Parmenides: Being is Uncaused I. Ways of enquiry

A. IT IS and is impossible for it to not be (only path possible for if one can think it, it must exist) B. IT IS NOT and it must not be (this is unthinkable)

II. IT IS

A. being has no coming-to-be and no destruction (i.e., being cannot be created or destroyed) B. being cannot come from not-being (if it did, what could cause it to be?) C. being either exists absolutely or not at all

1. how could being perish? If it did, it would not-be 2. if it came into being, it would have to not-be 3. if it were to be at some future time, it would have to not-be

III. Qualities of being

A. indivisible (all being is alike; it all exists) B. motionless (being cannot come-to-be or be destroyed, so there can be no movement within being) C. finite and uniform (since being is whole and must lack nothing, it can’t be infinite; there is no point

at which being is greater or lesser) IV. The Way of Opinion: Light and Night (introduction to Parmenides’ cosmology)