Ancient Greek Philosophy and Parmenides
Appearance, Everlasting Being and Logos in the Material World
Feb 12, 2009
Parmenides (510-470 BC) was a pre-Socratic philosopher and also the founder of the Eleatic School, deriving its meaning from the city of Elea, a Greek city in Italy where both Parmenides and Zeno originated from.
The Philosophy of Eternal Unchanging Existence
Parmenides believed that everything that existed now in the world had always existed and will exist for all time. He claimed that nothing can come out of nothing and as such no entity could convert itself into nothing, meaning that nothing would ever perish. All that surrounds people had not only existed since time immemorial, but it could not change and, as a result, remained always constant and the same.
Changing Appearance of the Senses and the Pure Being of the Logos
Nothing could ever be subject to change although it may appear so to one's eyes and senses. Parmenides believed that all change that one perceives in nature is an illusion on the part of the human mind. When one sees natural processes, such as plants decaying, animals dying or people getting old, it is only the face of appearance because the universe is composed of an unchanging substance, what he terms “pure being”.
Parmenides divided the universe into two opposing worlds. There is the world of Appearance which is how things seem or how one tends to perceive things. However, the senses are not to be trusted since they are fallible and they constantly deceive. What is real is only accessible through pure logic, the Logos, that is, rational thought.
It is therefore only through rationalism, the human capacity of thinking and reasoning, that one can get a glimpse of an underlying implicit reality, which is the "Way of Truth" for Parmenides. This pure being is constant, eternal and perfect. It does not change and physical laws do not apply to it since physical laws are based on observation. Observation itself is tainted and flawed due to the deceptive nature of the senses.
Parmenides has been an important influence on the great philosopher Plato. Plato also was a dualist and believed that everything in nature came from the realm of Ideas, a spiritual eternal substance and that the material product or existence was only an illusion based on the gullibility of the senses. The real and true, he claims along with Parmenides, is only visible through reason and rationalism and Plato equally rejected any kind of science as merely opinion based on faulty human observation.
Sources
Gaarder, Jostein. El Mundo de Sofia. trans. Kirsti Baggethun and Asunción Lorenzo. Mexico City: Ediciones Siruela, 2001.
Hardy Leahey, Thomas. A History of Psychology: Main Currents in Psychological Thought. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997.
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