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The philosophy of Parmenides - briefly. Parmenides on Being

Like all other pre-Socratics (philosophers who worked before Socrates), little information has survived about Parmenides. At that distant time, philosophy and poetry were intertwined with each other in a single process of creation. The poet was a philosopher, and the philosopher was a poet. Parmenides was a poet and philosopher because he was looking for a single principle that lies at the basis of the universe. He was not alone in his quest. Heraclitus and Thales, Anaximander and Xenophanes tried to see the One in the multitude and explain the reasons for Existence. But Parmenides did not simply preach what was revealed to him in his reflections. He was the first to try to convince his opponents, laying the foundation for the art of proof. It would be a mistake to think that the ancient world was kind to its sages. The search for a single principle inevitably meant undermining the authority of local gods and their priests. Anaxagoras was almost executed for declaring the stars to be red-hot stones. The great philosopher had to leave the city. Athens was an enlightened and freedom-loving city, but it was here that Socrates was executed, accused of atheism.

Biography

We do not know whether Parmenides was persecuted for his beliefs. We don't know much about his life at all. He was originally from Magna Graecia (that was the name of the south of Italy, where the Greek colonies flourished), from the city of Elea. Plato claims that Parmenides was born in 475, was of noble family and wrote laws for his native city. Among his teachers are Aminius, a student of Pythagoras, and Xenophanes, the founder of the apophatic definition of God. His (Xenophanes) ideas were subsequently used by Plato, Aristotle and Christian theologians. The latter learned a lot from the pagans. Parmenides was too talented a student of Xenophanes, because he took from him best ideas, but interpreted them in his own way. But it is not Xenophanes, but Aminius who erects the sanctuary for Parmenides.

Plato wrote a dialogue entitled Parmenides, which has nothing to do with what Parmenides taught. According to this work, the elderly philosopher, accompanied by his student Zeno, talks with the young Socrates in Athens on Plato’s favorite topic - ideas. Plato loved to express his thoughts by putting them into the mouths of other people, most often Socrates. That is why his dialogues can serve as a source for analyzing Plato’s philosophy, but not the biographies and worldviews of those historical characters.

We know about the teachings of Parmenides from his poem “On Nature,” which has survived in fragments to the present day, thanks to the ancient authors Sextus Empiricus and Simplicius. The introduction of this poem is an allegory, which was so popular with ancient and medieval poets and philosophers. Beautiful maidens invite Permenides into a chariot, which carries him upward. The image of the chariot will subsequently be used as a symbol of the ascent of the soul in ancient and European mysticism. In the halls of a certain goddess, he will have to go through the gates, which open after the maidens cast a spell (cipher symbol). The gates open with a creak, and Parmenides is greeted by the goddess, who kindly and favorably invites him into her palace. She is going to tell the philosopher the truth and the opinion of mortals. At this point, the first surviving fragment of the work breaks off.

Parmenides is called the first materialist. He took from his teacher Xenophanes the attributes that he created to describe a single god. What seems strange is that Parmenides used the method of mystical ascent (in in this case, image of a chariot) for its non-religious concept. No less surprising is the poetic form of presentation of philosophical views, because philosophers already differed from poets in that they wrote in prose, although they used imagery.

About being

Another, more extensive fragment contains Parmenides' doctrine of being. True existence, according to the author, is spherical. This is not about the form of being, but about its ontological content, although, perhaps, it was with a ball that he represented the universe. For the Greeks, the ball served perfect figure, and for Parmenides he is a symbol of perfection. So, the goddess revealed to him that existence is eternal, was not born and will not die. It is self-sufficient and perfect, motionless and corporeal. All changes occurring within this being do not affect its essence, that is, in fact nothing happens. Here he argues with Heraclitus, who argued that everything changes and that you cannot step into the same river twice. Being is not infinite, but the philosopher does not specify what is beyond it.

Parmenides rejects the idea of ​​the birth of being from nothing. This seems absurd to him, and he appeals to the mind and experience of his reader - how can something by itself grow out of emptiness?! But Parmenides also rejects another point of view: that the world is non-existence. In this case, our entire life and our thinking does not exist or has no meaning. What is interesting is not the philosopher’s arguments, which are quite primitive, but his attempts to prove his position. In addition, from here we learn about the Greeks' familiarity with the Buddhist concept of Maya, which states that existence does not exist. This point of view was held by Gorgias of Leontini, a younger contemporary of Parmenides.

The philosopher's poetic text is abundantly strewn with opposites, although he does not recognize the opposition “being-non-being.” He contrasts his path of truth with the path of opinions, that is, opinion ordinary people, not enlightened by revelation from above. The sphere of the sensory cannot be described otherwise than in simple terms understandable to a child. But being also has its own dialectical pair, and it is called necessity. This is what prevents him from falling apart and going into oblivion. For the first time in the history of philosophy, albeit in mythological form, Parmenides speaks of a certain internal necessity of being, thereby pointing to the laws of the physical world.

The world after Parmenides

Contrasting true path profane perception of the surrounding reality, the philosopher pointed out the division between sensory and rational thinking. By resorting to logical necessity, he, according to some researchers, discovers the principle of non-contradiction, since his existence cannot simultaneously be and not be. There is Parmenides' method of persuasion, which was later called reductio ad absurdum, that is, proving the inconsistency of the opponent's point of view by identifying the contradictory consequences of this point of view. Arguing about being, Parmenides is looking for his absolute principle, which means he goes back to abstraction or idea. Therefore, the idealistic tendency in the philosopher’s work is no less important than his materialistic understanding peace. Plato grew out of the Eleatic school of Parmenides. Aristotle grows from Plato, although he argues with his teacher. From Plato and Aristotle arises Christian theology in all its complexity and beauty.

We know nothing about the death of the philosopher, although he spoke (and wrote) about more than one death penalty. Perhaps Elea was not such a sanctimonious city as Athens of that time. Or maybe Parmenides was in no hurry to tell everyone he met about his ideas, as Socrates did. And so he died a natural death, having lived to a ripe old age. Here we have the first non-divine theory of reality in the history of thought. Parmenides called reason the criterion of truth - this is what the ancient historian Diogenes Laertius says, and after him the Russian historian of antiquity Alexei Losev. European philosophy is made up of many bricks, and the closer the brick is to the foundation, the more important its meaning. Parmenides and his faith in reason is the foundation without which the beautiful edifice of our culture of thought would look different.

The struggle between the active, fiery and passive, dark principles, he is controlled by the cosmic Aphrodite and Eros. Only those with a fearless heart can follow the truth. In the doctrine of the immobility of true being, P. opposed Heraclitus with his “”. Subsequent philosophers synthesized both pictures of the world in the doctrine of the immutability of elements and the variability and fluidity of their combinations.

Philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Gardariki. Edited by A.A. Ivina. 2004 .

PARMENIDES

from Elea, to South. Italy (r. OK. 515 BC BC - according to Plato, OK. 544- according to Apollodorus), other Greek philosopher, founder Eleatic school. Author Philosopher the poem “On Nature,” from which quite large excerpts have reached us. He lived to a ripe old age. Obviously, he was influenced by the ideas of Xenophanes, who taught about the unity of existence and the immobility of deity, as well as the influence of the Pythagoreans (Diogenes Laertius IX 21). Perhaps he was familiar with the teachings of Heraclitus - P.’s system of views is easy to imagine as a reaction to Heraclitus’s teaching about the universal change and inconsistency of existence.

P. the first of the ancient Greek. philosophers began to operate with concepts Max. community, talking about being (or being) and nothingness (or non-existent). He sought to prove that being exists and non-existence does not exist (at 2 DK), and therefore emptiness cannot exist. In the introduction to the poem, P. depicts his journey on a chariot driven by solar maidens, from the kingdom of night to the light, and presents his teaching as received from the goddess (V l DK). However, the poem is in sharp contrast with its mythological. framing: the poem is an attempt to rationally represent a contradictory moving world in the categories of thinking. P. proclaims the existing and the conceivable. Being for P. is one and immovable - all multiplicity and all change seem to him contradictory and therefore impossible. For him, the universe has a homogeneous dense ball: “The same thing is thought and that about which thought exists.

For without being, in which its expression, you cannot find Thought. And there is and will not be anything else, beyond being, nothing; how she chained him, - It’s whole, it’s motionless. All the things in which mortals see the Truth, believing in it, all this is just empty: To be, and also not to be, to be born, and also to die, A place to change, to exchange color and coloring. There is a final limit, and all existence is closed from everywhere, the mass is equal to a completely perfect ball, C right center inside" (B 8 D K).

P. was convinced that the true gives us only, and unreliable and unreliable ideas are based on feelings. conflicting opinions people (At 7 D K). Having drawn in the 1st part of the poem a picture of the world that seemed true to him, P. in the 2nd part described the world as it exists in the opinions of people. In particular, he described the emergence of the world using ideas Milesian school; the basis of the universe, according to the “opinion of people”, lies in P. the opposition of light-fire and darkness (At 8 and 9 D K) and mixing of elements (V 12 D K). P., apparently, was the first to come to the conclusion that the Earth is spherical (A 44 DK), divided the Earth into climate. zones (A 44a D K) and established that the morning and evening star are actually the same planet - Venus (Diogenes Laertius IX 23). P.'s student was Zeno of Elea.

Fragments: DK I; Parmenides, a text with transl., (“mm. and critical essays, by L. Taran, Princeton, 1965.

Cornford F. M., Plato and Parmenides..., transl. with an introduction. and a running comm., L., 1939; Reinhard! K., Parmenides und die Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie, Fr.M., 19592; Verdenius W. J., Parmenides. Some comments on his poem, V., 19642; Merlan Ph., Neues Licht auf Parmenides, in Sat.: Archiv fur Geschichte der Philosophie, B., 1966, S. 267-76; Bormann K., Parmenides, Hamb., 1971.

Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editor: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983 .

PARMENIDES

PARMENIDES(Parmenides) from Elea (c. 540 – 480 BC) – ancient Greek. philosopher from Elea (Southern Italy). After Xenophanes, who was more a poet than a philosopher, Parmenides may be considered the first true philosopher among the Eleatics. Parmenides places the unchangeable and imperishable substance, “being,” at the center of his philosophy. All changes are only subjective, they are only caused by sensory perception and deception. Truth is revealed only through thinking, while sensory perception generates only (doxa). According to Parmenides, the world is decomposed into two primary matter, from the mixture of which it arose: into light and active fire and dark and passive mass.

Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. 2010 .

PARMENIDES

(Παρμενίδης) from Elea to South. Italy (b. 540/39 or 515 BC) - ancient Greek. philosopher, representative of the Eleatic school. P. was ideologically connected through Xenophanes (28 A 7, Diels 9) with Anaximander and through the Pythagorean Aminius with Pythagoreanism. In addition to philosophy, he was also involved in legislation (cf. A 12). According to Proclus and Iamblichus (A 4), P. and his student Zeno of Elea were members of the Pythagorean League. In ancient times they also spoke about the dependence of Empedocles (A 9–10) and even the atomists (A 8) on P. Being a philosopher. P.’s position consisted in a new distinction for that time and assessed as the liberation of thinking “from the deception of the imagination” (A I-Diog. L. IX 23) distinction between thinking and sensuality, and accordingly conceivable world and the sensually cognizable world. Towards a fundamental opposition between the thinkable and the feelings. Xenophanes already approached being, but it was formulated by P. For P., there are two philosophies - truth based on thinking, and opinion based on sensuality (A I-Diog. L. IX 22).

For P., thinking and the corresponding conceivable (intelligible) world are, first of all, “”, which he also characterized as being, immobility, homogeneity, indivisibility and completeness (B 8), contrasting it with formation and apparent fluidity (A 22 ). For the gods there is neither past nor future, but only the present (A 30, B 8). Corresponds to such being and , so “to think and to be is one and the same,” i.e. the same in content (B 5). P. gives one of the first formulations of the idea of ​​the identity of being and thinking: “thought and that to which thought is directed are one and the same” (B 8). Such being, according to P., can never be non-existence, since P. characterizes this latter as blind and unknowable: being always, everywhere and equally exists, but non-being never exists in anything (B 4.6–8). Being in no sense can come from non-being or in any way contain it in itself (B 8). P. emphasized here the constancy, the self-identity of the conceivable object and, therefore, thinking about it, although he did not avoid the idea of ​​becoming.

Contrary to the opinion that prevailed in ancient times (Theophrastus A 7, Hippolytus A 23, Aristotle A 26, Aetius A 29), P. did not deny feelings at all. world, but only proved that for his philosophy. and scientific Sensibility alone is not enough for awareness, but thinking is also necessary. Considering reason to be the criterion of truth, he rejected sensations because of their inaccuracy (A 1-Diog. L. IX 22). Plutarch and Simplicius directly stated that P. accepted his two principles – conceivable being and feelings – in exactly the same way. - and only tried to show each of them their place (A 34). Feelings P. interpreted the world in the spirit of the entire early, spontaneously materialistic. antiquity, as a mixture of fire and earth, light and dark, warm and cold, thin and dense, light and heavy (which for him was the concrete embodiment of the principles of identity and difference, B 8).

Whoever spoke about physicists in ancient times first of all remembered Empedocles and P. (A 4); and in general in ancient times P. was always considered in the context of this ancient natural philosophy (A 11. 14. 20), and was even considered as a kind of Eleatic doctrine of the “one”, because among Leucippus and Democritus it was distinguished by the same absolute qualities, but only given in its infinitely varied individuality (A 8), when the atoms became small and united, i.e. in small units. P.'s natural philosophy also contains the doctrine of cosmos. crowns, which, although unclear in detail, is basically hardly any sharply different from the same teaching of Anaximander (A 37–44). Here there is a teaching about the fiery center of the Universe in the manner of the Pythagoreans, as well as about the crowns around this fire, located in the depths of heaven. Typical of all early natural philosophy are P.’s teachings such as, for example, the doctrine of the fiery soul (A 45), the rationality of all animals (ibid.), the dependence of knowledge on the physical. contact of the senses with things (A 48) and from the predominance of certain physical factors in a person. elements (B 16), as well as the general teaching that “thinking is identical” (A 46), not to mention the dependence of sensations on the state of the body (A 47). All this forced P., together with Pythagoras, Empedocles, Xenophanes and Melissa, to also teach about the falsity of sensations (A 49). Questions of the origin of living beings, sexuality and embryology occupied P.'s mind. place (A 50–54, B 17–18), which is also typical of early natural philosophy.

Op.:“On Nature,” in: Cornford F. M., Plato and Parmenides. Parmenides" way on truth and Plato"s Parmenides, L., 1939; rus. lane G. F. Tsereteli in the appendix to the book: Tannery P., The first steps of ancient Greek. Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1902; lane A. Makovelsky, in his book: Pre-Socratics, part 2, Kaz., 1915, p. 33–49; lane M. A. Dynnik, in the book: Ancient philosophers(texts), M., 1935.

Lit.: Mandes M.I., Eleates. Philological research in the field of Greek history. philosophy, O., 1911; Melon M. A., Essay on the history of classical philosophy. Greece, M., 1936, p. 86–90; History of Philosophy, vol. 1, [M.], 1940 (by name); History of philosophy, vol. 1, M., 1967, p. 85–88; Bäumker Cl., Die Einheit des Parmenideischen Seienden, "Neue Jahrbücher für Philologie und Paedagogik", 1886, Bd 133, H. 8, 9; Döring A., Das Weltsystem des Parmenides, "Z. für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik", 1894, Bd 104, S. 161–77; Diels H., Parmenidea, "Hermes", 1900, Bd 35; Reinhardt K., Parmenides und die Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie, Bonn, 1916; Kranz W., Über Aufbau und Bedeutung des Parmenideischen Gedichtes, "Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften", 1916, No. 45–47; Morrison J. S., Parmenides and Er, "J. of Hellenic Studies", 1955, v. 75; Τotok W., Handbuch der Geschichte der Philosophie, Bd 1, Fr./M., 1964, S. 120–23.

A. Losev. Moscow.

Philosophical Encyclopedia. In 5 volumes - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Edited by F. V. Konstantinov. 1960-1970 .

PARMENIDES

PARMENIDES (Παρμενίδης) from Elea (Southern Italy; according to Apollodorus, Acme 504-501 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher, founder of the Eleatic school, teacher of Zeno of Elea, according to the ancient “succession of philosophers” - student of Xenophanes, according to a more reliable version - Pythagorean Aminius. According to Speusippus, he was the legislator of his hometown. The philosophical didactic poem “On Nature” (later, about 160 verses have survived), written in archaic Homeric language, which makes interpretation difficult, is preceded by a mystical-allegorical introduction and is divided into two parts: “The Path of Truth” (Αλήθεια) and “The Path of Opinion” (doxa) . In the mystical vision of the introduction, written on behalf of the “youth” (initiation into secret knowledge), a rapid flight on a chariot leads the author to the transcendental world through the “gates of day and night” from “darkness” to “light”, from the ignorance of the sensory world and human experience to knowledge of absolute truth. The goddess of Truth (Dike) who meets the young man reveals to him “both the fearless heart of well-rounded truth and the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true certainty” (B 1:29-30). “The Path of Truth” provides the first compendium of deductive metaphysics in the history of Greek and European thought. Theoretically, two “paths of search” (methods of cognition) are conceivable: 1) to assume that something “is and cannot but exist”; 2) assume that something “is not and of necessity must not be.” The first of them is the path of conviction and truth, the second must be immediately rejected as “completely unknowable,” for “that which does not exist cannot be known or expressed” (French B 2): the existence of something presupposes knowledge about it and thereby - his. This is how the identity of being and thinking is deduced: “thinking and being are one and the same thing” (Fr. B 3), “thinking is the same and what the thought is about” (Fr. B 8, 34). Thought can never be empty (“without being”), its fullness must correspond to the “fullness” of the beings of the universe: emptiness (“non-existent”, “that which is not”) is impossible (French B 4). In addition to the two alternative “paths of search”, there is another one, forbidden to the young man, the path along which ignorant “mortals with two heads” wander, believing that something can “be and not be” at the same time - probably this is the “path of opinion” , corresponding to sensory experience (fr. B 6). Trusting neither sight nor hearing, the young man must, with the help of “reason” (logos) alone, judge the “multi-disputed” (i.e., dialectical) argumentation of the Truth and recognize the only true path “is.” From this “is” all the characteristics of truly existing things are necessarily deduced: it “has not arisen, is not destroyed, is integral, unique, motionless and endless (in time)” (B 8:4-5). It is impossible to say about him “was” or “will be”, “i.e. because now it is all together, one, continuous” (B 8, 5-6). It is “indivisible” and completely homogeneous (B 8, 22), since the recognition of heterogeneity or discreteness would require the assumption of emptiness (“that which is not”), it eternally remains in the same place (B 8, 29) , “needs nothing” (B 8.33), devoid of sensory qualities and any processes of change (B 8.40-41) and, finally, is enclosed by Fate (Moira; aka Necessity of Ananke and Truth-Dike) within the boundaries of the ideal “spheres” (in this case “onkos” is used - “block, mass”), “balanced everywhere from the center” (B 8.43-44).

In Parmenides' argumentation, in addition to the law of contradiction and the principle “from nothing there will be nothing” (later known as μηδέν μάλλον, “no more so than so”) plays a significant role. Having finished the “reliable word about the truth,” the goddess moves on to the “opinions of mortals” and sets out a lengthy cosmology in the Ionian style, starting from the primary elements (“forms”, B 8, 53 f.), the origin of the sky and luminaries (B 10-11), cosmology unclear to us (B 12) and ending with the physiology of cognition (B 16), embryology (B 17) and even the origin of hermaphrodites (B 18). The world of human experience, abolished in the first part, turns out to be rehabilitated as a probable hypothesis. The world of truth and the world of doxa are one and the same world, perceived by the divine (ideal) and human (imperfect) subject, respectively, as a stationary one in the first case, as a becoming many in the second. The world of doxa is entirely conditioned by human language, which arbitrarily established “names” for one being (cf. B 8, 38 f. and especially B 19, 3). The world of doxa is not completely unreal: it is “mixed” of being and non-being, truth and lies. At the phenomenal level, “being” and “non-being” appear as “light” and “darkness” (“ethereal fire” and “heavy earth”), active and inert dark; these are two fundamental elements, the “mixing” of which in certain proportions constitutes the entire variety of sensory phenomena, and also explains states of consciousness, and death, etc. All physical opposites - “rare and dense”, “light and heavy”, “ hot and cold” (B 8, 56-59 with scholium), etc. are reduced to the opposition of light and darkness as . But one member of this fundamental opposition is , and it “should not be called” by a separate name (B 8, 54) : “night” is the absence of light and, therefore, non-substantial. This is the fatal mistake of mortals, which led them from monism to dualism. A polytheistic doxa is built into the Cosmogony (B 13; A 37); etc.; thereby the traditional one is reduced to the level of “opinion of the crowd”, and the truths acquire a new, rational, monotheistic theology (hence the sacred introduction), “invulnerability” and “inviolability” of existence in the ethical consciousness. are transformed into the “equanimity” of the sage, iron, contempt for sensual pleasures and pain as unreal, etc. (cf. the legend of the heroic death of Zeno, who carried the “teachings of Parmenides” through torture like pure gold through fire - 29 A 7). Typologically, Parmenides is close to the system of idealistic monism of the Advaita Vedanta type, however, it is necessary to take into account the absence in his time of strict dualism of spirit and matter, the idea of ​​spatial extension (and even corporeality) of existence (English historian of philosophy J. Burnet, going to the other extreme, considered Parmeides the “father of materialism”). In addition to the direct influence on the Eleatic and Megarian schools, the philosophy of Parmenides indirectly, through the demand for a rational justification of movement and multiplicity, influenced the formation of natural philosophical systems of the 5th century. (especially atomists) and the theoretical physics of Aristotle. The opposition between being and becoming, the sensible and the intelligible, truth and opinion has become part of the ABC of Platonism. The tradition of seeing Parmenides as a key figure in the history of early Greek thought and even dividing it into pre- and post-Parmenides goes back to the book of K. Reinhardt (1916). In the 20th century Existential (Heidegger) and Anglo-American studies show special interest in Parmenides.

Fragm. and evidence: DK I, 217-246; Parmenides. A text with transi., comm. and critical essays by L. Taran. Princeton, 1965; /feilsch E. Parmenides. Munch., 1974; Gallop D. Parmenides of Elea, Fragments. Toronto, 1984; CoxonA. H. The Fragments of Parmenides. Assen, 1986; Aubenque P. (ed.). Études sur Parménide, 1.1: Le Poème de Parménide; Texte, traduction, essai critique, t. 2: Problèmes d "interpretation. P., 1987; Lebedev A. V. (ed.). Fragments of early Greek philosophers, part 1. M., 1989.

Lit.: Dobrokhotov A.L. The Doctrine of the Pre-Socratics about Being. M., 1980; LongA.Â. The Principles of Parmenides" Cosmogony.- “Phronesis” 8, 1963, p. 90-107 (repr.: R. E. Allen, D. J. Furley (eds.). Studies in Presocratic Philosophy. L., 1975, vol. 2, p. 82-101); FurthM. Elements of Eleatic Ontology. - “Journal of the History of Philosophy” b, 1968, p. 111-132 (repr.: A. P. D. Mourelatos. The Pre-Socratics. N. Y, 1989, p. 241-270); Mourelatos A. P. D., The Route of Parmenides: A Study of Word, Image, and Argument in the Fragments. New Haven, 1970; Die Einheit der Erfahrung: eine Interpretation der Parmenides Fragmente. Today - “The Monist”, 1979, v. 62, l; Kahn S. H. Being In Parmenides and Plato. - “La Parola del Passato” 43, 1988, p.

A. V. Lebedev

New Philosophical Encyclopedia: In 4 vols. M.: Thought. Edited by V. S. Stepin. 2001 .


Synonyms:

PARMENIDES(Παρμενίδης) from Elea (Southern Italy; according to Apollodorus, acme 504–501 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher, founder Eleatic school , teacher of Zeno of Elea, according to the ancient “succession of philosophers” - student Xenophanes , according to a more reliable version - the Pythagorean Aminius. According to Speusippus, he was the legislator of his hometown. The philosophical didactic poem “On Nature” (the title is later, about 160 verses have survived), written in archaic Homeric language, which makes interpretation difficult, is preceded by a mystical-allegorical introduction and is divided into two parts: “The Path of Truth” (ʼΑλήθεια) and “The Path of Opinion” (doxa ). In the mystical vision of the introduction, written on behalf of the “youth” (the motive of initiation into secret knowledge), a rapid flight on a chariot leads the author to the transcendental world through the “gates of day and night” from “darkness” to “light”, from the ignorance of the sensory world and the human experience to knowledge of absolute truth. The goddess of Truth (Dike) who meets the young man reveals to him “both the fearless heart of well-rounded truth and the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true certainty” (B 1, 29–30). The Path of Truth provides the first compendium of deductive metaphysics in the history of Greek and European thought. Theoretically, two “paths of search” (methods of cognition) are conceivable: 1) to assume that something “is and cannot but exist”; 2) assume that something “is not and, of necessity, should not be.” The first of them is the path of conviction and truth, the second should be immediately rejected as “completely unknowable”, for “that which does not exist cannot be known or expressed” (French B 2): denial of the existence of something presupposes knowledge about it and thus its reality. This is how the identity of being and thinking is deduced: “thinking and being are one and the same thing” (Fr. B 3), “thinking is the same and what the thought is about” (Fr. B 8, 34). A thought can never be empty (“without being”); its completeness must correspond to the “fullness” of the beings of the universe: emptiness (“the non-existent”, “that which is not”) is impossible (French B 4). In addition to the two alternative “paths of search”, there is another one, forbidden to the young man, the path along which ignorant “mortals with two heads” wander, believing that something can “be and not be” at the same time - probably this is the “path of opinion” , corresponding to sensory experience (fr. B 6). Trusting neither sight nor hearing, the young man must, with the help of “reason” (logos) alone, judge the “multi-disputed” (i.e. dialectical) argumentation of the Truth and recognize the only true path “is.” From this “is” all the characteristics of truly existing things are necessarily deduced: it “has not arisen, is not destroyed, is integral, unique, motionless and endless (in time)” (B 8, 4–5). It is impossible to say “was” or “will be” about him, “because... now it is all together, one, continuous” (B 8, 5–6). It is “indivisible” and completely homogeneous (B 8, 22), because recognition of heterogeneity or discreteness would require the assumption of emptiness (“that which is not”), it eternally remains in the same place (B 8, 29), “needs nothing” (B 8, 33), devoid of sensory qualities and any processes of change (B 8, 40–41) and, finally, is enclosed by Fate (Moira; aka Necessity-Ananke and Truth-Dike) within the boundaries of the ideal “sphere” (the word “onkos” is used - “block, mass "), "balanced everywhere from the center" (B 8, 43–44).

In Parmenides’s argument, in addition to the law of contradiction and the principle “out of nothing comes nothing,” the law of sufficient reason (later known as μηδὲν μάλλον, “nothing more so than so”) plays a significant role. Having finished the “reliable word about the truth,” the goddess moves on to the “opinions of mortals” and sets out a lengthy cosmology in the Ionian style, starting from the primary elements (“forms”, B 8, 53 ff.), the origin of the sky and luminaries (B 10–11), cosmology unclear to us (B 12) and ending with the physiology of cognition (B 16), embryology (B 17) and even the origin of hermaphrodites (B 18). The world of human experience, abolished in the first part, turns out to be rehabilitated as a probable hypothesis. The world of truth and the world of doxa are one and the same world, perceived by the divine (ideal) and human (imperfect) subject, respectively, as a stationary one in the first case, as a becoming many in the second. The world of doxa is entirely determined by human language, which arbitrarily established many “names” for one being (cf. B 8, 38 ff. and especially B 19, 3). The world of doxa is not completely unreal: it is “mixed” of being and non-being, truth and lies. At the phenomenal level, “being” and “non-being” appear as “light” and “darkness” (“ethereal fire” and “heavy body of the earth”), active spirit and inert spirit. dark matter; these are two fundamental elements, the “mixing” of which in certain proportions constitutes the entire variety of sensory phenomena, and also explains states of consciousness, life and death, etc. All physical opposites - “rarefied and dense”, “light and heavy”, “hot and cold” (B 8, 56–59 with scholium), etc. reducible to the opposition of light and darkness as synonyms. But one member of this fundamental opposition is imaginary, and “should not have been called” by a separate name (B 8, 54): “night” is the absence of light and, therefore, non-substantial. This is the fatal mistake of mortals, which led them from monism to dualism. Polytheistic theogony is built into the cosmogony of doxa (B 13; A 37): “gods” are understood as allegories of the elements, luminaries, passions, etc.; Thus, traditional mythology is reduced to the level of “crowd opinion”, and the metaphysics of truth acquires the character of a new, rational, monotheistic theology (hence the sacred language of the introduction). The “fearless heart of truth”, “invulnerability” and “immutability” of existence in the ethical consciousness are transformed into the “equanimity” of the sage, iron morality, contempt for sensual pleasures and pain as unreal, etc. (cf. the legend about the heroic death of Zeno, who carried the “teaching of Parmenides” through torture like pure gold through fire - 29 A 7).

Typologically, the philosophy of Parmenides is close to the system of idealistic monism of the Advaita Vedanta type, however, it is necessary to take into account the absence in his time of strict dualism of spirit and matter, the idea of ​​spatial extension (and even corporeality) of existence (the English historian of philosophy J. Burnet, going to the other extreme, believed Parmenides "father of materialism") In addition to the direct influence on the traditions of the Eleatic and Megarian schools, the philosophy of Parmenides indirectly, through the demand for a rational justification of movement and multiplicity, influenced the formation of natural philosophical systems of the 5th century. (especially atomists) and the theoretical physics of Aristotle. The opposition between being and becoming, the sensible and the intelligible, truth and opinion has become part of the ABC of Platonism. The tradition of seeing Parmenides as a key figure in the history of early Greek thought and even dividing it into pre- and post-Parmenides goes back to the book of K. Reinhardt (1916). In the 20th century Existential phenomenology (Heidegger) and Anglo-American analytical philosophy show particular interest in Parmenides.

Fragments and evidence:

1. DK I, 217–246;

2. Parmenides. A text with transl., comm. and critical essays by L.Taran. Princeton, 1965;

3. Heitsch E. Parmenides. Münch., 1974;

4. Gallop D. Parmenides of Elea, Fragments. Toronto, 1984;

5. Coxon A.H. The Fragments of Parmenides. Assen, 1986;

6. Aubenque P.(ed.), Études sur Parménide, t. 1: Le Poème de Parménide: Texte, traduction, essai critique, t. 2: Problèmes dʼinterpretation. P., 1987;

7. Lebedev A.V.(ed.). Fragments of early Greek philosophers, part 1. M., 1989.

Literature:

1. Dobrokhotov A.L. The Pre-Socratic doctrine of being. M., 1980;

2. Long A.A. The Principles of Parmenidesʼ Cosmogony. – “Phronesis” 8, 1963, p. 90–107 (repr.: R.E. Allen, D.J. Furley (eds.), Studies in Presocratic Philosophy. L., 1975, vol. 2, p. 82–101);

3. Furth M. Elements of Eleatic Ontology. – “Journal of the History of Philosophy” 6, 1968, p. 111–132 (repr.: A.P.D.Mourelatos. The Pre-Socratics. N.Y., 1989, p. 241–270);

4. Mourelatos A.P. D., The Route of Parmenides: A Study of Word, Image, and Argument in the Fragments. New Haven, 1970;

5. Die Einheit der Erfahrung: eine Interpretation der Parmenidieshen Fragmente. München - W., 1976;

6. Parmenides Studies Today. – “The Monist”, 1979, v. 62, 1;

7. Kahn C.H. Being In Parmenides and Plato. – “La Parola del Passato” 43, 1988, p. 237–261.

PARMENIDES(c. 515 - c. 445 BC), ancient Greek thinker, founder of the Eleatic (Eleatic) school. With Parmenides “philosophy began in the proper sense of the word” ().

Life

Parmenides, son of Piret, was born in the city of Elea, a Greek colony in southern Italy. He belonged to a noble and wealthy family. He listened to Anaximander, was familiar with Xenophanes, but became a student of the little-known Pythagorean Aminius, a poor and righteous man, who converted him to the life of a solitary thinker. After the death of the teacher, Parmenides erected a tomb for him as a hero. The contemplative life did not prevent Parmenides from participating in political affairs and even establish such laws in Elea that “the authorities annually took an oath from the citizens to remain faithful to the laws of Parmenides” (Plutarch).

Parmenides became the founder of the Eleatic school, one of the most important philosophical movements of the classical era. This school includes Xenophanes, Parmenides' closest students Zeno and Melissa, as well as Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus.

Composition

Parmenides' work, traditionally called On Nature, is written in hexameter, like an epic poem. The contradiction of poetic form, metaphorical language, rich in mythological images, and extremely abstract theoretical themes, requiring a dry, purely logical interpretation, has caused criticism and bewilderment since ancient times. But it is precisely the epic rhythm of speech, which conveys the eternal, uniform fulfillment of an always completely abiding existence, the epic detachment, which allows one to mentally perceive each, no matter how dramatic, episode of existence in the unshakable fullness of being, that themselves lead the ear and imagination to a thought capable of embracing that unchanging existence to which Parmenides's thinking attention is drawn.

The surviving parts of the poem make it possible to distinguish three main sections in it: a prologue, which colorfully describes the rapid running of the chariot, carrying the young Parmenides as if to the ends of the world; the first part (Truth), in which the Goddess reveals to the traveler how existence alone can and should be conceived in its unmistakable truth; the second part (Opinion), where the structure of the dual and ambiguous world in which mortals habitually live is described in the most plausible way.

Teaching

Parmenides describes the starting position of thought seeking truth, using the fairy-tale model of a traveler at a crossroads deciding which way to go. The first to reject is wandering along the well-trodden paths of “experienced habit”, in the confusion and muddle of everyday life, among conventional names, generally accepted imaginaries and double meanings. The untruth of the world everyday life is rooted in its inconsistency: nothing here can be decided whether it exists or not, but everything always somehow exists and does not exist at the same time. Truth requires a decisive distinction between what is and what is not. Hence the decisive judgment of Parmenides: there is either being or non-being, there is no third. The teaching of Parmenides is the source of the ontological substantiation of the laws of logic.

The second decision rejects the path into oblivion, which leads nowhere, that is, simply a non-path, a lack of path. There is nothing to look for here, because there is nothing that is sought that could be meant (thought) or talked about. Hence the first principle of Parmenides: there is only being, there is no non-being.

What remains is the path leading to being, purified from every admixture of non-being. The path indicated by being contains many indications about being itself. It is not born (out of non-existence) and does not perish (into non-existence), does not differ in itself, does not change, does not flow through time, but all at once, one and indivisible, remains at rest, closed in itself and separated from non-existence by inviolable boundaries. Being in Parmenides is not lost in an indefinite infinity (as in Melissa), but is grasped by thought in the fullness of presence, along with limits, which is conveyed by the image of a sphere, a ball of being in the night of non-existence. Parmenides formulates the basis of Greek ontology in general: the existence of all things (everything and everyone) is contained within limits - in form, form, image (cf. Platonic eidos and idea).

Existing things are seen assembled into the fullness and unity of being not by the senses, but by the mental gaze and thought. Being as such is present in thought. By the limits separating being from non-being, being also borders on the thought that embraces (understands) it. On the contrary, thought, wandering in a doubtful world, gathers into an understanding mind, focusing on the only thinkable (unambiguous, unchanging, definite), on being. Thought is guided on the path by the very conceivable being to which the path leads. The path to being is therefore also the path of thought to itself; to think means to think something. Hence the second principle of Parmenides: the same thought and what it is about. The certainty of understanding lies in the certainty of what is understood. This means: the very possibility of speech speaking about something and thought meaning something already presupposes being in the Parmenidean sense.

Analysis of the conditions of true existence allows us to establish the exact beginnings of the imprecise world, the kingdom of opinions, additional to the kingdom of truth. True existence is one and unchanging, but the deceptive existence of the changeable world is due to the fact that mortals allowed a certain existence of non-existence, establishing two opposite forms as principles: the light (fire) of existence and the night (cold) of non-existence. From here Parmenides develops a version of cosmogony, most of which has not survived.

Parmenides was a student of Xenophanes. Much fewer fragments of Parmenides have survived than Heraclitus, but in terms of the degree of influence of Parmenides on subsequent Greek thought, it is difficult to compare him with anyone.

Parmenides was born in 540-544. He is generally considered the first philosopher to think logically and to introduce the rationalistic, logical method into philosophy. The school is named after Parmenides' place of residence - Elea, located in southern Italy. Parmenides studied with Xenophanes, but the Pythagorean Aminius led him to a contemplative life, to philosophy. It is believed that Socrates spoke with Parmenides, but the years of life of Socrates, who was born in 469, and Parmenides do not allow such a conclusion.

Parmenides wrote a poem also called On Nature. The poem consists of two parts - “The Path of Truth” and “The Path of Opinion”. Although the poem has not survived to this day, like other works of the Pre-Socratics, it was so often quoted by subsequent philosophers that from these fragments it turned out to be possible to reconstruct the poem (more precisely, the “Preface” and “The Path of Truth”) almost entirely. “The Way of Truth” sets out the true doctrine of existence, which is achieved only through strict logical thinking, and in “The Way of Opinion” Parmenides describes the world as it appears to the senses. It may not be a true world if the evidence of the senses does not agree with the conclusions of the mind, but it nevertheless seems so to us and therefore also deserves to be described. But the attention of philosophers is always, naturally, attracted by the first part of the poem - “The Path of Truth.”

Plot-wise, the poem, written in verse, is structured like this: the “Preface” describes how the virgin goddess leads a chariot with Parmenides “wherever thought reaches” - to the doors of the palace, in which the goddess of justice Dike meets the author and says that here she will tell him that which is unknown to no one - both the convincing truth and the opinions of mortals, “in which there is no exact fidelity.” Then, in “The Path of Truth” the story is told on behalf of the goddess Dike, where the actual teaching of Parmenides is presented. To understand his teaching, the most important part is the beginning, which says the following:

Now I will say, and you take my word when you hear it,

What kind of research is the only way to think about?

The first says that “there is” and “it is impossible not to be”:

This is the path of conviction (which is the companion of Truth).

The second way - what - “is not” and “must not be inevitably”:

This path, I tell you, is completely unknown,

For what does not exist can neither be known (will not be possible), nor explained...

For thinking is the same as being...

One can only say and think that there is: after all, being

There is, but nothing is: I ask you to think about it.

Before you, I turn away the paths of inquiry from this,

And then from where people, devoid of knowledge,

They wander with two heads...

In the above fragment, two provisions of Parmenides are highlighted. First: ““there is” and “it is impossible not to be””, in other words, “what is is, is, what is not is not”, “being is, there is no non-existence.” This is sometimes also called the first formulation of the law of identity. This is truly a tautology, a self-evident proposition, A = A. Only “people with two heads” can say otherwise, that A = not-A (a clear allusion to Heraclitus). The second position of Parmenides is not entirely obvious, for it says: “To think is the same as to be,” or in another philosophical formulation: “Thinking and being are one and the same.” It would seem that this can always be objected to. After all, you can imagine anything, any chimera, centaur, goblin, but it does not follow from this that they actually exist. However, firstly, we must distinguish between thinking and imagination. When I say that I thought of a centaur, I really mean that I imagined him, and that is not the same thing. To think means to give the true, scientific description object of thinking, which in the case of a centaur is obviously impossible. Secondly, it is also impossible to imagine something that does not exist. Try to imagine a centaur consisting of non-existent parts. A centaur is a creature consisting of a horse and a man, i.e. from what actually exists. Everything that we think, imagine, we imagine only on the basis of what exists. Try to think of something that does not exist, i.e. non-existence. Not a non-existent thing, but non-existence. This is basically impossible to do. This thesis of Parmenides is very important. It lies at the basis of any human cognitive activity. Not a single scientist, not a single person would know anything if he were not sure that his thought about an object is the object itself. Therefore, these two provisions of Parmenides are axioms: they cannot be proven, but without their recognition no knowledge is possible.

Within the framework of the teachings of Parmenides, the second axiom is by no means accidental, because the conclusions that follow from his philosophy are so contrary to common sense that there may immediately arise a desire to say that there is nothing in common between what has been proven and what actually exists, reason is not being, and its conclusions cannot serve as the basis for creating a doctrine of being. That is why from the very beginning Parmenides points out that to think is the same as to be, that logical arguments do not simply belong to the realm of personal reason thinking man, but also to the realm of being, and what we explore with the help of reason directly relates to being.

The following conclusions follow from the first thesis: since only being exists, it is indivisible. Indeed, being can be divided into parts only if between the parts of being there is something other than being, i.e. non-existence. But there is no non-existence. Therefore, being is one, has no parts. In reality there are no many different things: “Everything is continuous in this way: being is closed with being.” Further, even if we imagined that some parts of this being exist, they would not be able to move, since the movement of being is possible only in non-existence. The movement of parts of being is possible only when there is some kind of non-existence between the parts of being. Therefore, in reality there is no movement either. The fact that there is a multiplicity of things, and that these things are constantly moving, is only what we think. In reality, being is unborn and not subject to death. After all, it can only arise from non-existence, and it can also be destroyed only into non-existence. But there is no non-existence. Therefore, being has always existed, it is eternal and will always exist. It is homogeneous, tremulous, i.e. in any part it does not move, it is one, there cannot be two beings. It is simple, did not arise from anything, indivisible, omnipresent, continuous. Following Xenophanes, Parmenides asserts that being has the shape of a sphere 12.

Thus, a paradoxical picture emerges. Indeed, the conclusions from his two provisions, completely obvious and not subject to any doubt, the conclusions are completely logical, lead to completely unusual conclusions - that the plurality of things does not exist, that there is no movement, but this only seems to us. Parmenides describes this apparent world in “The Way of Opinion,” but here Parmenides is so unoriginal that even the number of fragments from this part of the poem is relatively small, which indicates little interest of subsequent philosophers in this part of Parmenides’ teaching. We, too, will follow their example and will not consider Parmenides’ doctrine of the world as insignificant and having no influence on further philosophical thought.

The teaching of Parmenides deserves special attention, since all subsequent philosophy will develop under the undoubted influence of the ideas of Parmenides. The genius of Parmenides was recognized, in particular, by Plato, who said: “Parmenides... inspires me... “both reverence and horror”” (Theaetetus 183e). Strictly speaking, Plato's philosophy is a further development of the ideas of Parmenides, an attempt to understand the paradoxical nature of our knowledge of truth and being.

Parmenides was the first to clearly formulate the basic philosophical axioms, the first to consistently apply a strict method of reasoning and knowledge, in this case the rationalistic one. Thus, Parmenides became the first system-creator in history: his teaching is not a series of brilliant intuitive guesses, like those of his predecessors, but is a strict philosophical system in which the philosopher, based on certain self-evident axioms and strictly following a certain method, comes to a certain a conclusion that, although distinguished by unusual and even paradoxical formulations, should still be recognized within the framework of this philosophical system as arising from all previous reasoning. Subsequent philosophical (and scientific) systems will also be created according to the same principle: each philosopher has a certain goal, a problem that needs to be solved; To do this, he postulates certain axioms and then argues using a method that seems to him more consistent with these axioms. In this regard, Parmenides’ system is remarkable in that it fits on one page, it is easy to present it in its entirety, and thus Parmenides helps to better and more clearly imagine the essence of the philosophical method of cognition.