Heraclitus and Parmenides - an ontic perspective

Scientific Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Philosophy - General Essays Eras language: English abstract: The article investigates fragments of the two Presocratic philosophers Heraclitus and Parmenides which are frequently seen as indicating two drastically different views of the world - the former often being summarized as Everything flows the latter as Everything rests. The perspective chosen here is a descriptive one focussing on the ontic aspect i.e. the level of mere being there of presence. It is discussed how an ontic interpretation of the aforementioned Presocratic fragments allow at least a partial integration of the seemingly diametrically opposed philosophies namely in maintaining that with all the doubtlessly occurring change in the phenomenal world change does not imply objects turning into nothingness but rather into different being. Thus change of state and development is acknowledged on the one hand as well as the persistence of being on the other hand. Several references to 20th Century philosophy serve to underline the interpretation given here.