Parmenides of Elea was a younger contemporary of Heraclitus of Ephesus, but he lived at the opposite end of the Greek world: in Italy.
Both men were intrigued by the immense variety of phenomena, but where Heraclitus discerned order in the chaos, Parmenides pointed out that the endless
variety and eternal changes were just an illusion.
In a long poem, which partially survives, he opposed 'being' to 'not being', and pointed out that change was impossible, because it would mean that something that was 'not being' changed into 'being', which is absurd.
In other words, we had to distrust our senses and rely solely on our intellect.
The result was a distinction between two worlds: the unreal world which we experience every day, and the reality, which we can reach by thinking.
This idea was to prove one of the most influential in western culture.
