Editing Eleatics

{{Short description|Pre-Socratic school of philosophy}}
[[File:Parmenides.jpg|thumb|215x215px|Bust of [[Parmenides]], considered to be the founder of Eleatic philosophy]]
The '''Eleatics''' were a group of [[Pre-Socratic philosophy|pre-Socratic]] philosophers and [[school of thought]] in the 5th century BC centered around the ancient [[Colonies in antiquity#Greek colonies|Greek colony]] of [[Velia|Elea]] ({{langx|grc|Ἐλέα}}), located around 80 miles south-east of [[Naples]] in southern [[Italy]], then known as [[Magna Graecia]].

The primary philosophers who are associated with the Eleatic doctrines are [[Parmenides]], [[Zeno of Elea]], and [[Melissus of Samos]], although other [[Italian school (philosophy)|Italian]] philosophers such as [[Xenophanes of Colophon]] and [[Empedocles]] have also sometimes been classified as members of this movement. The Eleatics have traditionally been seen as advocating a strict [[metaphysical]] view of [[monism]] in response to the [[materialist]] monism advocated by their predecessors, the [[Ionian school (philosophy)|Ionian school]].

==History==
Patricia Curd states that the chronology of pre-Socratic philosophers is one of the most contentious issues of pre-Socratic philosophy.{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}} Many of the historical details mentioned by [[Plato]], [[Diogenes Laertius]], or [[Apollodorus]] are generally considered by modern scholarship to be of little value,{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}} and there are generally few exact dates that can be verified, so most estimates of dates and relative chronology must rely on interpretations of the internal evidence within the surviving [[Diels-Kranz numbering|fragments]].{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}} 

There is generally a consensus that Parmenides lived in the early 5th century BC,{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}} based on the date and setting of the fictionalized events in Plato's ''[[Parmenides (dialogue)|Parmenides]]'' where Parmenides and Zeno travel to Athens and have a debate with a young [[Socrates]].{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}} This would place Parmenides well after other philosophers such as [[Xenophanes]], [[Heraclitus]], and [[Pythagoras]].{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}} Although many philosophers throughout history have interpreted the doctrines of the Eleatics as responses to [[Xenophanes]], [[Heraclitus]], or [[Pythagoras]], there is no broad agreement or direct evidence of any influence or direct response, although many theories have been put forth interpreting the Eleatics in terms of these philosophers.{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}} For philosophers after Parmenides however, the relative chronology and potential directions of influence become even more difficult to determine.{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}} 

For Zeno, it is not clear whether or not [[Anaxagoras]] or [[Empedocles]] influenced or were influenced by any of his ideas, although they appear to have lived at approximately the same time.{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}} For Melissus, who lived one generation later, the problem of influence is further complicated by additional potential influences of [[Leucippus]], [[Democritus]], and [[Diogenes of Apollonia]].{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}} For example, some interpreters see Melissus as responding to Leucippus' [[atomism]], which is then responded to by Democritus - but others see Melissus responding to Democritus.{{sfn|Curd|2004|p=15-18}}

==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]]'').
==Legacy==
One of the characters in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Sophist (dialogue)|Sophist]]'' is "an Eleatic stranger";<ref>Plato, [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1735/1735-h/1735-h.htm Sophist: ''Persons of the Dialogue''], the [[Project Gutenberg]] EBook of Sophist, translated by [[Benjamin Jowett]], accessed on 4 January 2025</ref> Plato also acknowledged the Eleatics in the ''[[Parmenides (dialogue)|Parmenides]]'' and the ''[[Statesman (dialogue)|Statesman]]''. Some authors suggest that Meno's paradox, in Plato's dialogue ''[[Meno]]'', can be linked to the Eleatic distinction between "knowing" and "not-knowing".<ref>Calvert, B., [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/227850 Meno's Paradox Reconsidered], ''Journal of the History of Philosophy'', Volume 12, Number 2, April 1974, accessed on 4 January 2025</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |last1=Boyer |first1=Carl B. |last2=Merzbach |first2=Uta C. |author1-link=Carl Benjamin Boyer |author2-link=Uta Merzbach |title=A History of Mathematics |date=2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |isbn=978-0-470-52548-7 |pages=67–68 |edition=Third}}
*{{cite book |last1=Curd |first1=Patricia |title=The legacy of Parmenides : Eleatic monism and later presocratic thought |date=2004 |publisher=Parmenides Publishing |location=Las Vegas, Nev. |isbn=1-930972-15-6}}
*{{cite encyclopedia |chapter = |editor1= Andre Laks|editor2=Glenn W. Most|title=Western Greek Thinkers, Part 2 |encyclopedia=[[Loeb Classical Library]] |series=Early Greek Philosophy |publisher= Harvard University Press| volume = 528 |date=2016 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-674-99706-6}}
*{{cite book |last1=Palmer |first1=John Anderson |title=Parmenides and Presocratic philosophy |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199567904}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Eleatic School|volume=9|pages=168–169}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite EB9 |wstitle = Eleatic School |volume= VIII | page=1 |short=1 }}
*{{cite SEP|parmenides|title=Parmenides}}
*{{cite SEP|zeno-elea|title=Zeno of Elea}}
*{{cite SEP|paradox-zeno|title=Zeno’s Paradoxes}}
*{{cite SEP|xenophanes|title=Xenophanes}}
*{{cite SEP|monism|title=Monism}}

== External links ==

* [https://platonic-philosophy.org/files/Parmenides%20-%20Poem.pdf "On Nature" by Parmenides, translated by John Burnet]
* [[wikisource:Fragments_of_Melissus|Fragments of Melissus]] at Wikisource
{{Greek schools of philosophy}}
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[[Category:Presocratic philosophy]]
[[Category:Greek philosophy]]