Ancient Greek Philosophy Continued : Heraclitus and Parmenides

Heraclitus : The world continues to be in a state of flux , Where strife (Nekos) and love (Philia) , Are the dividing and uniting forces in control , To ensure the balance and unity of the whole ! Harmony is the union of opposites ; Just as the high and low musical notes combine , To create music and melody in our life ! The principle of the universe is becoming and change , And with his dynamic metaphysics Heraclitus tried to delve , The ultimate reality behind all things as he had felt ! Next we move on to Parmenides and his philosophy of ‘being’ ; Directly opposed to Heraclitus’ notion of change and ‘becoming’ ! PARMENIDES (515 BC – 450 BC) : Born in Elea a city south of present-day Napels , At the age of 65 years visited Athens , And was interviewed by the youthful Socretes , - as Plato says ! He was the founder of the Elactic School ; Declared all changes to be mere illusory , - and not to be fooled ! In reality it was only changelessness , - only a state of ‘being’ ; Far removed from Heraclitus’ change and flux , and ‘becoming’ ! Since for ‘being’ to change and ‘become’ , it must have come , - From a being , or non-being , or nothing ! To come from a ‘non-being’ or ‘nothing’ was impossible ! But if from a ‘being’ , then it has come from itself ; And has always been an ‘identical being’, - Parmenides strongly felt ! It was evident then , that from being only being can come , Hence there was only one eternal , indivisible being , which was continuous ! Moreover , he declared ‘being’ and ‘thought’ were one ! For what cannot be thought cannot be , And what cannot be , that is ‘non-being’, - cannot be thought ! ‘Thought’ and ‘being’ for him were identical ! All change for Permanides being inconceivable , - The world of sense he declared was an illusion ! Sense perception reveals a world of plurality and change ; An illusory world of opinion and appearance ! Later , Bertrand Russell in his ‘History of Western Philosophy’, Suggested Parmanides was a victim of linguistic fallacy ! Yet he gives him credit for the ‘invention of Metaphysics based on logic!’ Both Melissus and Zeno as pupils of Permanides , Continued his traditions in his Electic School of Philosophy ! Zeno’s through his four paradoxes on movement tried to demonstrate , The indivisibility and unchanging reality without change ! Zeno with his words of magic, is reputed to have laid the foundation of Logic !