3) The Eleatic Monists - Parmenides and Zeno

This is a video lecture from PHI 341, History of Ancient Philosophy. This course is taught at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. If you are interested in more courses (including through our online degree program) please check out the following websites: https://philosophy.uncg.edu/ https://philosophy.uncg.edu/academic-... https://online.uncg.edu/ In this session, we see our first sustained arguments in pre-Socratic Greek philosophy and the introduction of "Rationalism." The rational foundation of the Eleatics seems simple enough - just make sure to not confuse "Being" and "Non-Being." They are, clearly, contradictory ideas, and any attempt to think of "Being" as if it were "Non-Being" or vice versa is bound to lead to untrustworthy conclusions. Where this idea leads us, however, is to a depiction of the cosmos that is very different from what we experience, one where birth, death, change, movement, and even multiplicity are mere illusions.