The Problem

of Change and
Permanence
Lpez Surez Mara Elena
Rojas Corro Carolina
Rojas Pinto Micaela Mayra

Heraclitus and the

Philosophy of Change
Change is the key of
universe
All the things in the world
change, nothing stays
static, all is dynamic.
All the things are in a
state of flux

Heraclitus and the

Philosophy of Change
We are fire
Transmutation of
elements
Earth water - Air
fire
The soul is fire

Parmenides and the

Philosophy of Permanence
His

position was totally

opposed to Heraclituss
doctrine of change.
His philosophic poem is
divided in two parts:
The way of truth (reason)
The way of error (senses)
Change is an illusion, and
THERE IS NO SUCH
THING.

Parmenidess position
Philosophers

should get
behind appearances to find
reality.
The true reality of all
things is not air, fire, water
or earth.
Existence is the one thing
all things have in common.
Being, not change or
becoming, is the key to
reality.

Parmenidess position
Everything

which IS is

a being.
If there is something that
can not be considered a
being then it is a nonbeing, there fore it is
nothing.
Change is impossible.
Each thing is a being,
then each thing is what
everything is.

Parmenidess position
A

tree is a being and a

horse is a being. They
are, there fore, the
same thing-being.
All being, then, is one.
Reality is the one.
Reality is just being,
one single solitary
unchanging being.

Parmenidess position
All

differences,
including all changes,
are just appearances
Things seem to
change, but reason
proves that this
appearance of change
and diversity is simply
a deception of the
senses.

Zenon of Elea
Almost

everything that
we know about Zeno of
Elea is to be found in the
opening pages of Plato's
Parmenides.
He was close to
Parmenides and that he
wrote a book of
paradoxes defending
Parmenides' philosophy.

Zenon
Argument for the Parmenidean
denial of change
He attempted to show that
equal absurdities followed
logically from the denial of
Parmenides' views. You think
that motion is infinitely
divisible? Then it follows that
nothing moves! (This is what a
paradox is: a demonstration
that a contradiction or absurd
consequence follows from
apparently reasonable
assumptions.)

Zenon: The Paradoxes of Motion

Achilles and the Tortoise
The

argument says that it is impossible for

him to overtake the tortoise when pursuing it

Zenon: The Paradoxes of Motion

Achilles and the Tortoise

Achilles loses

Zenon: The Paradoxes of Motion

Achilles and the Tortoise

Zenon: The Paradoxes of Motion

The arrow
This

argument against motion explicitly turns on a

particular kind of assumption of plurality: that time is
composed of moments (or nows)and nothing else.

Conclusions
Opposite positions between
Parmenides and Heraclitus
naturally shock us.
The problem of Sameness
and Difference, of Change
and Permanence, of
Appearance and Reality;
are considered classic
problems in philosophy.
It may leads us to believe
that search of truth is
worthless (era of
skepticism).