Parmenides
~515–450 BCE · Greek (Elea) · Pre-Socratic Greece
Known for: Proved that change is impossible and nothing moves — then presumably walked home
Parmenides argued in his poem On Nature that reality is one, unchanging, and eternal — change, motion, and multiplicity are illusions. This sounds absurd but is logically rigorous and has never been fully refuted. Zeno's paradoxes were designed to support Parmenides' position.
His influence on Plato (the Forms are Parmenidean) and all subsequent metaphysics is incalculable.
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