Parmenides of Elea discusses the meta-theoretical issue of what can be legitimately thought and said. In his writings, Parmenides asserts that anything rationally conceivable must exist. In turn, anything non-existent can neither be thought of nor said. Furthermore, Parmenides rejects beliefs that are based on sensory experience. He believes that the senses deter us from recognizing genuine being, which can only be recognized through the use of reason. Although his argument seems to be logically sound, his theory proves unreasonable in the end.Parmenides presents his argument in the form of a poem. The poem begins with Parmenides meeting a goddess. The goddess informs Parmenides of two ways; the unshaken heart of well-persuasive Truth and the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true reliance (37). The poem therefore has two divisions. The first discusses the Truth, and the second the world of false impression (the world of sensory experience and the flawed beliefs of humans). In her discussion of the qualities of Truth, the goddess begins, that which is there to be spoken and thought of must be. For it is possible for it to be, but not possible for nothing to be (37). Thus, Truth lies in the fact that existence is and misperception in the belief that non-existence can also be. Only that which is conceivable can have real existence: for the same thing is for thinking and for being (37). The goddess goes on to tell Parmenides to use reason and not senses to assess judgment: do not let habit born from much experience compel you along this way to direct your sightless eye and sounding ear and tongue, but judge by reason the heavily contested testing spoken by me (38). Here, the goddess asserts that senses and experience provide an illusion, allowing one to believe that things that are not, are. The goddess proceeds to investigate the characteristics of genuine being: On this way there are signs exceedingly manythat b...
