Page 46 - GALIET HEAVEN´S SCROLL IV

way of creation as arising from another one, or from a first principle, or primordial substance, or matter.
Grecian philosophers consistently argued the notion of creation from a pre-existent reality. They were unable to admit, let alone conceive, of another form of creation contradicting their self-evident principle ουδαμα αν γενοιτο ουδεν εκ μηδενóς,31 or ex nihilo nihil fit: out of nothing, nothing comes to be. This principle, fully defended by the Eleatic and the Epicurean philosophers,32 had flourished in Parmenides’ thought, “that which is not, cannot be spoken or thought about” in virtue of the principle that only Being or what is “is,” and Non-Being or what is not, “is not.”33 Being has always been and always will be, not temporally, but eternally, says he. Being, too, is illimited, without beginning and without end, Melissus of Samos reiterates, for Being cannot come to be or be begotten, for it already is. 34 If it
31 Waterfield, Robin. The First Philosophers. The Pre-Socratics and The Sophists. USA: Oxford University Press, 2009. Melissus of Samos, in Diels-Kranz 30B1.
32 Lucrecius. De Rerum Natura. Trans. W.H.D. Rouse. Loeb Classical Library. London: Harvard University Press, 2006. I, 150-210.
33 Waterfield, Robin. The First Philosophers. The Pre-Socratics and The Sophists. USA: Oxford University Press, 2009. Parmenides. Diels-Kranz, 28B6, 8, 9. 58-59.
The above sense of oneness is also postulated by Plato’s predecessor, Parmenides. To the Eleatics’ main exponent, Parmenides, the ultimate reality of all things is fixed, permanent, and the unity or oneness beneath all things can be named ‘God’ or ‘Divine Law’ (F4 and F32), in contrast to Heraclitus’ predication that all things are under constant flux. Kirk. The Presocratic Philosophers. Trans. Kirk, Raven, Schofield. UK: Press Syndicate of Cambridge University Press, 1983. See also, Waterfield, Robin. The First Philosophers. The Presocratics and the Sophists. USA: Oxford University Press, 2009. 33. 34Waterfield,Robin.TheFirstPhilosophers. ThePre-SocraticsandtheSophists. USA: Oxford University Press, 2009. Melissus of Samos. Diels-Kranz, 30 B2. 84.
—46—