Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast brought to you with the support of King's College London and deliver Hume Trust.

Find us online at

W.W. history of philosophy dot net. Today's episode in dialogue, the life and

writings of Plato. As faithful listeners will know by now, the earliest Greek philosophers were called the pre-Socratics.

This time-honored expression shows the extent to which Socrates is seen as the pivotal figure in the history of Greek philosophy.

Yet some of Socrates' predecessors could claim to represent a turning point.

How about Sinophanes with his rational skepticism towards traditional religion, or Heraclitus, arguably the first man to be primarily a philosopher rather than an all-around polymath and scientist. And what about Parmenities, the first thinker to pursue a path of pure rational arguments

and the inventor of metaphysics? Of course, as Malcolm Schofield suggested in my interview with

him, Socrates did add the new idea that philosophy is really

about how to live. That conviction is not so popular nowadays, but was shared by all ancient philosophers

after Socrates.

Still, if Socrates is a transitional figure in Greek thought, it's maybe not so much because

of his ideas, but rather because without Socrates there would be no Plato.

In fact, while I yield to no one in my admiration for Socrates and the Presocratics,

I'm willing to say that it's with Plato that philosophy really gets going.

The philosopher and logician Alfred North... Plato that

philosophy really gets going. The philosopher and logician

Alfred North Whitehead famously remarked that the history of philosophy is

a series of footnotes to Plato. This has become such a

cliche that I thought I'd get it out of the way right at the start of my first podcast on Plato.

But cliche or no, Whitehead had a point.

Philosophy did not begin or end with Plato, but it did come of age with Plato.

...