On Parmenides’ Reality

On Parmenides’ Reality

The treatment being submitted here for the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Student Symposium began quite simply in the form of a journal entry submitted as one of the required elements of Dr. Toscano’s Introduction to Philosophy (PHIL 1010) in the 2010 fall term. The professor’s review and critique of that original work (which was comparably brief compared to this final edition) produced remarks from Dr. Toscano that motivated me to reevaluate my own interpretations of the proposition on Reality put forth by Parmenides of Elea in the fifth century BCE. Having studied philosophy as a personal interest for many years prior to selecting the discipline as my life’s pursuit, I had, of course, encountered Parmenides and his heirs along the path and already held an initial perspective on his particular proposition on Reality. That perspective was firmly opposed to his exceptional point of view. However, upon closer examination of Parmenides’ work, behind the professor’s evaluation of my own, I found a bit of a role reversal underway as I became more intimately acquainted with the finer points of Parmenides’ distinct works entitled “The Way of Truth” and “The Way of Opinion” and instead of conflict with his work on the matter, I discovered concurrence.

This treatment is the consequence of that closer examination.