Steroids

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The life of Parmenides is not the easiest of follow. For one the year of his birth is unclear. Some sources say that he was born in 540-539 B.C., ?the ear of the foundation of Elea which is the date given for the floruit of Xenopanes? (Taran 3). According to Plato, Parmenides and Zeno visited Athens where they met a youthful Socrates. Plato says that at the time Parmenides was sixty-five years old. The meeting was to have taken place around 450 B.C. this would place Parmenides birth around 515 B.C. according to Plato (Taran 4). Parmenides was born into a wealthy family of noble descent. He was suited for a prominent political lifestyle, but was drown by Pythagorean Ameinias, whom Parmenides revered even after his death, to give up an active political role in exchange for one more philosophical.

In Parmenides relationship with the Pythagoreans, he developed a certain astronomical knowledge such as the ability to identify the morning and evening star and the illumination of the moon by the sun, and also the spherical shape of the earth.

Later in Parmenides philosophical life he becomes attached to the teachings of Xenopanes. He elaborates on his doctrines on a poem. The poem begins with a chariot ride to the ?Goddess? who reveals the plain truth and the deceptive beliefs of men. It falls into two parts, truth and deception (Zeller 65). It was the writings of Heraclitus that compelled Parmenides to make his theories public. The idea that Parmenides started from was the thought of Being in contrast to not Being. ?He understood by being not the abstract concept of pure Being but the ?full?, the space filling mass without any further specifications, not-Being is empty space? (this was part of the Pythagorean doctrine) (Zeller...