Editing Plato (section)

==== Heraclitus and Parmenides ====
{{main|Heraclitus|Parmenides}}
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| image1 = Hendrik ter Brugghen - Heraclitus.jpg
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| caption1 = ''Heraclitus'' (1628) by [[Hendrick ter Brugghen]]. Heraclitus saw a world in [[flux]], with everything always in conflict, constantly changing.
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| image2 = Busto di Parmenide (cropped).jpg
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| caption2 = Bust of Parmenides from [[Velia]]. Parmenides saw the world as [[Eternity of the world|eternal]] and unchanging, that all change was an illusion.
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In Athens, Plato studied with [[Cratylus]], a philosopher who followed the early Greek philosopher [[Heraclitus]], and also [[Hermogenes]], an [[Eleatic]] philosopher in the tradition of [[Parmenides]].{{sfn|Nails|2002|p=248}} Heraclitus viewed all things as [[Impermanence|continuously changing]], that one cannot "step into the same river twice" due to the ever-changing waters flowing through it, and all things exist as a contraposition of opposites, while Parmenides adopted an altogether contrary vision, arguing for the idea of a changeless, eternal universe and the view that change is an illusion. Heraclitus's views are expounded by Cratylus himself in Plato's dialogue ''[[Cratylus]]'' and deconstructed in the ''[[Theaetetus (dialogue)|Theaetetus]]'' by Socrates. Plato would go on to depict both Parmenides and Parmenides' student [[Zeno of Elea|Zeno]] in the ''Parmenides'', and an "Eleatic Stranger" also appears in the ''[[Sophist (dialogue)|Sophist]]'' and ''[[Statesman (dialogue)|Statesman]]''.

In roughly 396 BC, Plato left Athens and studied in [[Megara]] with [[Euclid of Megara]], founder of the Megarian school of philosophy, and other Socratics.{{sfn|Waterfield|2023|p=72}}