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The Vicious Circle of Being

„Being is”: since the beginning of philosophy, this formulation by Parmenides has never ceased to amaze. Tautology, redundancy, normally does not supply any new information. But tautology is a linguistic expression of identity, and identity is a condition for the possibility of any being.
The paradoxes inherent in Parmenides’ formula are analyzed by Plato in his dialogue Parmenides. This work ends in desperate resignation, assent to the expression of contradictions. Being also means the existence of appearances, or even the existence of nonbeing. The way we use language proliferates being at a terrifying speed, and the negation of any being itself generates a new one. Paradox and contradiction lie at the source of any possible way of thinking about the world.