ABSTRACT
In his characteristically obscure style, Parmenides of Elea, one of the most influential pre-Socratic philosophers, argued 25 centuries ago against the common-sensical belief of the physical world as a reality of plurality and change. In the poem On Nature, his only surviving work, Parmenides asserted that what exists
The fragment evokes the familiar image of the sphere as a representation of perfection, seamlessness, and unity, and advances the argument that variation gets in the way of knowing and is, in some sense, messy. Parmenides’ cryptic demonstration, and to no less extent Pythagoras’ fascination with numbers and geometry, instituted very early in the history of Western thought our longing for essences and stability. It is not coincidental that Plato decided to devote one of his most complex and intriguing dialogues to issues concerning Parmenides’ philosophy. Parmenides played a crucial role in the development of Plato’s theory of forms, whose standard doctrine can be found in the Phaedo and the Republic, and according to which eternal, unchanging, qualities or principles exist independently of the changing world of phenomena. It is worth noticing that in the economy of both Parmenides’ and Plato’s arguments, variation was a perceptual primitive in that it was immediately apprehended by the senses. However, it was also deemed a barrier to true understanding (hence, to philosophy) and was to be transcended.
