Volume 51, Issue 4 -

This paper demonstrates the central role of the Socratic elenchus in the Sophist . In the first part, I defend the position that the Stranger describes the Socratic elenchus in the sixth division of the Sophist . In the second part, I show that the Socratic elenchus is actually used when the Stranger scrutinizes the accounts of being put forward by his predecessors. In the final part, I explain the function of the Socratic elenchus in the argument of the dialogue. By contrast with standard scholarly interpretations, this way of reading the text provides all the puzzles about being (241c4–251a4) with a definite function in the dialogue. It also reveals that Plato’s methodology includes a plurality of method and is more continuous than what is often believed.

Despite several attempts, amongst others from K.R. Popper, to re-evaluate the importance of Xenophanes of Colophon, this poet/philosopher is still frequently seen as a “somewhat precarious” figure in the history of philosophy. Xenophanes is mainly remembered for his bitter attacks on the anthropomorphic character of the Olympic gods, while his epistemology was discarded by Empedocles and Aristotle as being “too naïve”. This article tries to examine some of the reasons for this disqualification by analysing Popper’s attempt to rehabilitate Xenophanes as “the founder of the Greek enlightenment”.

This paper deals with Heraclitus’ political thought. First, in discussing the conception of cosmic justice, it argues that it is a mistake to separate Heraclitus’ political thought from his cosmological thought. Second, the paper works out two basic principles of Heraclitean political thinking by offering a close analysis of fragment B 114 as well as related texts. According to Heraclitus, (1) there is a standard common and relevant to all human beings in the political realm, namely, the logos , and (2) ruling well is a matter of grasping the logos and using it as a guide in all things political. Finally, the paper tackles the notoriously difficult question of whether there are certain forms of political order towards which Heraclitean thought is more or less inclined. According to what may be called the traditional view, Heraclitus is seen as a supporter of an aristocratic political order, while according to what may be called the revisionist view, Heraclitus is classified as a supporter of a democratic political order. The paper concludes that while Heraclitean philosophy is compatible with a plethora of different forms of political order, including democratic ones, the two basic principles of Heraclitean politics that were distinguished above are more conducive to aristocratic forms of political order.

In this paper, I discuss the various characteristics of Heraclitus’ theory of elemental transformation that can reasonably be gleaned from the extant fragments. While there has been some recent work on Heraclitus’ theory of elemental transformation, there has been a lack of discussion concerning the properties of the particular elements and their relation to the cardinal opposites. In this paper I argue that fragment B126 (“Cold things warm up, warm things cool off; wet things dry up and dry things moisten”) is an explanandum for Heraclitus. It is meant to invoke certain questions in his readers’ minds: How is it that cold things come to hold an opposing property (i. e. “hot”)? What type of change occurs such that a wet thing can become dry? How is it that things hold these properties in the first place? I argue that Heraclitus’ theory of elemental transformation (B31, B36 and B76) is the explanans for B126 and is capable of answering these questions. That is, the observable change evident in B126 is explained by a set of transformations between elemental stuffs. Because of this connection between B126 and his theory of elements, Heraclitus’ theory of elemental transformation is rightly understood as a ‘unity of opposites’ thesis. However, I argue that the transformation of opposites can only be one opposites thesis among several opposites theses.

Diogenes Laertius cites Alcidamas for the statement that Empedocles emulated Anaxagoras and Pythagoras in his dignity of bearing and the philosophy of nature. Contrary to the standard view, I shall argue that Alcidamas made Empedocles imitate Anaxagoras in his manners and Pythagoras in his teaching.

Aristotle ascribes to Anaximander a conception according to which the Earth remains in its place due to uniformity. Plato shows that this argument’s validity is based on both the Earth and the universe being spherical. Anaximander, however, believed the Earth to be flat. Since Aetius ascribes the abovementioned reasoning also to Parmenides, in whose work we find hits to spherical shapes, the argument might be based on Parmenides’ thoughts.

Socrates’ midwife metaphor in Theaetetus depends logically on the concept of male spiritual pregnancy. Male spiritual pregnancy is typically understood as a process in which a young man develops in his mind a theory or idea; a spiritual child is, on this view, a theory; and spiritual childbirth is the painful movement of a developed theory from the mind into the speech-world. Although this account of spiritual pregnancy and maieutics is widely accepted in the scholarship, it cannot be upheld. The intelligibility of Socrates’ midwife metaphor requires the recognition of two different kinds of pregnancy, the false and the true. The first and false kind is roughly as the standard interpretation says that it is: a theory germinating in the mind; but Theaetetus’s true spiritual child is not a theory of knowledge—it is wisdom in his soul; true spiritual pregnancy is the actualisation of the soul’s potential for wisdom.