Document Type : Research Paper
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Abstract
Aristotle is one of the important sources for studying pre-Platonic philosophers, among whom Heraclitus was the subject of Aristotle’s main focus. His focus on Heraclitus was most importantly for the reason that Heraclitus was, as Plato states, the intellectual godfather of sophists and was, according to Aristotle, the intellectual godfather of Plato himself, too. Aristotle therefore sought to make fundamental critiques of teachings of Heraclitus and to thereby attack foundations of sophist and platonic thoughts as well. This paper aims firstly to show how and in which domains teachings of Heraclitus influenced teachings of sophists and Plato’s thoughts. It seems that Heraclitus’ works to reject authenticity of sensibles and particulars convinced sophists in their idea that there is no truth, and made Plato to claim that, since there is no truth in sensibles and particulars, one should search for another container which would, based on teachings of Parmenides, provide degrees of solidarity in order for one to acquire knowledge and thought. The container Plato introduced was his theory of ideas. After examining the influence of Heraclitus on sophists and Plato, the paper then looks at Aristotle’s critiques of two famous teachings of Heraclitus, namely, the doctrine of Universal Flux and that of Identity of Opposites, and demonstrates which particular thoughts of Plato or sophist paradoxes can be the target of the criticisms. It seems that the criticisms endeavour to imply that sensibles do have some sort of solidarity. Sophists teachings will thereby be rejected altogether and Plato’s thoughts on his ideas and his creation of their container will be pointless.
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