Editing Eleatics (section)

==Philosophy==
{{sources needed|date=April 2022}}

=== The One ===
The Eleatics believed in the [[Monism|oneness]] of the [[universe]], and that "All is One". To justify this view, Parmenides argued that everything either "is" or "is not". Since "is not" doesn't truly exist, this means only "what is" can actually exist, and must everything falls under this one category. In his poem ''On Nature'', Parmenides wrote:

{{blockquote|Come now, I will tell thee—and do thou hearken to my saying and carry it away—the only two ways of search that can be thought of. The first, namely, that It is, and that it is impossible for it not to be, is the way of belief, for truth is its companion. The other, namely, that It is not, and that it must needs not be,—that, I tell thee, is a path that none can learn of at all. For thou canst not know what is not —that is impossible—nor utter it; for it is the same thing that can be thought and that can be.}}

This concept was further expanded upon by [[Melissus of Samos]], who was one of the first philosophers to champion the principle that [[Creatio ex materia|nothing can come from nothing]]<ref>"οὐδαμὰ ἂν γένοιτο οὐδὲν ἐκ μηδενός (... in no wise<!--[sic]--> could anything have arisen out of nothing)".</ref>, and that a [[Unmoved mover|first cause]] was necessary for the universe to exist. He believed that this first cause (called "The One") had to be both [[Eternity|eternal]] and [[Infinity|infinite]], and that because it is infinite it also cannot be divided into parts, as that would require those parts having to establish finite boundaries in relation to each other. Since The One is already whole it can't change in any way, shape or form.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cohen |first1=S. Marc |title=Lecture Notes: Parmenides |url=https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/parm1.htm |website=University of Washington}}</ref>

=== Motion ===
Because the Eleatics thought that The One doesn't undergo any changes, they rejected the possibility of [[motion]] existing. They believed that any perceived motion was due to [[illusion|illusions]] of the [[Sense|senses]], which are incapable of understanding the [[Henosis|universal unity]].{{sfn|Boyer|Merzbach|2011}} They thus rejected [[empirical evidence]] in favour of strict adherence to [[reason]].

=== Creation ===
The Eleatics argued that there can be no [[creation myth|creation]], for being cannot come from non-being, because a thing cannot arise from that which is different from it. They argued that errors on this point commonly arise from the ambiguous use of the verb to be, which may imply actual physical existence or be merely the linguistic [[copula (linguistics)|copula]] which connects [[subject (grammar)|subject]] and [[Predicate (grammar)|predicate]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=168–169}}

=== Zeno's paradoxes ===
[[Zeno of Elea]] employed various ''[[reductio ad absurdum]]'' [[Paradox|paradoxes]] in order to disprove the concept of motion, attempting to destroy the arguments of others by showing that their premises led to contradictions (''see:'' ''[[Zeno's paradoxes]]'').