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Xenophanes in Plato’s Sophist and the first philosophical genealogy

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Published/Copyright: December 6, 2018
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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.

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Published Online: 2018-12-06
Published in Print: 2018-12-19

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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