Parmenides of Elea

(c 515-___) Greek philosopher and politician. Head of Eleatic school. The changing phenomenal world is too perishable and unstable to be ultimate reality. The Real implies an unchanging Being, in contrast to things that come into existence and later perish. The real Being was never born and will never die. It simply is, and is the same throughout. Ultimate truth can refer only to Being because that never changes.