Parmenides

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Parmenides is mentioned by Dante in the Paradiso. The name appears in Canto XIII, at verse 125, within a list in which Thomas recalls philosophers and theologians who erred, respectively, in the use of natural reason or in the interpretation of Scripture. According to the commentary notes, Parmenides is remembered as the founder of the Eleatic school in the fifth century B.C., together with Melissus, his follower. The school upheld the unity, immobility, and indivisibility of being, and Aristotle opposed these theses decisively. The notes also indicate that Dante derived his own opinion about these philosophers from Aristotle, as appears in the Monarchia, where the two are cited as examples of the risk of error in logical argument.