Parmenides: biography and contributions of this Greek philosopher

The philosophy old can be divided into different stages. The philosophers before Socrates They are called "Pre-Socratic" and are known for passing from the myths, which were the way to explain and apprehend the world up to the time, to the logos, which is based on the use of reason for the search for TRUE.

Parmenides was born in a small Greek city in the province of Anatolia, Elea, around the year 515 BC. C, some thirty years before Socrates, therefore, he is part of the group of "Pre-Socratic" philosophers, and would become one of the most eloquent and profound thinkers of his time.

From a rich and illustrious family like many other philosophers of the time, he challenged current theories and his predecessors. He was the founder along with other philosophers of the Eleatic school, whose main doctrine holds that one thing perceivable is essentially a single immutable entity, that is, things inherently exist, are united, and are inseparable. Starting an ontological debate between dualism and monism that is still alive, things present a single reality or we can separate them into different substances, for Parmenides "what there is and being are the same thing", a point of view that belongs to the monism.

He also conveyed his ideas and the division between truth and perception. Through the arts he wrote a great poem entitled "On Nature" in which he prescribed two views of nature. reality: "the way of truth" and "the way of opinion" where he separated rational thought from feelings. Parmenides died around 450 BC. C., at the age of 65 years. In this article we will delve into the life and work of Parmenides, highlighting some thoughts and ideas, undoubtedly ancient, but being among the first allow us to better understand contemporary philosophy.

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Brief biography of Parmenides

Parmenides' life is not without unknowns and gaps; not even the year of his death and his birth are known with certainty, although she is surrounded by other great names of the time. It seems that the only thing we can establish without risk of being wrong is the place of his birth, Elea, a city in Magna Graecia and from which the Eleatic school takes its name. Also the origin of him in an influential and well-positioned family of ancient Greece.

His first steps in the world of philosophy are doubtful. While some affirm that he was a disciple of Arminias, that he was a well-known follower of Pythagoras, other well-known philosophers of the time such as Plato and Aristotle affirmed through their testimonies that Parmenides began in the world of philosophy thanks to Coprofen, which is already considered part of the Eleatic school and its thought.

Parmenides he is considered a great figure in the world of philosophy and holds the title of father of metaphysics. He encouraged those who followed him to rethink certain ideas that had reigned until then in ancient Greece, where the world and the existence of the human being were explained mainly thanks to the mythology and the meaning it established of the world. The philosophers of the time, including Parmenides, devoted themselves tirelessly to seeking the truth, the origin of all things, using reason as an instrument. But how can we explain a world in constant change? It was not only the constant flow of the world that was the problem, but also our limited and unreliable ability to perceive through the senses.

He was also known for challenging great contemporaries of the time. One of his best-known confrontations was against Heraclitus, a materialist philosopher, that he considered that the existence of things was given by opposition, according to Heraclitus is the joy that allows us to experience sadness. One of the best-known students of the Eleatic school was Zeno of Elea, who, following the approach of his teacher, tried to demonstrate that being was something unique and complete, there is no a series of different and different elements that constitute it, but both the being and the universe are part of the same base, "Nothing comes from nothing" as his mentor would say.

Like other philosophers concerned with the city and its development, he also participated, according to what is said, in the political life of the time. Parmenides did it actively, being part of the government and contributing to the drafting of the laws of his city.

Apparently, in the last years of his life he lived in Athens together with his most famous disciple, Zeno, with whom it is said that he also shared a relationship, and has been considered his eromenos. It was in Athens where a very young Socrates was able to hear his teachings, apparently he was not the only one to be impregnated with his ideas and theories. According to the story, Pericles also attended his interventions with great interest. Parmenides thus influenced not only the thought of his time, but also that of the future thanks to the transmission of his knowledge.

Parmenides he was the first to establish the superiority of reason over perception and he mainly got his prestige thanks to this idea. What we see and perceive through our senses is not true. Through our sight, hearing, touch or feelings, always according to Parmenides, only beliefs will arise. and false opinions that will make us mistake and confuse the truth with what we are capable of perceiving.

Plato deeply admired him not only for his ideas, but for his way of arguing them in an analytical and profound way in his dialogue with Parmenides. Plato would recognize him as a spiritual father and sees in his ways of thinking different from his own a kind of sentimental betrayal due to the admiration he felt towards him.

The only written work of him - the poem "On Nature"

His teachings and thoughts are still the subject of many debates, especially in what feelings and situations can tell us about what is true. Although we may not have everything he wrote, and his thoughts are broader. The only work we know of is an extensive didactic poem entitled "On Nature", which was reconstructed thanks to the different fragments found.

The poem is divided into two main parts and a proem.; each part shows and travels a different path, that of reason and that of opinion, and for Parmenides there is a true winner: reason leads us to the truth of things, the senses can only capture the appearance, which does not have to be true, moreover, it can lead us to completely erroneous beliefs and opinions unfounded.

A thought that we may now try to counteract by highlighting some capacities such as intuition and feelings when it comes to knowing and apprehending the world, but important for a time certainly influenced by religions and the lack of critical thinking.

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Parmenides thought

Parmenides continued with the search begun by the Miletus school in the 6th century BC. C., trying to explain and establish an origin of nature, or more specifically of the existence, since his research focused especially on living beings. For its main representative, Thales of Miletus, this principle or fundamental origin was none other than water (arché, in Greek), it is from This substance would have created all living beings, a theory that, far from being crazy, agrees largely with the theory of evolution.

The importance of this idea, which we now have somewhat integrated, since we know that we evolved from the same elements and then from living beings, was that became the first Western theory about the physical world that we know of, establishing a common origin for all.

Parmenides' goal was, then, to know the world. But how to do it, if this does not stop changing? That seemed to be the main obstacle he faced. That is why the rational approach that he proposed was very important, this perspective also came to influence the own origin of things, which according to him would not be water, but the capacity to be that all things had in common. stuff.

Within the characteristics that are their own and innate would be the ability to be. All beings are, exist, beings that are not, do not exist. This is complicated to understand and above all it is presented to misinterpretations that are given by the subsequent thought between thought and existence. To make it more accessible and understandable we can use an example suggested by Parmenides himself, according to him, noise and light are beings and silence and darkness do not exist and therefore are not beings. For Parmenides it was not water, but the existence that was common to all things that were evidently.

This principle of being or not being is the origin of his poem. This revelation is given to him, like others, by a goddess. More than anything, this axiom or principle comes to say that space or emptiness would not exist and neither would nothing, and, therefore, Therefore, the human being or the rest of the things cannot come from something that does not exist, if it is the only thing that we share everybody.

Once being is and not being is not established, it focuses on defining what the properties of being or being are. So that being or reality cannot die and is then eternal. On the one hand, it cannot originate in non-being or nothingness, because these simply do not exist, nor can they cease to exist. It is the senses and what we get from them that makes us believe that things appear and disappear in reality, "everything is full of Being", this ultimate property, cannot be divided, cannot disappear, and cannot change. That is, it cannot become non-existence.

These conclusions clearly go against the information that the senses offer us., because thanks to them what we perceive is a world in constant change, not immutable things. This makes Parmenides present an argument in favor of reason, which is the only one that can bring us closer to the truth.