General Discussion

Benton D Struckcheon

(2,347 posts)

39. I was thinking of that one.

Tue Jun 24, 2014, 06:54 PM

Jun 2014

Parmenides. It's actually a reductio ad absurdum of rationalism: that the mind can comprehend everything, and anything the mind can't comprehend can't exist.
So you start with: try to think of nothing. You can't since if you try you always wind up thinking of something. (I know, Zen Buddhism and all that. Just play along, alright?)
So, that means nothing doesn't exist. Given that, empty space can't exist. So everything is all filled up, and motion is therefore impossible. Which means everything is an illusion, including of course your own existence.

Zeno's Paradoxes are a way of proving that Parmenides is right.
Little-known fact (except among philosophy geeks): Democritus' atoms are Parmenidian wholes: each is kinda like a mini-Parmenides universe. Atomism was actually an attempt to answer Parmenides and get around Zeno's paradoxes. It wasn't until calculus came along that those paradoxes could get solved.
Philosophically, of course, all you had to do was ditch the rationalist assumption behind the whole thing and you're done. But the Greeks were rationalists so they had a tough time with that.

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Point of Clarification: Maedhros Jun 2014 #38

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I was thinking of that one. Benton D Struckcheon Jun 2014 #39

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