How Does Parenides Still Exist

Parmenides of Elea came into being during the time of the Pre-Socratics, however he would argue that he never actually came into being. He would also argue that he never perished from being. As Parmenides would have it, he still exists, and he will always exist, for nothing can be created or destroyed, because change is impossible. It seems illogical to conclude that Parmenides from the Pre-Socratics era exists, when we bear witness to birth and death on a regular occurrence. However, Parmenides does not think we are acting from a sound place of judgement. He insists that if we conceive of something “not” in existence, we are in fact deluded. Parmenides’ central ideology is this: That which is not cannot be thought about or spoken about. While the Milesian philosophers look for a permanent element to explain the Cosmology, Heraclitus finds that constant change is the essential factor for existence. They come to these conclusions by way of sense perception, but Parmenides rejects this idea. He claims you cannot trust your senses, and you must only rely on reason to perceive reality. He allows through reason alone the two ways of thinking of the world, which he presents in his poem The Way of Truth: “Come now, I will tell you – and bring away my story safely when you have heard it- the only ways of inquiry there are to think: the one, that it …show more content…
Parmenides finds that to allow the other way of thinking— that is to attempt to think of nothing, will result in “delusion,” and he goes so far to say that thinking and speaking of what is “not” is really not thinking or speaking at all. This includes thinking and speaking of expressions that lack meaning. We can only think or speak of what is meaningful (words that have been defined and are coherent), and to use an expression without meaning makes the entire thought or speech