Pythagorean departure from absolute monism of Parmenides: a possible explanation

Pythagorean departure from absolute monism of Parmenides refers to a stream of influence and reception between the two prominent and influential representatives of pre-Socratic thought. If we consider the explanation of beings as pluralities, as one of the hidden intellectual goals in pre-Socratic thought, not only we will not find such an explanation in Parmenides’s thought, but depending on the “foundation” that which Parmenides puts it and develops, any explanation of pluralities become impossible. According to historical evidences, at least part of the thoughts in Pythagorean’s thought stream, can be seen as a reaction to Parmenides’s approach to the problem of explaining pluralities. In this way, we can consider the Pythagoreans to be the first critics of Parmenidean thought, who, too, by establishing a certain “foundation” in order to explain pluralities, sought to provide a suitable answer to the difficulties posed by Parmenides. The present study seeks to shed more light on the relationship between the two ideas by providing an explanation of these two “foundations” of Parmenides and Pythagorean.