SOURCE: Bertrand Russell, "Parmenides," in A History of Western Philosophy, and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1945, pp. 48-52.

In the following excerpt, Russell argues that Parmenides did not consider the perpetual change in the meaning of words, leading to the fallacy of the impossibility of all change.

The Greeks were not addicted to moderation, either in their theories or in their practice. Heraclitus maintained that everything changes; Parmenides retorted that nothing changes. Parmenides was a native of Elea, in the south of Italy, and flourished in the first half of the fifth century B.C. According to Plato, Socrates in his youth (say about the year 450 B.C.) had an interview with Parmenides, then an old man, and learnt much from him. Whether or not this interview is historical, we may at least infer, what...