Parmenides Biography

Parmenides was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. He authored a metaphysical poem that established him as one of the most eloquent and profound thinkers of his era. Regarded as the father of metaphysics, he conceptualized the notable idea that states that “Thought and being are the same.” Parmenides wrote a poem titled ‘On Nature’ in which he prescribed two views of reality - "the way of truth" and "the way of opinion". He is also known to have composed the phrase “Nothing comes from nothing”. Born in c. 515 BC to a rich and illustrious family, Parmenides has been viewed as a central figure in the history of philosophy. He was the one who challenged the theories of his predecessors and encouraged his successors to re-think their philosophies. He founded the Eleatic school of philosophy where one of his pupils was Zeno of Elea. During his lifetime, the great philosopher challenged many contemporaries, including Heraclitus of Ephesus who stood against the former’s philosophical concept of ‘being’. Parmenides died in 450 BC, at the age of 65.