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Single Idea 453

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

Full Idea

Since there is a spatial limit, it is complete on every side, like the mass of a well-rounded sphere, equally balanced from its centre in every direction; for it is not bound to be at all either greater or less in this direction or that.

Gist of Idea

Reality is symmetrical and balanced, like a sphere, with no reason to be greater one way rather than another

Source

Parmenides (fragments/reports [c.474 BCE], B08 ll.?), quoted by Simplicius - On Aristotle's 'Physics' 9.145.1-

Book Ref

'Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers', ed/tr. Freeman,Kathleen [Harvard 1957], p.44

Related Idea

Idea 229 The one was and is and will be and was becoming and is becoming and will become [Plato]

The 27 ideas from Parmenides

21820 Parmenides at least saw Being as the same as Nous, and separate from the sensed realm [Parmenides, by Plotinus]
555 People who say that the cosmos is one forget that they must explain movement [Aristotle on Parmenides]
1791 He was the first person to say the earth is spherical [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
5081 There could be movement within one thing, as there is within water [Aristotle on Parmenides]
1509 The one can't be divisible, because if it was it could be infinitely divided down to nothing [Parmenides, by Simplicius]
20900 Defenders of the One say motion needs the void - but that is not part of Being [Parmenides, by Aristotle]
226 The one is without any kind of motion [Parmenides]
3058 Only reason can prove the truth of facts [Parmenides]
1792 He taught that there are two elements, fire the maker, and earth the matter [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
1794 He was the first to discover the identity of the Morning and Evening Stars [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
5115 It is feeble-minded to look for explanations of everything being at rest [Aristotle on Parmenides]
13217 The void can't exist, and without the void there can't be movement or separation [Parmenides, by Aristotle]
22918 What could have triggered the beginning [of time and being]? [Parmenides]
1505 Reason sees reality as one, the senses see it as many [Aristotle on Parmenides]
1504 Something must be unchanging to make recognition and knowledge possible [Aristotle on Parmenides]
1502 Parmenides was much more cautious about accepting ideas than his predecessors [Simplicius on Parmenides]
1506 Parmenides treats perception and intellectual activity as the same [Theophrastus on Parmenides]
444 The first way of enquiry involves necessary existence [Parmenides]
445 The realm of necessary non-existence cannot be explored, because it is unknowable [Parmenides]
1503 There is no such thing as nothing [Parmenides]
450 Necessity sets limits on being, in order to give it identity [Parmenides]
451 Thinking implies existence, because thinking depends on it [Parmenides]
452 All our concepts of change and permanence are just names, not the truth [Parmenides]
448 No necessity could produce Being either later or earlier, so it must exist absolutely or not at all [Parmenides]
447 Being must be eternal and uncreated, and hence it is timeless [Parmenides]
449 Being is not divisible, since it is all alike [Parmenides]
453 Reality is symmetrical and balanced, like a sphere, with no reason to be greater one way rather than another [Parmenides]