{"id":7775,"date":"2025-03-17T16:26:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T16:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/?p=7775"},"modified":"2025-05-08T04:04:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T04:04:26","slug":"parmenides-fragments-2-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2025\/03\/parmenides-fragments-2-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Parmenides Fragments 2-8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Parmenides Fragments 2-8 are rendered here, according to their true meaning and in a form suitable to the oral culture in which these fragments were conceived. Which is to say a form suitable to being chanted. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TRUTH<\/strong>
[2] Come, and I shall tell you,
and you will listen and preserve my account.
There are only two routes of inquiry
for knowing about the cosmos:
one \u2014 that transcendental being IS
and cannot not be.
This is the path of confidence,
for it corresponds to true reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other \u2014 that transcendental being is not
and needs not be the cosmic principle
that governs the cosmos.
This second route, I say,
is wholly without rapport with true reality,
for you cannot comprehend something
that is not a manifestation of transcendental being \u2014
that would be impossible \u2014
and nor could you indicate what it would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3] It is the same thing
that can be thought of and that can be,
for all \u2014 both mind and matter \u2014
are manifestations of the one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4] Gaze upon things which, though far off,
are still firmly present to the mind \u2014
since though far off, they are still manifestations
of the same indivisible entity, being.
For you shall not carve up being in your mind
but cultivate the cognition necessary
to grasp its transcendence,
for being neither scatters itself everywhere
in different ways throughout the cosmos
nor gathers itself together,
but is one, transcendental, and changeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5] It is the same to me
from where I begin my exposition,
for to there I shall come back again \u2014
for there are no dualisms in truth
and hence no location points;
all is simply being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6] Speaking and thinking must be of being,
for being pervades the cosmos,
whereas something that is not
a manifestation of being cannot be \u2014
this I bid you consider.
From this first route of inquiry you shall begin,
but afterwards, you shall learn of the route
on which mortals, knowing nothing, wander confused,
with lack of understanding in their breasts
guiding their wandering minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are carried,
deaf as well as blind,
bewildered, and undiscerning crowds \u2014
of people who do not know the truth of being \u2014
for whom being and non-being
are deemed on equal footing \u2014
a duality that forms the bedrock
of their understanding.
And this path of the unknowing many
turns back upon itself \u2014
contradicting itself and confusing those on it \u2014
whereas being is pure and still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7] For never shall this be found to be true:
that there are things
that are not manifestations of being.
Restrain your thoughts
from this second route of inquiry \u2014
that carves up being dualistically \u2014
and do not let inured habit,
born of much experience,
compel you along the path \u2014
of mundane consciousness \u2014
which would have you use your eyes and ears aimlessly
and have your tongue name all things \u2014
in opposition to one another, separating them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But judge by higher insight
the much-contested refutation \u2014
of this second route \u2014
that I have spoken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8] A single route is left:
that being IS.
There are exceedingly many signs
that transcendental being IS
and is ungenerated and imperishable,
whole and of a single kind,
unshakable and complete.
Nor was being in one way in the past,
nor will it be in another way in the future,
since it IS, NOW, ENTIRELY, ONE,
and CONTINUOUS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For what becoming will you seek
of static being?
How and from where could being have emerged?
Not from some counterpart to being \u2014
this I shall not allow you to say or think \u2014
for it is not to be said or thought
that transcendental being is not \u2014
since being lacks nothing and has no opposite \u2014
what condition could have made it grow
later or earlier,
if \u2014 as mortals say \u2014 it began from nothing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, being must either be completely \u2014
everywhere and at all times \u2014
or not \u2014 at all.
Nor will the force of true conviction
ever allow anything to come-to-be
besides being \u2014
since there is no such thing \u2014
therefore, neither being\u2019s coming-to-be
nor its perishing has Justice allowed;
she holds being fast,
never relaxing her shackles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision in these matters depends on this:
\u201cIs being or is it not?\u201d
But it has been decided, as is necessary,
to leave one way \u2014 that being is not \u2014
unthinkable and unnamable \u2014
for it is not a true route \u2014
and that the other route \u2014 that being is \u2014
IS and is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How could being be in the future,
and how could it have come-into-being \u2014
at some point in the past?
For if it came-into-being \u2014 in the past \u2014
it was not \u2014 always in its undifferentiated fullness \u2014
nor is it \u2014 eternal, undifferentiated fullness \u2014
if at some time \u2014 in the future \u2014
it is going to be \u2014 in another manner from what it is now.
Thus \u2014 according to the true route \u2014
coming-into-being is quenched,
and perishing is unheard of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor is being divisible,
since it is all alike;
nor is it somewhat more here,
which would keep it from holding together \u2014
everywhere as one \u2014
nor is it any less there,
but all \u2014 everything, everywhere \u2014
is full of being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, being is all continuous,
for what-is is \u2014 everywhere \u2014
in contact with what-is.
Unchanging within the bounds of great chains,
being is without beginning and without end,
since coming-to-be and perishing
have been banished far \u2014 from thought \u2014
and true conviction cast them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remaining the same,
and in the same way,
being abides by itself
and remains thus fixed in place,
for mighty Necessity
holds it within the bonds of a limit,
which encloses it all around.
For it is not lawful
for what-is to be incomplete,
for being is not lacking;
if it were, it would lack everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same thing is \u2014 the cause of \u2014 thinking,
and of there being thought,
for not without being,
on which \u2014 thought \u2014 depends,
and within which it occurs,
will you find thinking;
for nothing ever IS or will be
besides being,
since Fate has bound it
to be whole and changeless,
wherefore being has \u2014 erroneously \u2014
been named all things
that mortals have posited \u2014
mistakenly believing them to be true:
that coming-into-being and passing-out-of-being \u2014
are meaningful predicates \u2014
that \u2014 objects can \u2014 be and not be,
and are able to change place and alter color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since being lies fixed,
it is complete \u2014 onto itself \u2014
from every side,
like the bulk of a well-rounded sphere,
from the center everywhere of equal strength;
for being is not more here
or less there,
for neither is there non-being,
which might stop being from reaching itself,
and nor is there any way
in which what-is could be
more here and less there,
since it is all inviolably IS;
equal to itself from every direction,
it lies uniformly fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SEEMING<\/strong>
Here I end for you
my reliable account and teaching
on the truth \u2014 about reality.
From here on, learn of the opinions of mortals,
listening to the deceptive way
my words order reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For they \u2014 mortals \u2014
have made up their minds
to name two entities,
of which it is not right to name one;
here they have gone astray,
and they have differentiated opposite principles
and assigned characteristics to each \u2014
setting them \u2014 apart from one another:
ethereal fire of flame on the one hand,
which is gentle, very light,
and everywhere identical to itself,
but not the same as the other entity \u2014
they have posited, and which they hold to be \u2014
its opposite; dark night,
a dense and heavy principle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I declare to you
this \u2014 false but plausible \u2014 ordering in its entirety,
so that no mortal opinion
may ever overtake you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parmenides Fragments 2-8 are rendered here, according to their true meaning and in a form suitable to the oral culture in which these fragments were conceived. Which is to say a form suitable to being chanted. TRUTH[2] Come, and I shall tell you,and you will listen and preserve my account.There are only two routes of[\u2026] Continue Reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psychology"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7775"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7866,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775\/revisions\/7866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}