Biography
Parmenid is an ancient Greek philosopher who managed to express his own views on being, the world order and the meaning of the human existence in poetic form. The ideas and theories of Parmenide formed the basis of philosophy as science, and the works of this person still cause interest and hot spores between those who are interested in philosophical issues.Childhood and youth
A little information has been preserved about the biography of Parmenide. It is known that the philosopher is from the so-called Great Greece (now it is south of Italy). According to another philosopher, Plato, Parmenid was born in 475 to our era in the city of Elee. According to another information, the thinker was born about 540 to our era. Also found information that Parmenid came from a notable and secured family and even participated in the city management.
Teachers of the future thinker were Xenofan and Aminine. Parmenid greedily absorbed the ideas of mentors, but missed them across the prism of his own opinion, interpreting in its own way. When Amini died, Parmenid, as a devoted student, erected a philosopher to the tomb of his own forces.
Philosophy
The teachings of Parmenides are stated in the poem under the name "On Nature". This great work lay on the basis of the Elais School of Philosophy. Unfortunately, the poem is not fully preserved. It is noteworthy that Parmenid outlined his own point of view in poetic: the work is written by a gecmeter.
The first part that came to the modern reader is an entry that is an allegory. The action begins with the fact that beautiful Virgo offer Parmenides to travel on a chariot. This chariot begins to take up, symbolizing the ascension of the human soul on the sky. Soon the path of Parmenide ends up, and the philosopher is in front of the gates to Divine draws.
On the threshold of the thinker awaits the goddess that invites Parmenis to proceed inside. The immortal Virgo is going to open the philosopher the highest truth about the purpose of mortal people. Here Introduction, or rather the preserved part, breaks down.
In the following passage, Parmenide's reasoning is set out about being. The philosopher represented Being in the form of a ball. Here, the opinions of interpreters are diverged: according to one version, Parmenid meant not a physical component of being, but spiritual content. On the other, the ball in the work of the philosopher reflects the form of the universe, as the author represented it. It is also worth emphasizing that in the representation of the Greeks of that time the ball was a symbol of ideal and harmony.
The plot of the poem continues the story of the goddess. Beautiful Virgo told the thinker that being eternally, never born and, accordingly, will not stop. Being is also characterized by four characteristics: perfection, physicality, immobility and self-sufficiency. Any changes occurring inside being (that is, in the life of a simple person), do not concern the essence of being. In other words, no events that seem important mortals do not affect being.
In fact, Parmenid is actually like a kind of dialogue with a philosopher Herclite, which, on the contrary, adhered to the opinion that being of course and any events affect its essence, changing circumstances.
Not close to Parmeno and the idea of the appearance of being from emptiness. The philosopher called similar thoughts absurd. In addition, the thinker refuted the point of view of those who believe that the existence of the world is non-existence. In this case, Parmenid considered, human life, the development and attempt to understand the world is meaningless. It is worth paying tribute to the philosopher - unlike many contemporaries, Parmenid each idea reinforced with facts and evidence.
The statement of the philosopher is largely based on opposition. Mostly, Parmenid emphasizes that the opinions of ordinary people are opposite to the highest truth, which is not allowed to death. Genesis in the poem is opposed to the concept of necessity. The need is that it does not allow being to stop exist and apply non-existence.
In modern philosophy, Parmenid is considered the founder of materialism. However, the method that the thinker chose to present his own theories seems strange: to Parmenide no philosopher wrote verses. In addition, no one also used mystical allegories and images of the gods.
The teachings of Parmenide developed a student of the philosopher Zenon Elayky. This thinker led 36 so-called aporis (contradictions), which prove the ideas of Parmenide about being. There was a contradiction about Achille and the Turtle, which says: Achilles, who went to a certain point later, the turtle will not be able to overtake it, since the turtle will be distinguished from Achilla at any time, overcoming some distance.
With the teachings of Parmenides on Being often compare such ideas of another philosopher - democritus, which, unlike Parmenide, considered being as a relationship of a set of divided atoms.
Personal life
No information is preserved about the personal life of the philosopher. It is not known whether Parmenides had a family or a thinker dedicated to the life of philosophical thoughts and his own poetic treatise.Death
There is also no reliable information about the death of a great thinker. According to one version, under life, the philosopher, as well as Eleaata (followers of the teachings of Parmenide) were persecuted and persecuted for the ideas expressed, and the thinker himself was executed, as the rest. On the other, the teaching of Parmenide was only available to the narrow circle of like-minded philosophers, which lived safely to a deep old age.
Be that as it may, it is safe to argue that Parmenide's ideas had an impact on the development of the philosophy of the time, and are still discussed and disputed by people who are not indifferent to the problems of being.
It is also obvious that the teachings of Parmenide, the quotes from which are still being aroused by the foundation for the work of European philosophers of a later time. Who knows, perhaps, without a treatise "On Nature", the development of European culture would be fundamentally in another bed.
Quotes
- "Think and be - the same thing."
- "Being is the beginning of everything, being is there, and there is no nonsense, everything is filled with Being."
- "Being is not affected by damage and death, otherwise it would turn into non-existence, but there is no non-existence."
- "Being does not have a past or the future. Being is clean real. "