Philosophy will lose its life if it is separated from debate. This is like trees. Trees that are separated from the wind and rain will wither. Heraclitus believed that "everything is flowing, and everything is flowing." Constantly changing"; while Parmenides, who lived a little later than him (5th century BC), pointedly pointed out that "nothing changes; our sense perception is unreliable."

The emergence of Parmenidean philosophy is a turning point and a qualitative leap in the history of ancient Greek philosophy. It is not only the inheritance and development of the past idealist philosophy, but also the inheritance and development of the entire primitive simplicity philosophy of ancient Greece. .His contribution is significant both in terms of philosophical theory and way of thinking. The category of "existence" he proposed is essentially the same as the category of "primordial foundation" proposed by the primitive and naive philosophers before. "Existence" It is the basic category of Parmenides' philosophy. He defined "existence" as having the characteristics of "immortality", "eternal change", "unique", "complete and indivisible". In other words, in Parmenides In De's view, existence is eternal, unique, and immovable. He has a famous saying: "Being a thought and being a being are the same thing." This has triggered the discussion by later generations about what "thought" and "existence" are. "Connotation debate. Some people think that Parmenides' 'existence' embodies an essential meaning. And "existence" can only be grasped by "thought". In this way, "Parmenides clearly expressed it for the first time in the history of philosophy. This is the basic philosophical question of thinking and existence." This view is agreed upon by most scholars. Some scholars hold a different view and believe that it is inappropriate to understand Parmenides' "thought and existence" in such a simplistic way. They believe that "Thought" means "understanding"; "existence" refers to "the process by which all things appear, appear, and emerge." This may be a new insight, but the author has reservations.

So Ba What is the brilliance of Menidean philosophy? This starts from the source of ancient Greek philosophy. "Philosophy" in ancient Greece means "love of wisdom". The ancient Greeks regarded the common origin of understanding all things in the universe as The original problem (the problem of the unity of the world), that is, the search for the "primordial foundation" is regarded as the wisest thing. Ancient Greek philosophers enjoyed it and each had their own results. Some believed that the primitive foundation of all things was "water" (Thales), some think it is "qi" (Anaximenes), "the unspecified one" (Anaximander), "fire" (Heraclitus), "number" ( Pythagoras), etc., their main tendency is to attribute the "original basis" to a certain perceptual thing or to only define the "original basis" externally. This is a downward and outward path of understanding. , so that the foundation and origin in their minds are always entangled in the phenomena of sensory contact, making rational things entangled with perceptual things, which naturally leads to disputes.

Parmenides He adopted a new path, that is, a purely rational and metaphysical path of knowledge, which he called the "road of truth." He found the category of "existence" and established the philosophy of "ontology" to end the dispute. "He strictly He distinguished essence from phenomenon, truth from opinion, and made them confront each other. Through reflection on concepts such as "original foundation" latent in the rational structure of previous people, and through logical reasoning, he derived a series of basic principles of "existence". Characteristics - unique, immovable, eternal, etc. Therefore, Parmenides replaced the category of "original foundation" with "existence", a category that is more flexible, more abstract, and free from more perceptual regulations. From then on, ancient Greek philosophy His abstract thinking ability has been greatly improved, and he can now understand the philosophical implications of the past, and can carry out pure logical abstract thinking and reasoning, which also shows that human understanding has reached the level of consciousness of what he pursues, that is, the object of thought." < /p>

Due to the influence of Parmenides’ philosophy, in the subsequent era, ancient Greek philosophy developed in two directions: materialism and idealism, both of which were motivated by Parmenides’ “being”. "Philosophy". Developing along the objective path, Parmenides' "being" evolved into Democritus's "atom"; developing along the subjective path, Parmenides' "being" evolved into Plato's "idea" ”. Aristotle gathered all the achievements of previous philosophy and made a detailed study of “existence” (“being”, “entity”, “origin”, “noumenon”). He comprehensively revealed the general and The contradictory relationships between individuals, essence and phenomenon, thinking and existence, rationality and sensibility, potential (i.e. "possibility") and reality, immutability and change, etc., have constructed a huge and inherently contradictory ideological system, which has led to historical All kinds of philosophies or schools of thought can benefit from this treasure house of thought. Aristotle's philosophical achievements are inseparable from Parmenides' improvement and grasp of the category of "existence". In Parmenides There, there are already paired contradictory categories such as "existence" and "non-existence", "truth" and "opinion", "rationality" and "feeling". And in terms of methodology, the kind of logic that is the first of its kind The analysis and reasoning methods may be more enlightening for Aristotle.