South Kazakhstan Medical Academy

Department of social and humanitarian

disciplines.
Submitted by: Sohail Riaz.
Group 14 A.
Submitted to: Sir Sabitov Talgat.
Theme: Parmenides philosopher.
Introduction
Parmenides, (born c. 515 BCE), Greek
philosopher of Elea in southern Italy who
founded Eleaticism, one of the leading
pre-Socratic schools of Greek thought.
His general teaching has been diligently
reconstructed from the few surviving
fragments of his principal work, a lengthy
three-part verse composition titled On
Nature.
What is Parmenides best
known for?
Parmenides has been considered the
founder of ontology and has, through his
influence on Plato, influenced the whole
history of Western philosophy. He is also
considered to be the founder of the Eleatic
school of philosophy, which also included
Zeno of Elea and Melissus of Samos.
Parmenides famous saying

You must learn all things, both the

unshaken heart of persuasive truth, and the
opinions of mortals in which there is no true
warranty.
Background
Exact date of birth unknown. Sometime early 5th
Century BCE
Born in Elea, Greek Colony in Italy
Teacher
Pupil of Xenophanes
Believed in one God, as opposed to two or more
Also didn’t believe in Gods in the form of humans
Argued for example that if cows could visualize Gods,
they would visualize Gods in the image of a cow
Influenced Parmenides view on:
 Opinion vs. Knowledge
 Existence
Students
Founded school of Elea
Famous students of the school
 Zeno
 Tried to prove there are inconsistencies with the world of

appearance and reality

 Melissus
Parmenides’s Works
Wrote the poem “On Nature”
Only 160 of 800 verses survived (stanford.edu)
Describes a journey to the home of a goddess, where she
reveals the Way of Belief and the Way of Truth
 Way of Belief is false and the view of the majority
 Way of Truth is the true way to perceive Being
Philosophy
Philosophy based on logic through reasoning and not
based on the senses
Senses are deceitful and not trustworthy
Two worlds:
World of appearance that is an illusion cast by the
senses
World of Reality that can be reached thru intellect
Way of Truth
Change is impossible
Everything that exists has always existed and will exist
for the rest of time
There are the ‘Being’ and ‘Not Being’
 Nothing is produced
 Nothing creates nothing.

 A Being can not turn into a Not Being

 Opinions are formed because of confusion between Being and Not

Being
Way of Opinion

Gives understanding of the opinions of Men

Not necessarily wrong, but it is only based on what the
senses perceive which is what the majority of people
understand
Opinions are formed because of confusion between Being
and Not Being
Sense Perception
Parmenides
Believes that those who trust
their senses are fools, and
that change is illusory for
nothing ever changes
Humans should judge reality
by reason and not their
senses
Heraclitus
Prefers things that can be
experienced with senses to
cold reason
Thinks the sense are vital
for understanding what is
true
"No man ever steps in the
same river twice.”
Influenced
Parmenides influenced Plato
Plato met Zeno and Parmenides on a visit to Athens
Plato created a dialogue named Parmenides after him
Bibliography
 Italy Map. Web. 11 Feb 2011. <http://www.bugbog.com/images/maps/italy-map.jpg>.
 PBS Probes The Brain. Web. 11 Feb 2011. <http://www.kued.org/?
area=pressReleases&action=details&id=NDA1>.
 Xenophanes. Web. 11 Feb 2011. <http://www.iep.utm.edu/xenoph/>.
 lendering, jona. "Parmenides." Livious.org. Livious.org, 2005. Web. 11 Feb 2011.
<http://www.livius.org/pan-paz/parmenides/parmenides.html>.
 "Parmenides." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web.
<http://www.iep.utm.edu/parmenid/>.
 Palmer, John, "Parmenides", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition),
Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/parmenides/>.
Conclusion
Parmenides held that the multiplicity of existing
things, their changing forms and motion, are but an
appearance of a single eternal reality (“Being”), thus
giving rise to the Parmenidean principle that “all is
one.” From this concept of Being, he went on to say
that all claims of change or of non-Being are illogical.
Because he introduced the method of basing claims
about appearances on a logical concept of Being, he is
considered one of the founders of metaphysics. Plato’s
dialogue the Parmenides deals with his thought.