PARMENIDES and BEING - History of Philosophy with Prof. Footy

[Music] hello everyone my name is Damon and this is my assistant the foot and today we'll talk about formalities Parmenides is a tinkerer concerned with the question of being like many of the philosophers of the time he presented his views in a form called on nature and in this born he tells of a goddess who guides him on the path of truth which is opposed to the path of opinion so what does he learn on the path of truth he learns the being is one immovable continuous imperishable and indestructible here's a quote how could what is perish how could it have come to be for if it came into being it is not nor is it as ever it is going to be thus coming into being is extinguished and destruction unknown what is being and why does it have such characteristics being is well it's that is we often say he is walking she speaking but we don't often say he or she is something is and he is just that there is part the word being that something simply is without further qualifications relates to despair fact of existence so when Parmenides talks about what is he does not mean any particular thing a particular instance of being a human being who animal beings are being called a star these are all beings in other words existing things Parmenides however asks about existence as such being in general without any qualifications and according to him one we think being as such must realize that it did not come to be and that it cannot perish because it always is similarly because being simply is it does not change and because beans all and one that does not move there is nothing outside being in which it can move there is no non being no gold and Parmenides pushes this to the extreme not only is there no non being there are also no particular beings now this might seem radical to us saying that there is only being as such that there are no things no movement no change no generation or destruction but what Parmenides criticizes here is our everyday perceptions of reality what we perceive as movement change polarity of things is merely that our perception and yourselves actually often is this kind of an argument for example someone might take there are no TVs no houses no human beings there are only particles and their interactions only we recognize a TV as a TV from a certain standpoint of abstraction and the existing thing can be reduced to some other thing is there such thing as a people or is it only our perception whereas in reality are only individuals to individuals exist or are they only collection of biological cells if we push this to the end we can say there is actually nothing beside that which is existence pure and simple and this existence then must be eternal because if being as such became it would have had to emerge from nothing that which is the opposite of being but how can something emerge from nothing similarly a being Jesus it would have to become nothing but how can something become nothing already when we say to become to change into something we say that this something is a positive existence and nothing simply is not we can see here that this has to do a lot with our language when we say that there is nothing we already contradicted ourselves how can there be nothing this is the way of opinion and falsehood in which mortals for when they say oh it's nothing who say it is then it is not nothing but something therefore it is necessary to speak and think what is for being is but nothing is not the Parmenides when we think to think of something when we speak we speak of something we cannot think nothing so be and thinking coincide it is only our perception our false way of speaking this leads us astray if we follow the way of truth we would realize that there is only being to conclude Parmenides pushes previous philosophy to its extreme where previous thinkers taught some unifying principle of reality often distinct from that reality in particular things water air number / melody says that technically speaking there is nothing but reality there is nothing but being and indeed nothing besides being this is an important step in the history of philosophy because as we will soon see it will shape the thinking of subsequent philosophers for centuries to come the lots of us are famous for obsessing with the question what is being thank you very much for watching and until next time

Channel: Demizmue

Views: 29,949

Keywords: Parmenides, Eleatic Philosophy, Parmenides of Elea, Pre-socratic philosophy, Pre-socratics, Presocratics, Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greece, Being, Path of Truth, Path of Opinion

Id: Yf7m58gfQhg

Length: 5min 37sec (337 seconds)

Published: Tue May 23 2017