The Voices in My Head Say 'Talk Amongst Yourselves.'

This blog post is a playful yet thoughtful conversation among imagined voices, referencing philosophers like Xenophanes, Parmenides, and Zeno. An alternate title for this post could be: “When Ancient Philosophers Crash My Inner Monologue”.

Do the voices in your head have interesting discussions? Do they agree with each other?  Here's what the voices in my head sometimes talk about.

VOICE #1:  Greek philosopher Xenophanes founded a school at Elea in Lucania (region in South Italy). Students of this school were known as Eleatics, and the two most notable pupils were Parmenides and Zeno. Parmenides (c. 504 - 450 B.C.) believed Movement and Change were Illusions, and the Universe motionless. Zeno (C. 490 - 430 B.C.) was taught by Parmenides, and he delved further by Thinking up Arguments to prove that motion was unreal. (You should hear the one about Achilles and the tortoise.)

Parmenides was among the first to propose an ontological characterization of the fundamental nature of reality. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

VOICE #2: SO! ... Fast forward, the Romans conquered the Greeks and since the conquerors pretty much had minds that were like sieves with large holes, they rummaged through the remnants of the conquered civilization (Greece) as if it was a huge flea market or neighborhood garage sale and incorporated the aspects of the leftovers that they liked the best into the Empire. It doesn't look like the Romans thought Greek Eleatic philosophy was a school of thought worth building on; or it could just be that the Epicureans and the Stoics took up the spotlight and center stage.

VOICE #3: They all sound like babblers to me. I'm going to build on the Shema, the Golden Rule and the Beatitudes. Those rocks will move you straight ahead and even if you're motionless you still stand on solid ground. :)

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VOICE #1 and #2 grumble:   #3 always gotta be a nuisance and a troublemaker.

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Ethics and the Golden Rule

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Related links:

@xxsnow_angelxx3953. “The Brilliant Women of Philosophy.” YouTube, Video, 7 Sept. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=QNrQNqPEbKE&t=216. 

Parmenides (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

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A Doctor's Notes about Ancient Philosophers: The Eleatic School, Xenophanes

A doctor's notes about Ancient Philosophy: The Eleatic School, Xenophanes:

 - "To represent the gods as men is to alter their nature in order to make them similar to us. These errors are due to the imaginations of men. ... it seems that Xenophanes confused God with space and with the universe taken it its totality."  

Per the late Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty was the Founder and President of The Center for Applied Philosophy and the Radical Academy, and is Honorary Philosophy Editor at The Moral Liberal.

• Read full article at Self-Educated American: Ancient Philosophers: The Eleatic School, Xenophanes (Apologies,  Article was unpublished.)

• If interested further in the Pre-Socratic writings of this philosophical poet who lived in the ancient Greek world during the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., Xenophanes of Colophon: Fragments (Phoenix Presocractic Series) is an English translation of the surviving fragments of Xenophanes’ teachings.

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Oh if only the writings of one of the philosophers could tell me where to find the philosopher’s stone.

What??!!  Is it so wrong to desire gold without having to pan or dig for it; and to wish to remain forever young?   :)

The Philosophers of the Ancient World: An A-Z Guide

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