Parmenides’ and Śaṅkara’s Nondual Being without Not-being
Philosophy East and West January 1, 2016 Chiara Robbiano 3 citations
This essay compares the philosophical systems of Parmenides, a Greek philosopher from the fifth century BCE, and Śaṅkara, an Indian philosopher from the eighth to ninth centuries CE. It argues that Parmenides' concept of being parallels Śaṅkara's nonduality of Brahman and ātman. The focus is on their shared methods for guiding readers to know nondual reality: both first make a distinction (krísis/viveka) between being (real, Self) and not-being (unreal, Non-self), and then use negative dialectic to test what common sense takes as fundamental characteristics of reality.