Heraclitus and Parmenides: The Idea of Change

A detailed Summary of Heraclitus and Parmenides: The Idea of Change

The origins of Western philosophy lie with a set of men whose extraordinary contributions date as far back as 600 BC. Frequently, they are identified as Presocratics because these truth-seekers are predecessors of Socrates, the gifted Athenian thinker who greatly influenced the course of Western philosophy through his exceptional apprentice Plato. Mere fragments of the work of the Presocratics remain. Although limited information of their writing exists, some portions of their books and allusions to their writings in other thinkers' books provides us adequate knowledge of their ideas (Horner 18). These men attempted to explain the true nature of reality.

Two of these Presocratics, Heraclitus and Parmenides, will be compared. Each philosopher centered his argument around the perception of change. At first glance the two theories appear in opposition, yet in essence, their overall conclusion is in accord.

Heraclitus, an Ephesian, had a reputation for writing in riddles and condensed epigrams, concise and paradoxical sayings. He penned a book, although only minuscule portions of that work have been discovered. For the preceding reasons, he was known as, "Heraclitus the obscure," during Roman times (Horner 1

Parmenides also felt that everything that exists has always existed. Nothing will come into being. In this same manner, nothing will ever cease to be. This point is similar to a postulate of Newton's theory of relativity that matter is neither created nor destroyed. However, Newton allowed that matter changed its forms whereas, for Parmenides, this thought is unfeasible.

Parmenides' central concept would be the idea that change is illusory. It does not exist (Horner 19). If one observes change, that person's senses trick him or her.

Parmenides of Elea, proposes a different concept. He states that there is no "many," there is only, "one." This, like logos, is a difficult concept to grasp. There exist many things in this world that are not at all alike, but are of the same substance according to Parmenides. This is easily justified. Parmenides believed that people depended quite heavily on their senses and on their experiences. Primary senses deceive. He urged others to rely on rationalistic principles. Rationalism holds that reason is in itself a source of knowledge superior to and independent of sense perceptions at deciphering truth. Though it had not been proposed yet, Parmenides would have most likely supported the idea of a priori, which is knowledge known to be true without consulting sensory experience as opposed to a posteriori, which is belief through experience (Horner 23).

"For thought and being are the same, " according to Parimenides (Robinson 110). "Being" is the "what is." Whenever one thinks, one is thinking about things that exist. Therefore you can only think of such things if they are in existence.

Nevertheless, whether change is constant though we may not perceive it or change is unperceivable because it does not exist, these two philosophers at core affirm very similar theories. Heraclitus believes reality is "one," but also contains "many" parts. Parmenides says that reality is only "one" and "many" does not exist. Both declare that reality is wholly a single unit. If reality does of does not have many interwoven parts, it is still "one." Together,

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Approximate Word count = 1435
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English