Thinker · TH-0317
Parmenides
Parmenides of Elea was a Greek philosopher of the early fifth century BCE whose hexameter poem survives only in fragments, mostly quoted by later…
Παρμενίδης
Also known as Parmenides of Elea
c. 515 – 450 BCE · Elea (southern Italy)
Traditions: Greek & Roman
Schools: Pre-Socratics
Parmenides of Elea was a Greek philosopher of the early fifth century BCE whose hexameter poem survives only in fragments, mostly quoted by later writers. In the 'Way of Truth' a goddess argues that what is cannot come to be, perish or change, since that would require what is not. How this bears on the experienced world of change, described in the poem's 'Way of Opinion', is disputed. His argument set the agenda for later Greek metaphysics.
Key ideas
- What is, is, and cannot not be; what is not cannot be thought or spoken of.
- What is must be ungenerated, imperishable, whole and unchanging.
- The senses, which report coming-to-be and change, are not a reliable guide to truth.
- The poem also gives an account of the world of appearance, whose status alongside the Way of Truth remains debated.
Major works
- On Nature (Peri physeos), poem surviving in fragments, early 5th century BCE
- Simplicius, Commentary on Aristotle's Physics (6th century CE), the main source preserving the fragments
- Plato, Parmenides (dialogue portraying him)
In the conversation
- Question How can you talk about non-being without turning it into a something?
- Question When philosophers ask what exists, what would even count as an answer?
On the map
The questions in The Coordinates of Thought where Parmenides takes a place.
- 1.1 Ontology What is there?
- 1.4 Philosophy of Time Does time pass, or does it only seem to?