THE INSPIRED
(EARLY 5TH CENTURY BC)
"Being is."
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THE INSPIRED (EARLY 5TH CENTURY BC) "Being is." |
A radically innovative thinker, Parmenides of Elea does not repeat or reinterpret the thoughts of predecessors or contemporary philosophers. His emphasis was on the unity of being . Parmenides argues that Being is conceivable and expressible; not being is inconceivable, inexpressible - hence impossible. So being must be - so to speak.
He is an inspired thinker. The truth is revealed to him by a Goddess and he shares what is revealed in poetry. Yet he is recognised as the first to use the principle of contradiction in formal argument (see above) and his legacies include the Platonic dialogue and the paradox as a means of proving your point.
Quote - Fragment 8 (quoted in Simplicius Commentary on the Physics 144.25)
