Heraclitus and Parmenides

    A way to reconcile the opposing views of Heraclitus and Parmenides is through a third, Pythagoras. In his geometry, the monad is what Parmenides would describe existence as being "now, all at once, one and continuous... nor is it divisible, since it is all alike, but all is full of what is." The dyad is what Heraclitus would describe as "all things coming into being through opposition, and all are in flux, like a river... the way up and the way down are the same." Parmenides measures all by the source, Heraclitus measures all by the appearance of opposing forces. In the east, Parmenides would reflect a Buddhist position, while Heraclitus would reflect a Taoist one. But there is no need to take any position. All appearances derive from the source, so they are both correct. Both philosophers describe the primary geometric attributes of the cosmos in Pythagoras' mathematical religion: the monad and the dyad, working together to produce dynamic forces.