View source for Biography:Parmenides

{{Short description|5th century BC Greek philosopher}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region           = [[Philosophy:Western philosophy|Western philosophy]]
|era              = Pre-Socratic philosophy
|image       = Parmenides.jpg
|caption     = Bust of Parmenides discovered at Velia, thought to have been partially modeled on a [[Biography:Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger)|Metrodorus]] bust.
|name             = Parmenides
|birth_date       = {{circa|late 6th century BC}}
|birth_place      = Elea, [[Place:Magna Graecia|Magna Graecia]]
|death_place      = {{circa|5th century BC}}
|school_tradition = Eleatic school
|main_interests   = [[Philosophy:Ontology|Ontology]], [[Astronomy:Cosmology|Cosmology]]
|notable_ideas    = [[Philosophy:Monism|Monism]], [[Philosophy:Aletheia|Truth]] vs [[Philosophy:Doxa|Opinion]]
|influences       = [[Biography:Xenophanes|Xenophanes]], [[Biography:Heraclitus|Heraclitus]]
|influenced       = [[Biography:Zeno of Elea|Zeno of Elea]], [[Biography:Melissus of Samos|Melissus of Samos]], [[Biography:Democritus|Democritus]], [[Biography:Empedocles|Empedocles]], [[Biography:Anaxagoras|Anaxagoras]], [[Biography:Plato|Plato]] 
}}
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'''Parmenides of Elea''' ({{IPAc-en|p|ɑːr|ˈ|m|ɛ|n|ɪ|d|iː|z|...|ˈ|ɛ|l|i|ə}}; {{lang-grc-gre|Παρμενίδης ὁ Ἐλεάτης}}; {{fl.|late sixth or early fifth century BC}}) was a pre-Socratic [[Social:Ancient Greek|Greek]] [[Biography:Philosopher|philosopher]] from Elea in [[Place:Magna Graecia|Magna Graecia]]. 

Parmenides was born in the Greek colony of Elea, from a wealthy and illustrious family.{{efn|Diogenes Laërtius, {{harv|DK 28A1|loc=21}}}} His dates are uncertain; according to [[Philosophy:Doxography|doxographer]] [[Biography:Diogenes Laërtius|Diogenes Laërtius]], he flourished just before 500 BC,{{efn|Diogenes Laërtius {{harv|DK 28A1|loc=23}}}} which would put his year of birth near 540 BC, but in the [[Philosophy:Dialogue|dialogue]] ''Parmenides'' [[Biography:Plato|Plato]] has him visiting [[Place:Athens|Athens]] at the age of 65, when [[Biography:Socrates|Socrates]] was a young man, c. 450 BC,{{efn|Plato, ''Parmenides'', 127a–128b {{harv|DK 28A5}}}} which, if true, suggests a year of birth of c. 515 BC.{{sfn|Curd|2004|pages=3-8}} He is thought to have been in his prime (or "floruit") around 475 BC.{{sfn|Freeman|1946|p=140}}

The single known work by Parmenides is a poem whose original title is unknown but which is often referred to as ''On Nature.'' Only fragments of it survive. In his poem, Parmenides prescribes two views of [[Philosophy:Reality|reality]]. The first, the Way of "Alethia" or truth, describes how all reality is one, [[Philosophy:Change|change]] is impossible, and existence is timeless and uniform. The second view, the way of "[[Philosophy:Doxa|Doxa]]", or opinion, describes the world of appearances, in which one's sensory faculties lead to conceptions which are false and deceitful. 

Parmenides has been considered the founder of [[Philosophy:Ontology|ontology]] and has, through his influence on [[Biography:Plato|Plato]], influenced the whole history of [[Philosophy:Western philosophy|Western philosophy]].{{sfn|Palmer|2020}}  He is also considered to be the founder of the Eleatic school of [[Philosophy:Philosophy|philosophy]], which also included [[Biography:Zeno of Elea|Zeno of Elea]] and [[Biography:Melissus of Samos|Melissus of Samos]]. Zeno's paradoxes of motion were developed to defend Parmenides' views. In contemporary philosophy, Parmenides' work has remained relevant in debates about the philosophy of time.

==Biography==
Parmenides was born in the Greek colony of Elea, from a wealthy and illustrious family.{{efn|Diogenes Laërtius, {{harv|DK 28A1|loc=21}}}} His dates are uncertain; according to [[Philosophy:Doxography|doxographer]] [[Biography:Diogenes Laërtius|Diogenes Laërtius]], he flourished just before 500 BC,{{efn|Diogenes Laërtius {{harv|DK 28A1|loc=23}}}} which would put his year of birth near 540 BC, but in the [[Philosophy:Dialogue|dialogue]] ''Parmenides'' [[Biography:Plato|Plato]] has him visiting [[Place:Athens|Athens]] at the age of 65, when [[Biography:Socrates|Socrates]] was a young man, c. 450 BC,{{efn|Plato, ''Parmenides'', 127a–128b {{harv|DK 28A5}}}} which, if true, suggests a year of birth of c. 515 BC.{{sfn|Curd|2004|pages=3-8}} He is thought to have been in his prime (or "floruit") around 475 BC.{{sfn|Freeman|1946|p=140}}

== ''On Nature'' ==
Parmenides' sole work, which has only survived in fragments, is a poem in dactylic hexameter, later titled ''On Nature.'' Approximately 160 verses remain today from an original total that was probably near 800.{{sfn|Palmer|2020}} The poem was originally divided into three parts: An introductory proem that contains an allegorical narrative which explains the purpose of the work, a former section known as "The Way of Truth" (''[[Philosophy:Aletheia|aletheia]]'', ἀλήθεια), and a latter section known as "The Way of Appearance/Opinion" (''[[Philosophy:Doxa|doxa]]'', δόξα). Despite the poem's fragmentary nature, the general plan of both the proem and the first part, "The Way of Truth" have been ascertained by modern scholars, thanks to large excerpts made by [[Biography:Sextus Empiricus|Sextus Empiricus]]{{efn|''Against the Mathematicians'',{{harv|DK 28B1}}}} and [[Biography:Simplicius of Cilicia|Simplicius of Cilicia]].{{efn|''Commentary on [[Biography:Aristotle|Aristotle]]'s Physics''{{harv|DK 22B8}}}}.{{sfn|Palmer|2020}} Unfortunately, the second part, "The Way of Opinion," which is supposed to have been much longer than the first, only survives in small fragments and prose paraphrases.{{sfn|Palmer|2020}}

=== Introduction ===
The introductory proem describes the narrator's journey to receive a revelation from an unnamed goddess on the nature of reality.{{sfn|Curd|2004|loc=I.3}} The remainder of the work is then presented as the spoken revelation of the goddess without any accompanying narrative.{{sfn|Curd|2004|loc=I.3}}

The narrative of the poet's journey includes a variety of allegorical symbols, such as a speeding chariot with glowing axles, horses, the House of Night, Gates of the paths of Night and Day, and maidens who are "the daughters of the Sun"{{sfn|Kirk|Raven|Schofield|1983|p=243}} who escort the poet from the ordinary daytime world to a strange destination, outside our human paths.{{sfn|Furley|1973|pp=1–15}} The allegorical themes in the poem have attracted a variety of different interpretations, including comparisons to [[Biography:Homer|Homer]] and [[Biography:Hesiod|Hesiod]], and attempts to relate the journey towards either [[Philosophy:Enlightenment (spiritual)|enlightenment]] or darkness, but there is little scholarly consensus about any interpretation, and the surviving evidence from the poem itself, as well as any other literary use of allegory from the same time period, may be too sparse to ever determine any of the intended symbolism with certainty.{{sfn|Curd|2004|loc=I.3}}

=== ''The Way of Truth'' ===
In the ''Way of Truth'', an estimated 90% of which has survived,{{sfn|Palmer|2020}} Parmenides distinguishes between the unity of nature and its variety, insisting in the ''Way of Truth'' upon the reality of its unity, which is therefore the object of knowledge, and upon the unreality of its variety, which is therefore the object, not of knowledge, but of opinion{{cn|date=April 2022}}. This contrasts with the argument in the section called "the way of opinion,"  which discusses that which is illusory.

=== ''The Way of Opinion'' ===
In the significantly longer, but far worse preserved latter section of the poem, ''Way of Opinion'', Parmenides propounds a theory of the world of seeming and its development, pointing out, however, that, in accordance with the principles already laid down, these cosmological speculations do not pretend to anything more than mere appearance. The structure of the cosmos is a fundamental binary principle that governs the manifestations of all the particulars: "the aether fire of flame" (B 8.56), which is gentle, mild, soft, thin and clear, and self-identical, and the other is "ignorant night", body thick and heavy.{{sfn|Guthrie|1979|p= 61–62}}{{efn|{{harv|DK 28B8.53–4}}}} Cosmology originally comprised the greater part of his poem, explaining the world's origins and operations.{{efn|Stobaeus, i. 22. 1a}} Some idea of the [[Spherical Earth|sphericity of the Earth]] also seems to have been known to Parmenides.{{sfn|Palmer|2020}}{{efn|DK 28B10}}

== Legacy ==
As the first of the Eleatics, Parmenides is generally credited with being the philosopher who first defined ontology as a separate discipline distinct from theology.{{sfn|Palmer|2020}} His most important pupil was [[Biography:Zeno of Elea|Zeno]], who appears alongside him in Plato's ''Parmenides'' where they debate [[Philosophy:Dialectic|dialectic]] with [[Biography:Socrates|Socrates]].{{efn|{{harv|DK 28A5}}}} The pluralist theories of [[Biography:Empedocles|Empedocles]] and [[Biography:Anaxagoras|Anaxagoras]] and the atomist [[Biography:Leucippus|Leucippus]], and [[Biography:Democritus|Democritus]] have also been seen as a potential response to Parmenides' arguments and conclusions.{{sfn|Sedley|1998}}}} Parmenides is also mentioned in Plato's ''Sophist''{{efn|''Sophist'', 241d}} and ''Theaetetus.''{{efn|Plato, ''Theaetetus'', 183e}} Later Hellenistic doxographers also considered Parmenides to have been a pupil of [[Biography:Xenophanes|Xenophanes]].{{efn|Aristotle, ''Metaphysics'', i. 5; [[Biography:Sextus Empiricus|Sextus Empiricus]], ''adv. Math.'' vii. 111; [[Biography:Clement of Alexandria|Clement of Alexandria]], ''Stromata'', i. 301; Diogenes Laërtius, ix. 21}} [[Biography:Eusebius|Eusebius]], quoting [[Biography:Aristocles of Messene|Aristocles of Messene]], says that Parmenides was part of a line of skeptical philosophy that culminated in [[Philosophy:Pyrrhonism|Pyrrhonism]].{{efn|[[Biography:Eusebius|Eusebius]], ''Praeparatio Evangelica'' Chapter XVII}}{{bsn|date=April 2022}} Parmenides' proto-[[Philosophy:Monism|monism]] of the One also influenced [[Biography:Plotinus|Plotinus]] and [[Philosophy:Neoplatonism|Neoplatonism]].{{cn|date=September 2022}}

== Notes ==
=== Explanatory notes ===
{{notefoot}}
=== Fragments ===
{{notelist|20em}}
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Bibliography ==
===Ancient testimony===
In the Diels-Kranz numbering for testimony and fragments of Pre-Socratic philosophy, Parmenides is catalogued as number 28. The most recent edition of this catalogue is:
{{refbegin}}
{{cite book |last1=Diels |first1=Hermann |last2=Kranz |first2=Walther |editor-last1=Plamböck |editor-first1=Gert |title=Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker |date=1957 |publisher=Rowohlt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KEYWQwAACAAJ |access-date=11 April 2022 |isbn=5875607416 |language= grc,de}}.
{{refend}}
==== Life and doctrines ====
{{refbegin|30em}}
*'''A1. '''{{cite LotEP |chapter=Parmenides|ref={{sfnref|DK 28A1}}}}
*'''A2. '''{{cite encyclopedia | title = Parmenides | encyclopedia = Suda |ref={{sfnref|DK 28A2}}}}
*'''A3. '''{{cite LotEP |chapter=Anaximenes|§=3|ref={{sfnref|DK 28A3}}}}
*'''A4. '''{{cite book |author=[[Biography:Iamblichus|Iamblichus]]|title=Life of Pythagoras|ref={{sfnref|DK 28A4}}}}
*'''A5. '''{{cite book |author=[[Biography:Plato|Plato]]|title= Parmenides | at=[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plat.+Parm.+127a 127a]| ref={{sfnref|DK 28A5}} |series=Plato in Twelve Volumes| translator=Harold N. Fowler |volume=9 |date=1925}}
*'''A6. '''{{cite book |author=[[Biography:Aristotle|Aristotle]]|title=Metaphysics|at=986b|ref={{sfnref|DK 28A6}}}}
*'''A7. '''{{cite book |author=[[Biography:Alexander of Aphrodisias|Alexander of Aphrodisias]]|title=Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics|at=984b|ref={{sfnref|DK 28A7}}}}
*'''A8. '''{{cite book |author=[[Biography:Simplicius of Cilicia|Simplicius]] |title=Commentary On Aristotle's Physics |ref={{sfnref|DK 28A8}} |language=en}}
*'''A9. '''{{cite LotEP |chapter=Protagoras|ref={{sfnref|DK 28A9}}}}
*'''A10.''' {{cite book |author=[[Biography:Simplicius of Cilicia|Simplicius]] |title=Commentary On Aristotle's Physics |ref={{sfnref|DK 28A10}} |language=en}}
*'''A11.''' {{cite book |author=[[Biography:Eusebius|Eusebius]]|title=Chronicon Paschale|ref={{sfnref|DK 28A11}}}}
*'''A12.''' {{cite book |author=Strabo|title=Geographia|at=Book VI, §1|ref={{sfnref|DK 28A12}}}}
{{refend}}
==== Fragments ====
{{refbegin|20em}}
*{{cite book |last1=Empiricus |first1=Sextus |last2=Empírico |first2=Sexto |title=Sextus Empiricus in four volumes: Against the logicians. Vol. 2 |date=1933 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-99321-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RJg1AAAAIAAJ |access-date=13 April 2022 |language=en|ref={{sfnref|DK 28B1}}}}
*{{cite book |author1=[[Biography:Simplicius of Cilicia|Simplicius]] |title=Commentary On Aristotle Physics |date=22 April 2014 |page=55-56 |volume=1.3-4 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-4725-1531-5  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UAgsAwAAQBAJ |access-date=13 April 2022 |ref={{sfnref|DK 28B8}} |language=en}}
{{refend}}
=== Modern scholarship === 
{{refbegin|30em}}
*{{cite book |last1=Curd |first1=Patricia |title=The Legacy of Parmenides: Eleatic Monism and Later Presocratic Thought |date=2004 |publisher=Parmenides Pub. |isbn=978-1-930972-15-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FkSzQgAACAAJ |access-date=12 April 2022 |language=en}}
*{{Cite book|title=The Pre-Socratic Philosophers|last=Freeman|first=Kathleen|publisher=Oxford Basil Blackwell|year=1946|location=Great Britain in the City Of Oxford at the Alden Press|pages=140}}
*{{Cite book |title=Exegesis and Argument: Studies in Greek Philosophy presented to Gregory Vlastos |last=Furley |first=D.J. |year=1973}}
*{{cite book|last=Guthrie|first=W. K. C.|year=1979|title=A History of Greek Philosophy – The Presocratic tradition from Parmenides to Democritus|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
*{{cite book |last1=Kirk |last2=Raven |last3=Schofield |first1=G. S.|first2=J. E. |first3=M. |title=The presocratic philosophers : a critical history with a selection of texts |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kFpd86J8PLsC| access-date=12 April 2022| date=1983 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-27455-5 |edition=2nd |page=243}}
*{{Cite journal |title=Eleatic Conventionalism and Philoaus on the Conditions of Thought |last=Nussbaum |first=Martha |date=1979 |journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology |volume=83 |pages=63–108 |doi= 10.2307/311096|jstor=311096 }}
*{{cite SEP |url-id=parmenides |title=Parmenides |last=Palmer |first=John|date=2020}}
*{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy |date=1998 |publisher=Routledge | location=London | isbn=9780415169165| author1-last=Sedley|author1-first=David Sedley | title=Parmenides | editor-first1= Edward| editor-last1= Craig}}
{{refend}}
== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|40em}}
*{{cite book |last1=Austin |first1=Scott |title=Parmenides: Being, Bounds, and Logic |date=1986 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-03559-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ckDAQAAIAAJ |language=en}}
*{{cite book |last1=Austin |first1=Scott |title=Parmenides and The History of Dialectic |date=15 July 2007 |publisher=Parmenides Publishing |isbn=978-1-930972-53-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fW1hDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}
*Bakalis Nikolaos (2005), ''Handbook of Greek Philosophy: From Thales to the Stoics Analysis and Fragments'', Trafford Publishing, {{ISBN|1-4120-4843-5}}
*{{cite book |last=Barnes |first=Jonathan | chapter=Parmenides and the Objects of Inquiry | title=The Presocratic Philosophers |pages=155–175 |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul |date=1982}}
*Cordero, Nestor-Luis (2004), ''By Being, It Is: The Thesis of Parmenides''. Parmenides Publishing, {{ISBN|978-1-930972-03-2}}
*Cordero Néstor-Luis (ed.), ''Parmenides, Venerable and Awesome (Plato, Theaetetus 183e)'' Las Vegas: Parmenides Publishing 2011. Proceedings of the International Symposium (Buenos Aires, 2007), {{ISBN|978-1-930972-33-9}}
*Coxon A. H. (2009), ''The Fragments of Parmenides: A Critical Text With Introduction and Translation, the Ancient Testimonia and a Commentary''. Las Vegas, Parmenides Publishing (new edition of Coxon 1986), {{ISBN|978-1-930972-67-4}}
*Curd, Patricia (2011), ''A Presocratics Reader: Selected Fragments and Testimonia'', Hackett Publishing, {{ISBN|978-1603843058}} (Second edition Indianapolis/Cambridge 2011)
*Hermann, Arnold (2005), ''To Think Like God: Pythagoras and Parmenides-The Origins of Philosophy'', Fully Annotated Edition, Parmenides Publishing, {{ISBN|978-1-930972-00-1}}
*Hermann, Arnold (2010), ''Plato's Parmenides: Text, Translation & Introductory Essay'', Parmenides Publishing, {{ISBN|978-1-930972-71-1}}
*Mourelatos, Alexander P. D. (2008). ''The Route of Parmenides: A Study of Word, Image, and Argument in the Fragments''. Las Vegas: Parmenides Publishing. {{ISBN|978-1-930972-11-7}} (First edition Yale University Press 1970)
*Palmer, John. (2009). ''Parmenides and Presocratic Philosophy.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
:''Extensive bibliography (up to 2004) by [http://www.parmenides.com/images/pdfs/Pbib29Apr05online.pdf Nestor Luis Cordero]; and annotated bibliography by [https://www.ontology.co/biblio/parmenides-biblio-one.htm Raul Corazzon]''
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Parmenides|viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
* {{iep|parmenid|Parmenides of Elea|Jeremy C. DeLong}}
*[http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/parm1.htm "Lecture Notes: Parmenides", S. Marc Cohen, University of Washington]
*[https://www.ontology.co/parmenides.htm Parmenides and the Question of Being in Greek Thought] with a selection of critical judgments
*[https://www.ontology.co/biblio/parmenides-editions.htm Parmenides of Elea: Critical Editions and Translations] –  annotated list of the critical editions and of the English, German, French, Italian and Spanish translations
*[http://philoctetes.free.fr/parmenides.htm Fragments of Parmenides] – parallel Greek with links to Perseus, French, and English (Burnet) includes Parmenides article from Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Parmenides}}
*{{Librivox author |id=8056}}

{{Greek schools of philosophy}}
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{{Sourceattribution|Parmenides|1}}