Parmenides
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Parmenides
I have begun to notice a trend that is rising in our pre-Socratic philosophers, this can be observed in that their outlook on the world was one that was searching for something that was fundamental to all that was and is. For Heraclitus it was the flux and for Parmenides it is simply being. These modes of thought denote that there is some equality in all things, some characteristic that is similar for all. Parmenides explained this characteristic as simply the fact that all things that exist are similar because they exist.
If one assumes that existence is something that can never not be, a question arises. Where did everything come from in the beginning? How could something suddenly spring into being from nothing? Parmenides monism is extremely apparent in regards to this area. Parmenides believed that everything simply is. He also said that things that are being cannot understand not being because it is not something that they have experienced before. Even when things perish in our world they are not, not existing they have merely changed forms. The is remains the same. In like manner Heraclitus thought that all things were in constant flux, ever changing forms.
Monism or the belief that there is something fundamental to all things can be found in a lot of Parmenides thinking including his thoughts about virtues such as truth. In this story the goddess of truth is showing him the path of truth. Truth is like a light that illuminates that which is. This means that it is a disclosure or a true perception of what is. For us this illumination is not knowledge that we gain but more like a revelation of the fundamental truth in the universe which is that being is all that is.
Parmenides also showed monistic views in the opening fragments. This was achieved by the linguistics that he used. Firstly it should be understood that the fact that his chariots were led by maidens and perhaps even the fact that the goddess was a goddess, a feminine image, may have been implied sexual innuendoes. If this is indeed the case a parallel can be drawn between the quest for knowledge and the erotic. In each the “Is” is the desire, whether for knowledge or an orgasm, it is the flux, the process by which on tries to get a better experience of something.
“Being is” is what Parmenides defines as the fundamental characteristic of everything this is the arche in his monastic views.