Gregory, Andrew; (2021) Plato's Reception of Presocratic Natural Philosophy. In: Harry, Chelsea, (ed.) Brill's Companion to the Reception of Presocratic Natural Philosophy in Later Classical Thought. (pp. 44-70). BRILL

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Abstract

It is commonly thought that the locus classicus and most evident place to start for Plato’s reception of presocratic natural philosophy (psnp) is the passage known as Socrates’ autobiography Phaedo 96a ff. Here Socrates talks of his early interest in peri phuseôs historian, the “enquiry concerning nature,” followed by his subsequent disenchantment with this type of enquiry.1 He is then excited by the possibility of explanation in terms of nous in the works of Anaxagoras, but is disappointed with the results and so takes up his deuteros plous, the “second sailing.” Undeniably this is important evidence, but in what follows I wish to press two points. Firstly, I would caution against a too stereotypical interpretation of the Phaedo passage, such that it is seen as a blanket condemnation of all psnp. Secondly, the Phaedo passage is far from being our only source of information on Plato’s attitude to psnp, or indeed the most interesting or most important source. Subsequent to these points, I will argue that Plato is not uniformly critical of all psnp either in the Phaedo or elsewhere. I will also argue that Plato has more than one critique of psnp and importantly Plato has more than one taxonomy for psnp. These critiques and taxonomies are related to those of the Phaedo, (note the plurals here) but they are not identical and have some subtle and interesting differences which allow us a much richer account of Plato’s reception of psnp. Plato’s reactions to psnp also point to some interesting facts about psnp.

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