ABSTRACT
The obvious place to go in Plato for a discussion of physics is the Timaeus, but that would be to miss the most profound of Plato's contributions to Aristotle. This chapter examines three areas in which Aristotle learned from Plato: physics, ethics and philosophy of language. It suggests that the process of this examination we may appreciate better both philosophers and their philosophical relationship with each other, and perhaps also in some measure how philosophical texts can have life long after their authors are dead. Giving what is essentially Plato's argument for a tertium quid, Aristotle concludes that besides the two opposites there must be a substratum, a thing that has properties, which in his ontology will be a substance. From what we can tell, Plato was at first minor figure in this Socratic movement, overshadowed by Antisthenes, with his anti-conventional understanding of Socrates. Confused by the mechanistic causes proposed by the Pre-Socratics, Socrates hears someone reading from a book.
