PERSUASIVE ESSAY (POSITION PAPER)The Problem with Parmenides Metaphysics
... this by saying that on a humanistic level there is an end to the physical being and if that is so then there must be an end point and that one must traverse the space to get there. Therefore, motion to a finite destination is crucial. Parmenides further stated that if something changes, it becomes something different; thus, he reasoned, if being itself were to change, then it would become something different (Bruder and Moore 25). I must agree this theory does have some merit; if things were to change they do indeed become something different. I agree that being ‘is’ and then being ‘is not’ as in birth then death. However, Parmenides further stated that what is different from being is non-being, and non-being just plain is not. Hence, he concluded that being does not change (Bruder and Moore 25). This is where our theories differ. I must dispute by saying that Parmenides is entirely too black and white. There are many degrees of being we must pass through to become non-being. I argue that change is essential to life, to existence. Adapting to the environment is the principal factor to the evolutionary path we have traveled. As mentioned above it is the motion along this path that brings about the change. So I feel Heraclitus was correct when he stated “There is no reality save the reality of change: permanence is an illusion” (Bruder and Moore 23). For these reasons, I state without change humankind would cease to exist. Parmenides also stated that sensory perception is an illusion (Wolf Unit I Notes). He followed his idea that being does not change to further state “any inferences about appearances to the contrary are just gross illusions” (Bruder and Moore 26). I contend that what ‘is’ is seeable, smell-able, taste-able, hearable, touchable, and sense-able, as they are the senses we use to know our world. Together with the teachings of those that precede us our senses are how we verify want we are learning. Essentially we use our s...