The History of Metaphysics as a Footnote to Parmenides

Parmenides (ca. 515-450 B.C.E.)
(From: Wikipedia)

"Back we go to Parmenides and his argument to the effect that we can never know the world. What, then, can we know? And what can we do with philosophy if it brings us to that abrupt and final conclusion? One possibility: spend the next two thousand years attacking the premises, criticizing and refining the logic, clarifying and extrapolating the terms 'existence' and 'is,' reinterpreting the conclusion, reaffirming the conclusion, reconstructing the argument, translating the argument into theology, converting the theology into ontology, redefining ontology and reducing it to semantics, redefining and returning it to the language of common sense once again, then challenging or ridiculing common sense and turning it back into paradox, further refining the logic, generating new and even more puzzling paradoxes..." (39) --Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins, A Short History of Philosophy

Madness, no?