Single Idea 21820

[catalogued under 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / f. Primary being]

Full Idea

Parmenides made some approach to the doctrine of Plato in identifying Being with Intellectual-Principle [Nous] while separating Real Being from the realm of sense.

Gist of Idea

Parmenides at least saw Being as the same as Nous, and separate from the sensed realm

Source

report of Parmenides (fragments/reports [c.474 BCE]) by Plotinus - The Enneads 5.1.08

Book Reference

Plotinus: 'The Enneads', ed/tr. Mackenna,Stephen [Penguin 1991], p.357


A Reaction

The point is that for Parmenides the One is the essence of Being, but for platonists there is something prior to and higher than Being. For Plato it is the Good; for Plotinus it is a revised (non-Being) concept of the One.