Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the Pluralist Response
The pluralist response arose to reconcile the doctrines of Heraclitus and Parmenides. Heraclitus argued that everything changes, while Parmenides asserted that nothing changes. The pluralist conclusion was that something changes (the combination of elements), and something remains (the elements themselves). Thus, there isn’t just one arche (fundamental principle), but several.
Heraclitus and the Philosophy of Change
Heraclitus accepts the validity of the senses as a starting point but argues that true reality is only accessible through reason. He captures the sense of continuous change, the idea that everything is in constant flux. However, reason allows us to understand the cause and order of this change. Reason understands that change is caused by the contradictory structure of reality, where everything contains a unity of opposites in an ongoing struggle. Nature is dialectical. The order of change is due to the Logos (the underlying intelligence or principle of nature).
Parmenides and the Immutable Nature of Being
Parmenides states that reason is the only way to achieve authentic knowledge of reality. The senses grasp only the changing appearances of things, leading to opinion rather than true knowledge. True knowledge can only be attained by knowing Being through reason. Anything that is a part can not be thought because in terms, there is not and therefore I do not know, this excludes the change, because things can not go from non-being to being, or from being to non-being. For reason, we know that Being is and can be thought, is unknowable, so that we can only know BEING. Being is: identical to itself, eternal, indivisible, and limited.
The Anthropological Turn
The most important contribution of these thinkers is to initiate a reflection on the political and legal structure of Hellenic society and the moral behavior of citizens. This marks the beginning of the anthropological turn, bringing to the forefront concerns about moral behavior and problems in the organization of human societies.