The differences between the pre-Socratic philosophers and those that came after Socrates are so great, that they are usually viewed as two separate periods in the ancient Greek philosophy. While the pre-Socratics focused mainly on understanding the world around, the universe, with Socrates there came an anthropological shift in philosophy, meaning that man became the main object of the philosophical thought. However, despite these significant differences, some similarities in ideas can be traced throughout the development of the ancient Greek philosophy.
For instance, metaphysics, the main questions of which were first asked by the earliest Greek philosophers, was further developed and brought to a new level by Plato and Aristotle. It can be claimed that Plato could hardly have created his allegory of the cave, which is the main and most famous implementation of his metaphysical ideas, without the metaphysical thought of the pre-Socratics. Thus, to better understand the differences and similarities between the pre-Socratic and the post-Socratic philosophers, the metaphysical ideas of Heraclitus, Pythagoras and Plato will be compared.
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"Pre-Socratic and Post-Socratic Philosophers".
Pythagoras and Heraclitus belong to pre-Socratic era. Both of these philosophers left very little written heritage and much about their work must be derived from works of their students or followers. Besides, both of them were rather mysterious and cryptic in their writing resulting in a range of various interpretations possible.
Pythagoras was one of the noblest representatives of pre-Socratics. Focus on mathematics and its role as the universal law were his main scholarly peculiarity. He was suggesting the idea of cosmos and mathematics being heavily interdependent which formed a musical harmony. In general Pythagoras was seriously focused on mathematics as the main basis and the tool capable to explain the world (Burnet, ND).
Universal law is different for Heraclitus. One of main concepts introduced by Heraclitus is that of the logos, which is the main principle of the universe. It’s according to Logos that everything happens. Heraclitus also operates on another fundamental concept in his attempts to explain the world. It is fire and it is closely connected to logos (Peck, ND). Both these concepts represent the idea that everything in the universe is in the state of constant changing.
Post-Socratic philosophers, and among them Plato, also share this point of view, but their goal is not that much understanding the structure of the universe or the processes which take place in it. It is the human being who is looked at by Plato. In Plato’s cave allegory the idea of the universal principle is also used. However, here it has gained more depth, has been moved to a much more advanced level. A hierarchy is created to describe the structure of the universe. At the top of this hierarchy there is the sun or the general element, which could serve as the basis of the universe, finding it in water, air, etc.
Plato, being one of the post-Socratics is shifting the focus of attention from the cosmos to the human being and much attention is paid to seeing the universe with the human eyes. The myth of the cave and the embedded into it metaphor of the cave is one of the most fundamental concepts of the post-Socratic philosophy. It reflects the limitations of human comprehension of the world, the inability of humans to actually understand the universe and the processes, which take place within it. Plato showed how subjective the world can be. The same reality is oftentimes different for different people depending on their knowledge about this reality and attitude to it.
Thus, as shown above, though both pre-Socratics and post-Socratics were interested in the way the Universe is arranged, the focuses of their scholarly attention were somewhat different. The former were co focused on the way the universe is arranged, while the latter were researching the place of a human being in the universe.
