Parmenides

“Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could…” --The Sound of Music Thus far into her song, Parmenides would have been in total agreement with Maria. The principle of “ex nihilo nihil” is quite important to his argument about the perfection of the world. It is impossible that the world could be created from nothing, since, according to Parmenides, “what is not” cannot exist. From this premise, he argues that since there is nothing that can be called what-is-not the world cannot have any deficiencies, since deficiency would imply the existence of “what-is-not. While this argument is logical, the next step he takes is less tenable. He argues next that human experience is completely wrong; that the world is changeless, timeless, single, and ungenerated; and that, perhaps as a consequence of this, it is a perfect sphere, “equally balanced in every direction from the…

Parmenides, like many pre-Socratic philosophers, was among the first to start questioning the world around him in a philosophical context. A student of Xenophanes’, Parmenides argued that change did not occur in the natural world and that the world is as it is and will remain so for eternity. He argued, quite fervently, that our personal observations of the natural world do not correlate with reality. While many see this as a fallacy in the modern era, the principle behind his ideas (that the…

Heraclitus believes in the reality of change, whereas Parmenides views change is a lie and non-existent. While Heraclitus’s themes seem closer to the current laws of science, Parmenides seems to be arguing from a perspective of permanence and order, whereas Heraclitus embraces the chaotic nature of the world. Their arguments have transcended time and managed to be of relevance even today, because we are still in the same state of unknowing as there were, regardless of all the technological…

things. These early philosophers believed that the universe was more systematic and rational, that the world functioned apart from the gods or divine authority, and that it was more scientific and fact-based. Naturalism centered on empirical facts, and scientific principles and laws, however, not all of the pre-Socratics agreed on how the world should be understood. Parmenides, also called the Father of Western Philosophy, rejected change in the universe, an opinion that other pre-Socratics…

and that everything is a copy. For Plato, forms only exist in the mind of the creator and that intellectual truth is truer than physical truth. So does that mean I am a copy of my mother’s and father’s gene pool, Plato would agree. For Parmenides, something cannot come from nothing and, therefore, birth is impossible the coming to be and cannot go to nothing, thus death is also impossible. An empty space is nothing, a non-being and non-being cannot exist, and, therefore, an empty space cannot…

Introduction: In Parmenides, Zeno and Parmenides also Socrates joins in the conversation; they are talking about the theory of forms in which they are discussing. I will be discussing that the whole-problem theory can be defended, but to a certain extent. I will start off with Zeno reading a book to Socrates and their discussion about the theory of forms. I will then move on to my criticism, on why I agree with the idea that the form won’t be the same and I will disagree with the point of the…

Who is Socrates? By many he is recognized as the father of Western philosophy. Other than that, very little is known about his life. What we do know is told from different viewpoints. Most of his life was chronicled through the dialogues of one his most famous students Plato, in The Republic and the plays of Aristophanes, in The Clouds. Each had their own portrayals of Socrates’ characteristics and beliefs. If you have read his texts then you can tell that in, The Clouds, Aristophanes wrote with…

Parmenides uses a poem to prove the concept of unity that is the universe and our reality. The poem begins by showing a common person being chosen and given a sacred thing free of corruption, that thing being Truth. The form of Truth is something called what-is; it is free of opinions and errors. It validates Parmenides concepts of unity, that the world is non-changing and that ideas of becoming and removing are false. How empty space is not possible, and how something cannot be simply created…

Kendra Rivera Professor Mulholland Greek and Roman Humanities December 3, 2014 Humanism was a concept that led to many impacts on other philosophy and philosophers ways of thinking. Humanism is known as a concept or philosophy that gave a major importance to the human being, rather then the supernatural, gods or the divine. Humanism focused completely on the welfare of humans and this introduced a complete different way of thinking to everyone because they were so use to focusing on others…

Heraclitus of Ephesus wrote “Opposition brings concord: Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.” Heraclitus of Ephesus was a Greek philosopher born just miles away from the birthplace of philosophy. He never let anyone know his political views he always was seen as a pioneer of wisdom for his words. He always saw the general human being as lacking understanding, just walking through this earth but never understanding what was going on about them. Heraclitus always saw everything through an…