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Single Idea 20900

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / e. The One ]

Full Idea

Defenders of the One say that there could not be motion without a void, and that void is what does not exist, and that nothing that is not belongs to being.

Gist of Idea

Defenders of the One say motion needs the void - but that is not part of Being

Source

report of Parmenides (fragments/reports [c.474 BCE]) by Aristotle - Coming-to-be and Passing-away (Gen/Corr) 325a26

Book Ref

Democritus: 'Early Greek Phil VII: Democritus', ed/tr. Laks,A/Most,G [Harvard Loeb 2016], p.91


A Reaction

This is why motion is an illusion, a view also supported by the paradoxes of Zeno of Elea. Aristotle goes on to give Democritus's response to this idea. Parmenides was contemplating 'void', before Democritus got to it.

Related Idea

Idea 20901 True Being only occurs when it is completely full, with atoms and no void [Democritus, by Aristotle]


The 27 ideas from 'fragments/reports'

Parmenides at least saw Being as the same as Nous, and separate from the sensed realm [Parmenides, by Plotinus]
People who say that the cosmos is one forget that they must explain movement [Aristotle on Parmenides]
He was the first person to say the earth is spherical [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
There could be movement within one thing, as there is within water [Aristotle on Parmenides]
The one can't be divisible, because if it was it could be infinitely divided down to nothing [Parmenides, by Simplicius]
Defenders of the One say motion needs the void - but that is not part of Being [Parmenides, by Aristotle]
The one is without any kind of motion [Parmenides]
Only reason can prove the truth of facts [Parmenides]
He taught that there are two elements, fire the maker, and earth the matter [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
He was the first to discover the identity of the Morning and Evening Stars [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
It is feeble-minded to look for explanations of everything being at rest [Aristotle on Parmenides]
The void can't exist, and without the void there can't be movement or separation [Parmenides, by Aristotle]
What could have triggered the beginning [of time and being]? [Parmenides]
Reason sees reality as one, the senses see it as many [Aristotle on Parmenides]
Something must be unchanging to make recognition and knowledge possible [Aristotle on Parmenides]
Parmenides was much more cautious about accepting ideas than his predecessors [Simplicius on Parmenides]
Parmenides treats perception and intellectual activity as the same [Theophrastus on Parmenides]
The first way of enquiry involves necessary existence [Parmenides]
The realm of necessary non-existence cannot be explored, because it is unknowable [Parmenides]
There is no such thing as nothing [Parmenides]
Necessity sets limits on being, in order to give it identity [Parmenides]
Thinking implies existence, because thinking depends on it [Parmenides]
All our concepts of change and permanence are just names, not the truth [Parmenides]
No necessity could produce Being either later or earlier, so it must exist absolutely or not at all [Parmenides]
Being must be eternal and uncreated, and hence it is timeless [Parmenides]
Being is not divisible, since it is all alike [Parmenides]
Reality is symmetrical and balanced, like a sphere, with no reason to be greater one way rather than another [Parmenides]