Considering the Theaetetus and Statesman together – as the two dialogues explicitly said to flank the Sophist -both raises and suggests answers to questions about the relationship between philosopher and statesman, and the relationship between Socrates and the Eleatic Stranger. It is argued that aspects of the Theaetetus ‘Digression’ on the nature of philosophers serve to criticise the question...

Why does Socrates drink his hemlock? What motivates his rejection of Crito’s proposal to escape? These and similar questions concerning the decision made by the philosopher gave rise to a considerable number of scholarly inquiries as well as to a whole array of answers. Thus, Greenberg (1965) sought the explanation in Socrates’ “heroic temper”, while Barker (1977) argued for the decisive role o...

More than two thousand years ago, a Chinese philosopher, Zhuang Zi, speculated that all of matter in the world are dividable. However, at almost the same time, a Greek philosopher, Demokritos (∼ 460BC to 370BC), suggested that everything is made up from elements that can not be divided any further, called atoms (i.e., in-dividable elements). Now, it is understood in modern physics that atoms ar...

In his long career, Whitehead was, variously, a mathematician, speculative physicist, historian of science, philosopher of science, and philosopher in his own right. As such, he occupies a perhaps unique place within recent western thought. Not only did he advance scientific thought, he also developed a novel, systematic philosophical understanding of science based on a deep historical apprecia...