A message from Parmenides of Elea to the universal man
BALOYANNIS S.
Department of Neurology, Aristotelian University, Thessaloniki, Greece

Parmenides flourished in Elea, a Greek colony in southern Italy, founded by Greeks who immigrated from Ionia (Asia Minor) under the Persian pressure, about 540 B.C. He studied philosophy, as a disciple of Xenophanes and other eminent pythagorian philosophers. Parmenides expounded clearly his philosophical doctrines in a metrical and very expressive language, composing a single hexameter poem, describing a hypothetical intellectual journey of the human soul. The poem properly entitled "On Nature", has been rationally characterized as didactic poem, due to its indisputable, philosophical value. Parmenides unique philosophical poem survived unfortunately only in some precious fragments, preserved eventually to us mostly by Sextus Empiricus and Simplicius. The great novelty in the poem of Parmenides is the introduction of the method of argument, which has been accepted successively by many thinkers. Parmenides' philosophical doctrines were discussed extensively and penetratingly in a rater analytical way by many eminent ancient thinkers, scholars and moral philosophers, like Plato, Aristotle, Chrysipos, Epictetos and Plotinos. Modern philosophers like Kierkegaard and Heideger adapted respectfully most of Parmenides' concepts on Being and absolute values.

In the second part of his poem Parmenides, under the light of the global or round and eternal Truth, argued for the essential homogeneity of the Being, which is uncreated, unbounded, indivisible, indestructible and eternal. According to Parmenides, Being can not have arisen out of nothing, for nothing does not exist in reality. Only Being exists and can be thought. Non being is not a real entity, has no existence and therefore it can not be thought or taken in consideration. All things cannot spontaneously come into existence from nothing, since nothing is like an empty space, unable to generate anything. Under the point of view of this fundamental principle Parmenides attempted to derive all his determinations of being. Moreover, Parmenides insisted accordingly, that whatever exists must exist in eternity, being always uniform and plenty in every possible respect. In the human life, Parmenides distinguishes two ways of inquiry. One of them, the most important, is the path of [ersuasion, which is the way of the round truth and enlightenment, which he favors definitely and insists that it must be followed continuously, without any deviation. The other way is the path of completely unlearned and uncultured man, which erroneously leads, as a rule to the world of illusion, the world of the senses and the superficial concepts and opinions. Being, according to Parmenides, is identified without any distinction with the essence of the beings, otherwise it should be rejected as an empty concept. Parmenides stated also that Being is the Truth and truth is therefore an absolute and unaltered eternal value.

In conclusion, following the steps of Parmenides in his intellectual and spiritual course, it could be realized clearly that he introduces the human being the infallible way of truth and the bright space of interior light. The "global" Truth is within the brightness and the transparency of light, which could enlighten and illuminate the human soul profoundly for ever.

The message of Parmenides to the contemporary man, who lives in the dim and depressive light of the atmosphere of a materialistically oriented society, who has been gradually deprived from any spiritual sense of life and any exalting celestial expectation, under the influence of the challenging voices for a temporal terrestrial prosperity, is to follow the way of Truth, retaining unaltered his moral integrity. Moreover Parmanides'proclamation to disturbed and unstable universal man, who anxiously tries to find his own identity, is to attempt to identify the Truth and the Being in himself, in his own existence, leading a virtuous life under the light of the absolute and eternal values.

Key words: Parmenides, truth, being, universal man, cosmology.