Ancient Philosophy

Greek Pre-Socratics

What did philosophers after Parmenides assert about the nature of appearance?

Before Plato, there were several attempts by philosophers to rescue the reality of changing, moving components of our ordinary experience from Parmenides’ claim that the only thing that is real is the One, which does not change. These philosophers who came after Parmenides tried to establish the reality of things that move or change, or in other words, they wanted to reassert common sense against Parmenides’ mysterious claim that the world we think is real is not real, because it is not the One. Plato returned to Parmenides’ ideas as a foundation for a more elaborate distinction between appearance and unperceived reality, although for Plato the unperceived One was in fact many. Aristotle provided the most successful defense of common sense and of the reality of appearance by insisting that the world of appearance was real.



Close

This is a web preview of the "The Handy Philosophy Answer Book" app. Many features only work on your mobile device. If you like what you see, we hope you will consider buying. Get the App