élan vital See BERGSON. Eleatic School, strictly, two fifth-century B.C. Greek philosophers, Parmenides and Zeno of Elea. (The Ionian Greek colony of Elea or Hyele in southern Italy became Velia in Roman times and retains that name today.) A playful remark by Plato in Sophist 242d gave rise to the notion that Xenophanes of Colophon, who was active in southern Italy and Sicily, was Parmenides’ teacher, had anticipated Parmenides’ views, and founded the Eleatic School. Moreover, Melissus of Samos and (according to some ancient sources) even the atomist philosopher Leucippus of Abdera came to be regarded as ‘Eleatics,’ in the sense of sharing fundamental views with Parmenides and Zeno. In the broad and traditional use of the term, the Eleatic School characteristically holds that ‘all is one’ and that change and plurality are unreal. So stated, the School’s position is represented best by Melissus. See also MELISSUS OF SAMOS , PARMENIDES , XENO – PHANE. A.P.D.M.