Metaphysics

Permanence and Change

Is reality fundamentally permanent and unchanging, or is change itself fundamental?

Positions

  1. Eleatic Monism

    What is, is one, ungenerated, and changeless; change and plurality are appearance.

    Held by Eleaticism

  2. Universal Flux

    Reality is process: everything flows, and stability is only a pattern in change.

    Held by Heracliteanism

Methods used to investigate this question

  • Hegelian Dialectic

    Hegelian dialectic subjects a form of thought to immanent critique, showing how its own commitments generate a contradiction and a more adequate determination.

    Open in Methods

  • Reductio ad Absurdum

    Reductio ad absurdum tests a proposition by assuming it for argument's sake and deriving a contradiction or another consequence that gives reason to reject the assumption.

    Open in Methods

Discussion

This problem asks how enduring stability and ongoing change are related: whether permanence is fundamental and change only appearance, or whether process is fundamental and stable things are patterns within it.

References

  • G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven and M. Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers (2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 1983)