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Single Idea 1509

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

Full Idea

Since the one is everywhere alike, then if it is divisible, it will be equally divisible everywhere….so let it be divided everywhere. It is obvious that nothing will remain and the whole will vanish, and so (if it is compound) it is composed of nothing.

Gist of Idea

The one can't be divisible, because if it was it could be infinitely divided down to nothing

Source

report of Parmenides (fragments/reports [c.474 BCE]) by Simplicius - On Aristotle's 'Physics' 9.139.5-

Book Ref

'The First Philosophers', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 2000], p.78

A Reaction

he is quoting Porphyry

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]
1791 He was the first person to say the earth is spherical [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
555 People who say that the cosmos is one forget that they must explain movement [Aristotle on Parmenides]
226 The one is without any kind of motion [Parmenides]
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]
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]
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]
1794 He was the first to discover the identity of the Morning and Evening Stars [Parmenides, by Diog. Laertius]
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]
452 All our concepts of change and permanence are just names, not the truth [Parmenides]
449 Being is not divisible, since it is all alike [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]
453 Reality is symmetrical and balanced, like a sphere, with no reason to be greater one way rather than another [Parmenides]
450 Necessity sets limits on being, in order to give it identity [Parmenides]
451 Thinking implies existence, because thinking depends on it [Parmenides]