou-Lagrange, in his work entitled Reality, a synthesis of Thomistic thought (which can be found online), when discussing act and potency according to Aristotle, states that this distinction is necessary to refute Parmenides' argument against…
Nicol
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Can potentiality be used to dispel Parmenides's monism?

Can we say that beings are different precisely because this being has this potencies and that being has that potencies? Is the (only) thing differentiating two different things their set of potencies? For example is only that which is…
Thom
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Why did Parmenides rely on a fantastic fable to explain a sensitive-refusing theory?

There's one point in Parmenides' philosophy where he distinguishes between the 'Way of the Truth' and the 'Way of the Doxa' in a poem called On Nature. In said manuscript, the philosopher states the two ways to interpret the world, either from…
xvlaze
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Does Parmenides not face self-contradiction in his views on inquiry?

Parmenides holds that the purpose of inquiry is either to determine the existence of something (so as to say that whatever is, is indeed the case) or the nonexistence of something (so as to say that something is not the case). He then points out…
Chosen One
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What reasoning does Melissus or Parmenides give against the existence of "empty" or "the void"?

Melissus reaffirms Parmenides by explaining how there cannot be many without the existence of that which is empty, and since that which is empty is nothing, and nothing can't exist, thus there cannot be many. It seems to me that they associate…
personjerry
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Why doesn't Parmenides argument hold for fields - or does it?

The SEP points out For Descartes argued in his 1644 Principles of Philosophy (see Book II) that the essence of matter was extension (i.e., size and shape) because any other attribute of bodies could be imagined away without imagining away matter…
Mozibur Ullah
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