ELEÁTICA school: characteristics and representatives

In this lesson from a TEACHER we offer you a summary of the characteristics of the eEleatic school and its representatives, a Greek philosophical current that defends the existence of a unique and immutable substance that constitutes their essence. It develops between 6th and 5th centuries in Elea, a colony in southern Italy and hence its name.

They belonged to this stream,Parmenides and Zeno of Elea, Xenophanes of Colophon and Meliso of Samos. All these philosophers hold the belief that natural objects are, in essence, being, thus denying the existence of non-being. The object of study of the Eleatics will be nature.

If you want to know more about Eleatic philosophy, keep reading this article by a PROFESSOR.

Index

1. Characteristics of the Eleatic school
2. Xenophanes of Colophon, a great representative of the Eleatic school
3. Elea Parmenides
4. Zeno of Elea, another of the representatives of the Eleatic school
5. Meliso from Samos

Among the main characteristics of the Eleatic school, the following stand out:

• They rejected thesis materialists of the ionic school

• Conception of the universe as one immutable, infinite and eternal unity and it is not possible to know it through the senses

  In order to ParmenidesThis unique, immutable, infinite and eternal substance has extension and is spherical in shape, and is, for many, fundamental in Platonic philosophy. With this thinker the thematization of the entity takes place and thus metaphysics is born. There is no doubt, therefore, of the relevance of this philosopher in the history of western philosophy.
• Heraclitus, unlike Parmenides, assures that the Universe it is an indivisible and immutable sphere and that the change was caused by contradiction. War, he says, is the father of all things. There is only becoming in its creating and destroying the world, as does fire.
• Exhibited paradoxes and arguments logical that have survived to this day
• Eleatic philosophy has contributed notably to the development of the western thought
• They flatly deny that true knowledge comes from the data of the experience. Only the logic is a valid method to get to the truth
• Only through the reason it is possible to reach a true knowledge about reality. And she is the one that allows the human being to see that there is only one be immutable and immobile
• Multiplicity and change are just one delusion of the senses, that deceive us

Image: Unmeasurable

Xenophanes was not born in Elea, but in Colophon, in Ionia, although due to his ideas, he is considered part of the Eleatic school. He claimed to be a nomad and lived in many places such as Messina, Catania, Elea or in the court of Hieron of Syracuse, as an old man.

He greatly influenced later philosophy, especially his idea that divinity was one, eternal, infinite, and spherical. Refering to epistemology, ensures that the truth is not within the reach of the human being. There are no truths, only opinions. The only one who can know is God.

The pure truth, no man has seen or will see it

Of Xenophanes, as of the rest of the pre-SocraticsOnly some fragments and quotes from philosophers such as Simplicio and Sexto Empírico are preserved. According to Diogenes Laercio, he wrote about 200 poems, which unfortunately have been lost and a work with the title "About nature”, Although this data does not offer much credibility.

Parmenides He is a native of Elea, in Magna Graecia and was one of the most important philosophers of the so-called pre-Socratics. His poem "About natureIn which he extensively develops his metaphysics. In this work appear the main ideas from the thinker:

• The entity is one, immobile and eternal
• The human being cannot attain true knowledge. Human reason can only grasp the apparent

In this way he denied constant change and become heracleitean. The change that is observed in nature is nothing more than mere appearance, a deception of the senses. In addition to being a philosopher, Parmenides devoted himself to politics, becoming a legislator of Elea.

To this day, about twenty fragments that belong to a poem have arrived and, like the previous one, they have been cited by Simplicio, Sexto Empírico and Diógenes Laercio.

“Everything there is has always existed. Nothing can come from nothing. And something that exists cannot be converted into anything either ”.

Zeno was also born in Elea, being the favorite disciple of Parmenides and as his teacher, he devoted himself to politics in his hometown, rejecting the tyranny of the moment. They say he died a tragic death. He was thrown into a mortar and subsequently mutilated.

Some claim that he opposed Parmenides' doctrine of being and that both philosophies are independent. Zeno does not need his teacher's theories in order to understand his thinking.

“If he were to explain to me what one is, he would be able to account for existing things.”

His main contribution to the history of Western philosophy has undoubtedly been his formalization of the dialectics. It is to him that the formulation of the reduction to the absurd is owed.

Be supposed to Zeno he only wrote a book entitled About Nature, a common title in works of the time. Diogenes Laertius, among others, he cites it in his "Life and work of illustrious philosophers”. Tertullian in his “Apology", Zeno of Elea, whom Dionysius asked what the superiority of philosophy consists of, replied: "In contempt of death!" and at the hands of the tyrant, he maintains, impassive, his purpose until death.

Its famous paradox from Achilles and the tortoise, where both compete in a race in which the turtle is left ahead. In this way, Achilles will never be able to reach it, since before he would have to travel half the distance of the turtle's path, and so on, successively to infinity. Thus, he denies motion and makes an approximation to the infinitesimal calculus.

Despite not being a native of Elea, Meliso is considered a thinker of the Eleatic school, since he inherited the philosophy of Parmenides as far as reality is concerned. The senses, for Samos, had no value when it comes to knowing, although he does not describe the physical world in the manner of Parmenides. According to Meliso, there is no change, nor becoming, not even in appearance.

“What always was, always will be. Because if it arose, necessarily before his generation there was nothing; then, if there was nothing, nothing would come from nothing ".

The being of Meliso is infinite, unlimited and eternal, unlike Parmenides, and which is also incorporeal. Aristotle I would affirm, in this sense, that what does not have a body cannot be infinite either.

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Laercio, D. Life and sentences of illustrious philosophers. Ed. Omega. 2003