d be a. In other words, a is something other than b. But, there is no other because other is an “is not.” So if reality becomes something else, it is unreal, which cannot exist. Therefore, reality is unchanging. Reality is also eternal because time is the same concept of changing. The way of being, Parmenides claims, is also immaterial. If it were material, it would be divisible which is impossible since “it all is alike,” (Fr. 8, ln 23). Therefore, in trying to explain thought and being, Parmenides has rejected becoming, “coming to be has been extinguished,” (Fr. 8, ln 21). It is rejected because he associates becoming with change and difference. Since he has denied change and difference, he believes he must also deny becoming. He cannot explain becoming without contradicting himself. Therefore, it can be seen that Parmenides concludes that being comes from nonbeing, since he assumes becoming to be unlearnable.In the Phaedo, Plato attempts to resolve Parmenides’ problem that becoming is unlearnable, and thereby nonexistent, through the doctrine of forms and participation. Plato assumes “ the existence of a Beautiful, itself by itself, of a Good and a Great and all the rest. . . if there is anything beautiful beside the Beautiful itself, it is beautiful for no other reason than it shares in the Beautiful…” (100b-c). In other words, something is the way it is because it participates in the form of that thing. From this reasoning, he concludes that something “. . . can come to be by sharing in the particular reality in which it shares,” (101c). In other words, becoming exists because an object can partake in the Form of it. However, the thing can have several characteristics. “It is true then about some of these things that not only the Form itself deserves its own name for all time, but there is something else that is not the Form bu has its c...
