QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

mistakes from the modern viewpoint. For example, he did not differentiate between the
existential, indicative and predicative use of the verb to be, and he took it as a given that only
what actually existed could be addressed. Both Plato and Aristoteles were to point out these
problems at a later date. Parmenides’ reliance on logic was however a revolutionary step in the
history of thought. He had ensured that reality could be accessed through abstract language and
organised reasoning without having to resort to sensation, intuition or inherited beliefs. In a more
pointed fashion than the Milesians, Parmenides introduced the demands of truth into philosophy.
His arguments also indicated the perplexing consequences of taking seriously the thought that
only the unchanging can be comprehended and that only the unchanging actually exists. 52
Empedocles 53 , who lived in Sicily, criticised Parmenides for his arrogant starting point, i.e. that
humans could approach the whole of reality in a rational manner. He did not believe that the
viewpoint of the gods was within the power of mortals 54 . Empedocles did not wish to surrender
the whole world of coming into being and passing away as a mere illusion, he wanted us to trust
our senses insofar as they gave us clear instructions. He altered Parmenides’ contention that nonbeing
was impossible into the claim that emptyness was impossible. In such a case, nothing
could arise out of void and everything that existed was material. Movement and multiplicity
could be combined with the eternal and changeless so that different materials and objects
consisted of four eternal elements: earth, fire, air and water. 55 This is the first example of what
may be called a ‘corpuscular’ theory of matter. Its essential feature is the assumption that all
processes in inanimate nature really consist of imperceptible corpuscles of particles which persist
in unchanged form thoughout all processes. Elements are mixed in different materials in different
proportions, but their total quantity remains unchanged. ‘Birth’ and ‘death’ are just words used to
describe the combination and division of elements. 56
51 Tarnas 1998, 21.
52 Guthrie 1950, 47-50. Thesleff ja Sihvola 1994, 50-53.
53 In antiquity, Empedoklesta was highly valued. The later Greek philosophers (following Plato and Aristotle) refer
to him repeatedly as the creator of the theory of elements and therefore as the creator of physics itself. He expressed
his thoughts in poetic form and tried to achieve a synthetis between the study of nature and religious mysticism.
Jaeger 1947, 129. 131-133.
54 Parmenides had said that he had been greeted by Truth herself and had received a revelation such as no mortal
either before him or after him could ever enjoy. Unlike his all-too-confident predessor, Empedocles does not
demand knowledge but asks the Muse to bestow on him ’as much (of her wisdom) as is becoming for ephemeral
man to hear’. Jaeger 1947, 134- 136. A considerable quantity of Empedocles’ texts are still available. In English, see
Empedocles 1981. (The Extant Fragments. Edit., with an Introduction, Commentary, and Concordance by M.R.
Wright. New Haven and London. Yale University Press. 1981.)
55 In contrast to the earlier philosophers who had singled out one basic substance, Empedocles concluded that they
all stood on equal terms as there was not a single primal stuff but several. In contrast to Parmenides, he concluded
that Being is not monistic but a plurality. Kenny 1998, 13-14.
56 Dijksterhuis 1986, 9. Jaeger 1947, 137. Stenius 1953, 107-125.
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