outward world, the world of sense, he proclaims to be illusion and
appearance. Reality is something which lies behind, and is invisible
to the senses. Now the very essence of materialism is that this
material world, this world of sense, is the real world. Idealism is
the doctrine that the sense-world is an appearance. How then can
Parmenides be called a materialist?

How are we to reconcile these two conflicting views of Parmenides? I
think the truth is that these two contradictories lie side by side in
Parmenides unreconciled, and still mutually contradicting each other.
Parmenides himself did not see the contradiction. If we emphasize the
one side, then Parmenides was a materialist. If we emphasize the other
side, then he is to be interpreted as an idealist. In point of fact,
in the history of Greek philosophy, both these sides of Parmenides
were successively emphasized. He became the father both of materialism
and of idealism. His immediate successors, Empedocles and Democritus,
seized upon the materialistic aspect of his thought, and developed it.
The essential thought of Parmenides was that Being cannot arise from
not-being, and that Being neither {50} arises nor passes away. If we
apply this idea to matter we get what in modern times is called the
doctrine of the "indestructibility of matter." Matter has no beginning
and no end. The apparent arising and passing away of things is simply
the aggregation and separation of particles of matter which, in
themselves, are indestructible. This is precisely the position of
Democritus. And his doctrine, therefore, is a materialistic rendering
of the main thought of Parmenides that Being cannot arise from
not-being or pass into not-being.

It was not till the time of Plato that the idealistic aspect of the
Parmenidean doctrine was developed. It was the genius of Plato which
seized upon the germs of idealism in Parmenides and developed them.
Plato was deeply influenced by Parmenides. His main doctrine was that
the reality of the world is to be found in thought, in concepts, in
what is called "the Idea." And he identified the Idea with the Being
of Parmenides.

But still, it may be asked, which is the true view of Parmenides?
Which is the historical Parmenides? Was not Plato in interpreting him
idealistically reading his own thought into Parmenides? Are not we, if
we interpret him as an idealist, reading into him later ideas? In one
sense this is perfectly true. It is clear