Abstract
In this article I intend to show that Plato in the Sophist provides us with the earliest doxographic material on pre-Platonic thinkers. In his account on his predecessors, Xenophanes emerges as the founder of the Eleatic tribe as opposed to the pluralists, while Heraclitus and Empedocles are presented as the Ioanian and the Italian Muses respectively. This prima facie genealogical approach, where Plato’s predecessors become the representatives of schools of different origines paves the way for Plato’s project in the Sophist. In other words the monistic account Xenophanes introduces, prepares for the synthesis between the one and the many set forth by Heraclitus and Empedocles, which is thus presented as a further step towards the ‘interweaving of forms’ (συμπλοκήν εἰδῶν) Plato proposes in the Sophist.
Acknowledgement:
This article was first presented in Elea (now Ascea) in honour of Alex Mourelatos. I owe special thanks to James Lesher, who read the first version of my paper and made valuable comments. For kindly reading the final version I am grateful to John Petropoulos. All misreadings and mistakes remain entirely mine.
Bibliography
Adomenas, M. (1999), “Heraclitus and Religion”, in: Phronesis 44, 87–113.10.1163/156852899321331752Search in Google Scholar
Bury, R.G. (ed.) (1967–1968), Plato. X-XI, Laws, Cambridge, MA-London.Search in Google Scholar
Centrone, B. (ed.) (2008), Platone, Sofista, Torino.Search in Google Scholar
Chrysakopoulou, S. (2010), “Heraclitus and Xenophanes in Plato’s Sophist”, in: Ariadne 2010, 16, 75–98.Search in Google Scholar
Chrysakopoulou, S. (2012), “Wonder and the beginning of Philosophy in Plato”, in: S. Vassalou (ed.), Practices of Wonder, Oregon, 88–120.10.2307/j.ctt1cgf63h.8Search in Google Scholar
Chrysakopoulou, S. (2016), “Is Parmenides a Pythagorean? Plato on Theoria as a Vision of the Soul”, in: A.-B. Renger/A. Stavru (eds.), Pythagorean Knowledge from the Ancient to the Modern World: Askesis, Religion, Science, Berlin, 77–92.10.2307/j.ctvc770xm.9Search in Google Scholar
Fowler, H.N. (ed.) (1921) Plato in Twelve Volumes, XII, Cambridge, MA-London.Search in Google Scholar
Kirk, G.S./Raven, J.E./Schofield, M. (1983), The Presocratic Philosophers, 2nd edition, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511813375Search in Google Scholar
Laks, A. (1993), “Mind’s Crisis: On Anaxagoras’ NOUS”, in: The Southern Journal of Philosophy 3, 19–38.10.1111/j.2041-6962.1993.tb00693.xSearch in Google Scholar
Laks, A. (2006), Introduction à la ‘philosophie présocratique’, Paris.Search in Google Scholar
Laks, A./Louguet, C. (eds.) (2002), Qu’est-ce que la Philosophie présocratique?, Lille.10.4000/books.septentrion.55554Search in Google Scholar
Lesher, J.H. (1991), “Xenophanes on Inquiry and Discovery: An Alternative to the ‘Hymn to Progress’ Reading of Xenophanes’ fragment 18”, in: Ancient Philosophy 11, 229–248.10.5840/ancientphil19911121Search in Google Scholar
Lesher, J.H. (1994), “The Emergence of Philosophical Interest in Cognition”, in: Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 12, 1–34.Search in Google Scholar
Lloyd, G.E.R. (1966), Polarity and Analogy: Two Types of Argumentation in Early Greek Thought, Cambridge; reprinted 1987, 1992.Search in Google Scholar
Long, A.A. (ed.) (1999), The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy, Cambridge.10.1017/CCOL0521441226Search in Google Scholar
Mackenzie, M.M. (1988), “Heraclitus and the Art of Paradox,” in: Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 6, 1–37.Search in Google Scholar
Mansfeld, J. (1964), Die Offenbarung des Parmenides and die Menschliche Welt, Assen.Search in Google Scholar
Mansfeld, J./Runia, D.T. (1997), Aëtiana. The Method and Intellectual Context of a Doxographer. I, The Sources, Leiden.10.1163/9789004320987Search in Google Scholar
McDiarmid, J.B. (1953), “Theophrastus on the Presocratic Causes,” in: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 61, 85–156.10.2307/310774Search in Google Scholar
McKirahan, R. (1994), Philosophy Before Socrates, Indianapolis.Search in Google Scholar
Menn, S. (1995), Plato on God as Nous, Carbondale.Search in Google Scholar
Mourelatos, A.P.D. (1971), The Route of Parmenides, New Haven.Search in Google Scholar
Mourelatos, A.P.D. (1987), “Quality, Structure, and Emergence in Later Presocratic Philosophy”, in: J. Cleary (ed.), Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, II, Lanham, 127–194.Search in Google Scholar
Mourelatos, A.P.D. (ed.) (1993), The Pre-Socratics, Garden City (NY) 1974; reprinted Princeton.10.1515/9781400863204Search in Google Scholar
Mourelatos, A.P.D. (ed.) (2013) Xenophanes of Colophon, http://philosophy.unc.edu/files/2013/10/Xenophanes-Phil-of-Religion.pdfSearch in Google Scholar
Nehamas, A. (2002), “Parmenidean Being/Heraclitean Fire,” in: V. Caston/D.W. Graham, Presocratic Philosophy. Essays in honour of Alexander Mourelatos, London, 45–64.Search in Google Scholar
Osborne, C. (1987), Rethinking Early Greek Philosophy: Hippolytus of Rome and the Presocratics, Ithaca, NY.Search in Google Scholar
Noburu, N. (1999), The Unity of Plato’s Sophist, Cambridge.Search in Google Scholar
Palmer, J. (1999), Plato’s Reception of Parmenides, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
Salmon, W.C. (2001), Zeno’s Paradoxes, 2nd ed., Indianapolis.Search in Google Scholar
Sassi, M.M. (ed.) 2006, La costruzione del discorso filosofico nell’età dei Presocratici, Pisa.Search in Google Scholar
Shorey, P. (ed.) (1969), Plato in Twelve Volumes, V-VI, Cambridge, MA-London.Search in Google Scholar
Stokes, M. (1971), One and Many in Presocratic Philosophy, Washington, DC.Search in Google Scholar
Svenbro J. (1976), La parole et le marbre. Aux origines de la poetique grecque, Lund 1976.Search in Google Scholar
Vlastos, G. (1947), “Equality and Justice in Early Greek Cosmologies,” in: Classical Philology 42, 156–178.10.1086/363029Search in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- (Im)politeness in the Iliad: The Pragmatics of the Homeric Expression ἀγαθός περ ἐών
- Who was Onymacles the Athenian? (Alcaeus 130b V. = 130.16–39 LP)
- Voices of the dead: Underworld narratives in Bacchylides’ Ode 5 and Odyssey 11
- Removing the Nationality Paradigm from Herodotus’ Histories
- Xenophanes in Plato’s Sophist and the first philosophical genealogy
- ‘Decoding’ a literary text. The commentary of Derveni
- Narrator and poetic divinities in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica
- List of Contributors
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- (Im)politeness in the Iliad: The Pragmatics of the Homeric Expression ἀγαθός περ ἐών
- Who was Onymacles the Athenian? (Alcaeus 130b V. = 130.16–39 LP)
- Voices of the dead: Underworld narratives in Bacchylides’ Ode 5 and Odyssey 11
- Removing the Nationality Paradigm from Herodotus’ Histories
- Xenophanes in Plato’s Sophist and the first philosophical genealogy
- ‘Decoding’ a literary text. The commentary of Derveni
- Narrator and poetic divinities in Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica
- List of Contributors