Thinkers associated with Elea used rigorous arguments about being, plurality, motion, and appearance, forcing later philosophers to explain how change can be intelligible.
Shared questions
Can thought and speech coherently refer to what is not, changes, or is many?
Internal disagreements
Whether sensory appearances can be reconciled with arguments for the unity and permanence of being.
Key texts
On Nature — Parmenides' hexameter poem survives in fragments quoted by later authors, with the Way of Opinion least well preserved.
Zeno's paradoxes — Known almost entirely through Aristotle's reports and Simplicius' commentary rather than from Zeno's own book.