Parmemides and Heraclitus on Change Essay

Today’s society has changed immensely over the years. Now it is okay to be who you truly are and to not be judged by society. But years ago, unique people were judged and put down by society: such as in the story “Antaeus”. The character T.J. is different from his town, but becomes accepted by his friends, but unfortunately not by adults, who put him down. In the short story “Antaeus” by Borden Deal, the character T.J. is a representation of man, who is unique from the rest of his town’s society, which sparks purpose in friends, but they ultimately fail at the hands of authority figures.

This paper looks at two Greek philosophers, Heraclitus, and Parmenides. It examines their different theories as to how the universe was created, understanding of the universe, 'way of truth, ' 'way of opinion ' and the third way. The author explains that Parmenides, who came after Heraclitus, addressed part of his writings as a refutation of Heraclitus? views. He objected both to Heraclitus? view of the universe and how Heraclitus felt people could gain knowledge of it.

The ancient Greeks viewed the world in a way that one would today perhaps describe as "holistic". Science, philosophy, art and politics were interwoven and combined into one worldview. Moreover, those who look carefully will find subtle, but intelligible parallels between early Greek philosophy and Eastern thought. The Heraclitean fire resembles Buddhist impermanence, while the Greek Logos resembles the

There are many types of change, change in perspective, emotional change, physically change and world change. In Looking for Alibrandi, the author, Melina Marchetta demonstrates, the concept of change not only through the main character, Josephine, but also some other minor characters such as Michael Andretti and John Barton though the majority is shown through Josephine. The poem, “The Door” by Miroslav Holub is very similar to Looking for Alibrandi as it also shows the concept of change but it tells us that change can mean that anything could happen even if that anything is nothing. Change can be good, it can be bad, change can be anything and it can even start relationships.

This view was in dialectical opposition to Heraclitus of Ephesus, who argued that the world is in a constant state of flux. Heraclitus argues that there is a problem with people’s attachment to the illusion of permanence. Everything in the world will not stay the same, we can see this from the idea from Heraclitus that ‘it is not possible to step twice into the same river, according to Heraclitus, nor to touch mortal substance twice in any condition’ (Plutarch, 392B). Rivers are bodies of water that continually flows so that every second the water at a point in the river is not the same as it was before. The state of the physical world has never remained the same; mountains move over millions of years, a few billion years ago Earth could not sustain life, and even longer ago there were no solids, no liquids, only gases. Each moment can be said to die and be reborn in the next, so that change occurs every moment and it

The symbolic world views of how the world was created can be described through the cosmogonies of Genesis and the Laws of Manu. It is through these theories that one can learn how the universe came into existence. Many individuals consider a certain religion to be their ultimate realm of reality, and it is within religion that these symbolic world views come into play. The cosmogony of Genesis began along a sacred history of time where god created merely by speaking. In contrast, the Laws of Manu involve creation through thought. In Genesis, there is only one god and in Laws of Manu there is more than one god. Both cosmogonies have many similarities as they have

    Byblis and Myrrha, two of Ovid's impassioned, transgressive heroines, confess incestuous passions. Byblis yearns for her brother, Caunus, and Myrrha lusts for her father, Cinyras. Mandelbaum translates these tales effectively, but sometimes a different translation by Crane brings new meaning to an argument. As Byblis and Myrrha realize the feelings at hand, they weigh the pros and cons of such emotions. Despite the appalling relationships in question, each young girl provides concrete support and speaks in such a way that provokes pity for her plight. Their paths of reasoning coincide, but Byblis starts where Myrrha's ends, and visa versa; Myrrha begins where Byblis' concludes.

The following chapter, Cosmos: The Quest for Order, looks at the development of cosmology as it related to Christianity during the religion's early years. The Christian ideas on cosmology were heavily influenced by Stoicism and Platonism, two of the leading philosophic traditions of the time period (34.) Both schools of thought followed the belief that the universe exhibited clear signs of order in its design which were clearly the work of a creator.

Lucretius, a Roman philosopher, was greatly inspired by the teachings of Epicurus. In Lucretius’s book, On the Nature of Things, he expands on many Epicurean principles and at times even alters them. “Nothing comes from nothing”, the first principle that Lucretius endorses, is essential to his argument for the origin of the world. Using this principle, Lucretius against the accepted Roman religion by adding the concept that “divine intervention” is not the root of creation, instead he gives credit to atoms. These atoms, or beginnings of things, he reasoned, came together to form masses called bodies.

The universe: The ancient Greeks view earth as ‘a flat disk floating on the river of Ocean.’

and this quantity of motion is “the product of its speed and its size” (Descartes, 1644/2012, p.33), but the conception of speed used by Descartes is an scalar rather than considered as a vector like velocity (as modern development shows (Gerald Holton and Stephen G. Brush , 2001, p. 210)), nonetheless Descartes suggests that “the mind does not directly move the external limbs, but simply controls the animal spirits which flow from the heart via the brain into the muscles, and sets up certain motions in them..” (Descartes, 1641/1985, p. 161), and this allow the interaction of substances in Cartesian terms, in other words, according to Descartes, the soul only change the direction of the body, but cannot add motion to the physical bodies; however, this is the problem of the interaction in Cartesian terms: as Dennett explain “any change in the trajectory of any physical entity is an acceleration requiring the expenditure of energy” (Dennett, 1991, p. 35), thus, the Cartesian explanation should violate the laws of physics, in other words as Dennett asks “…where is this energy to come from?” (Dennett, 1990, p.35), and this energy cannot come from a

A: In comparison to Heraclitus theory of constant change in the universe Parmenides thought that there was no change only permanence. He believes that reality was changeless and that the

Transformations from one shape or form into another are the central theme in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The popularity and timelessness of this work stems from the manner of story telling. Ovid takes stories relevant to his culture and time period, and weaves them together into one work with a connecting theme of transformation throughout. The thread of humor that runs through Metamorphoses is consistent with the satire and commentary of the work. The theme is presented in the opening lines of Metamorphoses, where the poet invokes the gods, who are responsible for the changes, to look favorably on his efforts to compose. The changes are of many kinds: from human to animal, animal to human, thing to

In looking at the numerous experiences that I have encountered where change has been more than needed and wanted, I feel that my experience working in the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center for five years and leaving to pursue change is a great example of the use of a change model. When I began working in detention in 2009, I felt empowered and validated for the work that I was doing. I also felt that the work that I was doing was making a difference in the lives of the youth I worked with. I had amazing rapport with the youth and staff alike and quickly moved up the latter. As I climbed the latter, I worked to ensure that the staff and I maintained the best interests of the youth. In maintaining a high level of integrity and fairness, we saw dramatic decreases in recidivism among the youth we served and noticed that the staff enjoyed coming to work. However, several years later the facility was sub contracted out and many of the administrative and line positions were cleared out and filled with new personnel. As the new agency filled the positions with various new staff, the change had a negative effect on the previous processes. As the changes continued so did the responses/ behavior of the youth. It seemed like the consideration for the youth and concern for their best interest were pushed aside to fulfill quotas. With the high level of stress this brought on staff, I as well as many others attempted to “Walk on” to find new alternative that would allow us to maintain our efforts, but were unsuccessful. With numerous failed attempts and meetings with admin that resulted in nothing more that frustration, I chose to “Walk out.” In walking out, I continued working with youth in an area that allows me to be a bigger part of the process where I can be more effective. Through this experience, I would say that the seven step process would be very close to the ways in which I addressed the concerns within the detention center prior to leaving and then after as I sought to empower the youth in my community. In part of this change process, I have also undertaken higher education to ensure that I can better meet the needs of those within my community and to strengthen myself so that I can work in situation were those I

To truly and accurately argue on whose view I agree to as being the most reasonable view, we would have to understand what was Heraclitus and Parmenides definition of change was in their eyes. The change they could have been trying to express could have been towards nature, characters of people or government and politics.