PY1541 Candidate number 100872454 11/02/18 Essay question: What arguments does Parmenides' give for the claim that only one thing exists? Like many sceptic philosophers, Parmenides' had a way of twisting the mind of the reader, and still has, as his work lives on. Being able to conceive of alternative interpretations of our own reality and existence requires a certain kind of open mindedness. To begin with I will discuss the main premises in Parmenides' two part poem "The Way of Truth " and "The Way of Appearance" in which he puts forward the following main ideas: everything is interconnected, the universe is spherical, inductive knowledge is not as valuable as deductive knowledge.Since the piece is a poem it can be a challenge to interpret and identify the thin line between art and philosophy. A reflection of his epistemological controversies will serve its relevance by leading you into the loaded theme of cosmogony, which will then lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of his philosophical poem. I will concern myself with the following four points of discussion. The first being a comparison of Parmenides and Descartes; because of their overlapping intellectual values. Following this I will discuss the poem in relevance to epistemology; what does a sceptic like Parmenides believe we can know with certainty? Thirdly the theme of cosmogony in relation to his perception of reality will be analysed. Finally I will reflect upon how Parmenides views the world and assess the soundness of his ideas. If we divide the world of matter and thought into things we can conceive of and things we cannot conceive of both empirically and metaphysically, Parmenides' argument for oneness appears tangible. In other words; one has to be able to conceive of the notion of nothingness not existing, and if one can conceive of everything existing having only one true predicate; existence the same way as everything that does not exist has the one true predicate which is not existing. All of the above are statements Parmenides would use to contrast the "logical world" from the empirical world of deception. Hence, he dismissed the reliability of sensory experience and the affirmation
of reason. This is also known as the method of empirical proof. Because it did not give sound input into the reality of the world, it was rejected by Parmenides. This was very unusual considering philosophy and science were strongly interlinked at this time. Known as Descartes preempt, his conception of reality was somewhat abstract. Nevertheless, had Parmenides actually met and discussed with Descartes, they would certainly not agree. Descartes believed that if something could think, then it had to be; Parmenides believed that everything that one can conceive of must be, because you cannot conceive of what is not. As it is made clear, he had very different ideas about the meaning of philosophy, and very different conclusions than the other philosophers at this time. (Descartes Meditations, 1641) The way of truth, has a lot of supporting material and and The