DOCSLIB.ORG

Is Plato an Innatist in the Meno?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Is Plato an Innatist in the Meno? Phronesis (2019) 1-39 brill.com/phro Is Plato an Innatist in the Meno? David Bronstein Department of Philosophy, Georgetown University, 215 New North Hall, 37th and O Streets, N.W., Washington D.C. 20057. USA [email protected] Whitney Schwab University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 463 Performing Arts and Humanities Building, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250. USA [email protected] Abstract Plato in the Meno is standardly interpreted as committed to condition innatism: human beings are born with latent innate states of knowledge. Against this view, Gail Fine has argued for prenatalism: human souls possess knowledge in a disembodied state but lose it upon being embodied. We argue against both views and in favor of content in- natism: human beings are born with innate cognitive contents that can be, but do not exist innately in the soul as, the contents of states of knowledge. Content innatism has strong textual support and constitutes a philosophically interesting theory. Keywords Plato – Meno – innatism – epistēmē – doxa 1 Introduction The question that serves as the title of this paper might seem like one not worth asking. Not because it is uninteresting or philosophically unimportant, but because the answer to it is largely taken to be settled: yes, in the Meno © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/15685284-12341969 2 Bronstein and Schwab Plato maintains that human beings are innately endowed with knowledge (epistēmē), and what we call ‘learning’ consists in recollecting it. We agree that Plato is an innatist. Nevertheless, we think that this ques- tion deserves to be revisited for two main reasons. First, some interpreters, most notably Gail Fine,1 have recently presented powerful arguments against attributing innatism to Plato, arguing instead that he accepts a view we will call prenatalism: Prenatalism: Human souls possess knowledge in a disembodied state but lose that knowledge upon being embodied. The goal of recol- lection is for the soul to come to know again what it once knew but now no longer knows. Fine’s account raises serious worries for innatist interpretations of the Meno and must be answered. Second, we think that the standard understanding of the kind of innatism that Plato advances in the Meno is mistaken and that getting clear on this en- ables us to examine deep and important philosophical issues. By far the domi- nant view is that Plato thinks the human soul is innately endowed with the cognitive state of knowledge. Such knowledge is often characterized as being ‘implicit’ or ‘latent’ in contrast to knowledge that is ‘explicit’ or ‘conscious’.2 So, on the dominant interpretation, Plato accepts a view we will call condition innatism (adapting Fine’s label ‘cognitive condition innatism’):3 Condition Innatism: Human beings are born in the cognitive condition of knowing, in the sense that human embodied souls pos- sess latent innate states of knowledge. The goal of recol- lection is to make one’s latent knowledge explicit. On the reading we will propose, Plato does not think that human beings are in- nately endowed with states of knowledge but, rather, with truths that can serve as the contents of states of knowledge. Just as there are uncognized truths ‘out there’ in the world that we can grasp via perception, Plato thinks that there are 1 See Fine 1992, 2007 and 2014. See also Dancy 2004, 225-6. 2 See e.g. Bluck 1961, 9, 272; Brague 1991, 622; Brown 1991, 604-5, 616-19; Calvert 1974, 146-8; Canto-Sterber 1993, 74, 86; Dimas 1996, 29-30; Scott 2006, 85, 87, 100, 106, 107-120; Sharples 1985, 155; Weiss 2001, 114 n. 79; and Woolf 2015, 380. 3 See Fine 2014, 21-2 and 141-2. doi:10.1163/15685284-12341969 | Phronesis (2019) 1-39 Is Plato an Innatist in the Meno? 3 uncognized truths ‘in us’ that we can grasp via inquiry. On our reading, then, Plato accepts a view we, following Fine, will call content innatism:4 Content Innatism: Human beings are born with innate cognitive contents, in the sense that human embodied souls innately possess truths that can be the contents of states of knowledge but do not exist innately in the soul as the contents of such states. The goal of recollection is to take up these contents in such a way that one knows them (again). A clarification is in order. Although we have deliberately characterized the three positions as mutually exclusive, there are points of overlap among them. Like prenatalist interpreters of Plato, both condition and content innatist in- terpreters think that, for Plato, the soul, prior to its embodiment, existed in a disembodied state in which it was in the condition of knowing.5 In addition, like content innatist interpreters, condition innatist interpreters think that the soul possesses innate cognitive contents. However, unlike content innatist in- terpreters, condition innatist interpreters think that these are the contents of the soul’s latent innate cognitive states. It is worth underscoring this difference between the two views. Content innatism is the view that there are uncognized truths in the soul. The reason it is appropriate to call these truths ‘cognitive contents’ is that they are the possible contents of the soul’s future occurrent cognitive states (such as opining and knowing). However, they do not exist in the soul as the actual contents of the soul’s present latent cognitive states, as condition innatist interpreters of Plato maintain.6 4 See Fine 2014, 21-2 and 141-2. 5 That is, condition and content interpreters also think that Plato posits prenatal knowledge, but they do not accept prenatalism, as we have defined it, because they do not accept that the soul loses its knowledge (in the form of either cognitive states or contents) upon being embodied. Some philosophers are innatists without accepting any form of prenatal exis- tence (see, perhaps most famously, Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics XXVI and, much more recently, Chomsky 1988, 4). 6 For useful discussions of the different varieties of innatism in ancient, early modern and contemporary philosophy, see Barnes 1972, Cowie 1999, 3-26, Fine 2014, 21-3 and 141-6, and Scott 1995, 91-5, 188-90, and 213-16. These authors discuss a third type of innatism—especially in connection with early modern debates—which they call ‘dispositional innatism’. We do not discuss dispositional innatism in this paper for the following reason. As we argue below, the question of the nature of Plato’s innatist commitments in the Meno turns largely on the referents of the terms ‘doxa’ and ‘epistēmē’ at key points in the text. In our view, the most likely candidates for the referents of these terms are either the states of opinion and knowl- edge (respectively) or the contents of these states. Therefore, the two most likely candidates for the form of innatism to which Plato is committed are condition and content innatism. Phronesis (2019) 1-39 | doi:10.1163/15685284-12341969 4 Bronstein and Schwab This paper, then, has two main aims: first, to argue against Fine’s prenatal- ist interpretation of the Meno; second, to argue that Plato advances a content innatist, rather than a condition innatist, view. The structure is as follows: first we briefly survey the central texts over which this debate plays out. The aim of that discussion is to show that there are two prima facie tensions in the Meno. We then look at, and reject, Fine’s attempt to resolve the prima facie tensions, arguing, against her, that we must attribute innatism, and not prenatalism, to Plato. Once we have argued that Plato is an innatist, we spend the bulk of the paper examining what kind of innatist he is. We argue that only a content inn- atist interpretation can resolve the two tensions in a textually and philosophi- cally satisfactory way. 2 The Tensions The main passage in which these issues play out is the famous exchange be- tween Socrates and Meno’s slave.7 After drawing a two-foot-by-two-foot square on the ground, Socrates asks the slave to identify the line on which a square with double the area is based (82b9-e2). The slave eventually arrives at the cor- rect answer: the line is the diagonal of the original square (we will call this ‘the geometrical truth’). Our aim in this section is to argue that, over the course of the exchange, Socrates commits himself to the following three apparently inconsistent claims: P1: The slave does not know the geometrical truth. P2: The slave has innate mere true opinion of the geometrical truth. P3: The slave has innate knowledge of the geometrical truth. (Socrates’ commitment to P2 and P3 is of course disputed by the prenatalist in- terpreter. Our aim in this section is to argue in a preliminary way that Socrates is committed to these claims. We defend innatism against prenatalism in the next section.) Attributing P1 to Socrates is straightforward, as he repeatedly says that the slave does not know the geometrical truth. We offer just two of the clearest We also think that dispositional innatism is vulnerable to an objection similar to the objec- tion we raise below against condition innatism. For further discussion, see n. 38 below. 7 As Irwin 1995, 132 n. 12 notes, the term Socrates uses for Meno’s slave, ‘pais’, can refer to a slave of any age; thus, uses of the expression ‘slave boy’, common in discussions of the Meno, are inappropriate. See Benitez 2016 for a detailed argument to the same effect. doi:10.1163/15685284-12341969 | Phronesis (2019) 1-39 Is Plato an Innatist in the Meno? 5 examples.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Theory of Forms 1 Theory of Forms
    Theory of Forms 1 Theory of Forms Plato's theory of Forms or theory of Ideas[1] [2] [3] asserts that non-material abstract (but substantial) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality.[4] When used in this sense, the word form is often capitalized.[5] Plato speaks of these entities only through the characters (primarily Socrates) of his dialogues who sometimes suggest that these Forms are the only true objects of study that can provide us with genuine knowledge; thus even apart from the very controversial status of the theory, Plato's own views are much in doubt.[6] Plato spoke of Forms in formulating a possible solution to the problem of universals. Forms Terminology: the Forms and the forms The English word "form" may be used to translate two distinct concepts that concerned Plato—the outward "form" or appearance of something, and "Form" in a new, technical nature, that never ...assumes a form like that of any of the things which enter into her; ... But the forms which enter into and go out of her are the likenesses of real existences modelled after their patterns in a wonderful and inexplicable manner.... The objects that are seen, according to Plato, are not real, but literally mimic the real Forms. In the allegory of the cave expressed in Republic, the things that are ordinarily perceived in the world are characterized as shadows of the real things, which are not perceived directly. That which the observer understands when he views the world mimics the archetypes of the many types and properties (that is, of universals) of things observed.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Arrangement of the Platonic Dialogues
    Ryan C. Fowler 25th Hour On the Arrangement of the Platonic Dialogues I. Thrasyllus a. Diogenes Laertius (D.L.), Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 3.56: “But, just as long ago in tragedy the chorus was the only actor, and afterwards, in order to give the chorus breathing space, Thespis devised a single actor, Aeschylus a second, Sophocles a third, and thus tragedy was completed, so too with philosophy: in early times it discoursed on one subject only, namely physics, then Socrates added the second subject, ethics, and Plato the third, dialectics, and so brought philosophy to perfection. Thrasyllus says that he [Plato] published his dialogues in tetralogies, like those of the tragic poets. Thus they contended with four plays at the Dionysia, the Lenaea, the Panathenaea and the festival of Chytri. Of the four plays the last was a satiric drama; and the four together were called a tetralogy.” b. Characters or types of dialogues (D.L. 3.49): 1. instructive (ὑφηγητικός) A. theoretical (θεωρηµατικόν) a. physical (φυσικόν) b. logical (λογικόν) B. practical (πρακτικόν) a. ethical (ἠθικόν) b. political (πολιτικόν) 2. investigative (ζητητικός) A. training the mind (γυµναστικός) a. obstetrical (µαιευτικός) b. tentative (πειραστικός) B. victory in controversy (ἀγωνιστικός) a. critical (ἐνδεικτικός) b. subversive (ἀνατρεπτικός) c. Thrasyllan categories of the dialogues (D.L. 3.50-1): Physics: Timaeus Logic: Statesman, Cratylus, Parmenides, and Sophist Ethics: Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium, Menexenus, Clitophon, the Letters, Philebus, Hipparchus, Rivals Politics: Republic, the Laws, Minos, Epinomis, Atlantis Obstetrics: Alcibiades 1 and 2, Theages, Lysis, Laches Tentative: Euthyphro, Meno, Io, Charmides and Theaetetus Critical: Protagoras Subversive: Euthydemus, Gorgias, and Hippias 1 and 2 :1 d.
    [Show full text]
  • Plato's Epistemology
    Plato’s Epistemology: a Coherent Account in Meno , Phaedo and Theaetetus Chuanjie Sheng Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds Department of Classics August 2015 II The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2015 The University of Leeds and Chuanjie Sheng The right of Chuanjie Sheng to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. III Acknowledgements I appreciate all the persons that helped me to complete this thesis. I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my supervisors, Dr. Elizabeth E. Pender and Professor Malcolm F. Heath. As an enlightened teacher, Dr. Pender has offered me valuable comments and suggestions for my dissertation. Working with her is a stimulating intellectual experience. She patiently suggested on the structure of my thesis and corrected all the chapters line by line. As a wonderful friend, she brings happiness, pleasure and fruitful experience into my life in Leeds. Professor Heath has read all the chapters of my thesis and has given me feedbacks on each of the chapters. During the supervisions, he has given me valuable academic advice and comments, which has saved me from a large number of mistakes and errors in this dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Plato's Theaetetus: Formation Over Forms?
    Deron Boyles 229 Plato’s Theaetetus: Formation Over Forms? Deron Boyles Georgia State University INTRODUCTION Plato’s Theaetetus offers the opportunity to consider epistemology in ways that importantly explore the meaning of “student” and “teacher.” Specifically, this article argues that the dialogue’s characters—Theodorus, Theaetetus, Protagoras, and Socrates—perform functions that not only reveal competing philosophies of education but templates of and for student engagement as formation. As a text, Theaetetus provides a noteworthy means through which students not only read and think about elenchus (refutation) and aporia (perplexity) but experience it as participants in interlocution. Additionally, the dialogue itself represents formation insofar as it is an instance of Plato’s move away from the Theory of Forms and his further development of midwifery. Proceeding in three parts, this paper 1) provides a brief overview of the dialogue; 2) underscores the representational nature of the characters in the dialogue—and the part they play in student formation; and 3) explores the Socrates-as-midwife motif and the overall marginalization of Forms in the dialogue. In short, this paper argues for understanding the Theaetetus as an aporetic dialogue about formation over Forms.1 BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE DIALOGUE Theaetetus begins with a prologue that takes place just before Socrates’ death, in 399 BCE, and begins with Socrates asking Theodorus if he knows of any young men he thinks have potential. Theodorus recommends Theaetetus and the dialogue proceeds with Socrates asking Theaetetus “What do you think knowledge is?” (146c).2 Initially, Theaetetus only offers examples of knowledge (ousia) rather than providing a definition of knowledge itself eidos( ).
    [Show full text]
  • The Ascent from Nominalism Philosophical Studies Series
    THE ASCENT FROM NOMINALISM PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES SERIES Editors: WILFRID SELLARS, University of Pittsburgh KEITH LEHRER, University of Arizona Board of Consulting Editors: J ON A THAN BENNETT, Syracuse University ALLAN GIBBARD, University of Michigan ROBERT STALNAKER, Cornell University ROBERT G. TURNBULL, Ohio State University VOLUME 37 TERR Y PENNER Department of Philosophy, The University of Wisconsin at Madison, U.S.A. THE ASCENT FROM NOMINALISM Some Existence Arguments in Plato's Middle Dialogues D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY ~~ A MEMBER OF THE KLUWER . ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP DORDRECHTj BOSTONj LANCASTERjTOKYO Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Penner, Terry, 1936- The ascent from nominalism. (Philosophical studies series; v. 37) Bibliography: p. Includes indexes. 1. Plato. 2. Aristotle. 3. Metaphysics-History. 4. Nominalism-History. I. Title. II. Series. B395.P347 1987 111'.2'0924 86·31641 ISBN-13: 978-94-010-8186-3 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-3791-8 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-3791-8 Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, Holland. Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Assinippi Park, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, Holland. All Rights Reserved © 1987 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland Softcover reprint of the hardcover I 5t edition 1987 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical induding photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Much of this work was conceived and executed between 1971 and 1975, though some of it was done much earlier, and a few bits are quite recent.
    [Show full text]
  • The Theaetetus Is a Dialogue Full of Puzzles, Not the Least of Which Is the Character of Socrates Himself
    Portrait of a Philosopher: Defining Philosophy and Philosophers in the Theaetetus Harper Lyon Union College The Theaetetus is a dialogue full of puzzles, not the least of which is the character of Socrates himself. While often considered the face of wisdom and knowledge in all of Plato’s works, in this work Socrates constantly proposes bad arguments, goes on long tangents, and leaves us with no definition of knowledge. If Socrates himself cannot be relied on, how can anyone hope to effectively do philosophy? Furthermore, if Socrates is not a proper philosopher himself, is there even one present in the dialogue? I argue that by examining three different ways of practicing philosophy in the Theaetetus, Socrates is shown to represent a single specific faculty of the philosopher, therefore practicing only one part of philosophy, explaining his shortcomings and thereby intimating a more robust platonic philosophical method. Part 1: The Philosopher of the Digression In what is roughly the middle of the Theaetetus, Socrates briefly changes both topic and interlocutor to enter a section called the digression. In this digression we find a detailed description of the philosopher. Framed as a discussion between Theodorus and Socrates on the difference between a statesman or lawyer and a philosopher, the digression seeks to answer questions about the wisdom of philosophers, primarily to explain why they seem foolish or useless to non-philosophers. Socrates answers by exploring the differences between two types of people: the statesmen who are raised in the courts (often referred to as “slaves” of the court) who focus their intellectual efforts on persuading a judge or tribunal to a specific view (172d-e), and the philosophers who care only for the truth and are willing to push their reasoning and discussion towards it at all costs (173c).
    [Show full text]
  • Augustine the Blackwell Great Minds Series Gives Readers a Strong
    augustine The Blackwell Great Minds series gives readers a strong sense of the fundamental views of the great western philoso- edited by Steven Nadler blackwell great minds phers and captures the relevance of these philosophers to the way we think and live today. 1. Kant by Allen W. Wood 2. Augustine by Gareth B. Matthews Forthcoming Aristotle by Jennifer Whiting Descartes by Andre Gombay Nietzsche by Richard Schacht Plato by Paul Woodruff Sartre by Katherine J. Morris Spinoza by Don Garrett Wittgenstein by Hans Sluga blackwell great minds augustine gareth b. matthews © 2005 by Gareth B. Matthews blackwell publishing 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Gareth B. Matthews to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo- copying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Matthews, Gareth B., 1929– Augustine / Gareth B. Matthews. p. cm. — (Blackwell great minds) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-631-23347-4 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-631-23348-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo. I. Title. II. Series. B655.Z7M18 2005 189′.2–dc22 2004022247 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
    [Show full text]
  • Plato's Later Metaphysics & Epistemology Phil 107B/207B
    Plato’s Later Metaphysics & Epistemology phil 107b/207b – Syllabus Instructor: Willie Costello Autumn Quarter. Prerequisite: phil 80. Meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 15:00 to 16:20 in Bldg 380 Rm 381u. Office hours on Mondays from 13:30 to 14:30 in Bldg 100Rm102m, or by appointment (email [email protected]). Course readings available from http://bit.ly/ phil107b. Course website available through http://canvas.stanford.edu. Course description This course is dedicated to a slow and close reading ofthe Theaetetus and the Parmenides, Plato’s mature works on the topics of knowledge and reality, respectively. These two dialogues showcase one of history’s great philosophical minds at the peak of his powers, tackling some of the most intractable philosophical questions, engaging with some of his most formidable philosophical opponents, and seeming even to cast a critical eye back on his own earlier thought. Both dialogues are also tightly woven literary masterpieces, suggestive in their dramatic staging and brimming with some of Plato’s most memorable images and metaphors. The dialogues are also surprisingly modern in their concerns, seeming to weigh in on such contemporary issues as sense-data theory, the “justified true belief” account of knowledge, and the problem of universals. It isthusno surprise that, in the twentieth century, the Theaetetus and the Parmenides were, more so than any other of the dialogues, responsible for securing Plato’s reputation as a “serious” philosopher in analytically minded philosophical circles of the Anglo-American world. Perhaps the most notable feature of this pair of dialogues, however, is that in each Plato seems to be starting, philosophically, from scratch, and to end without arriving at any positive conclusions about knowledge or reality.
    [Show full text]
  • Lessons from the Theaetetus Jennifer F
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2007 Virtue and inquiry, knowledge and ignorance: Lessons from the Theaetetus Jennifer F. Ingle University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Ingle, Jennifer F., "Virtue and inquiry, knowledge and ignorance: Lessons from the Theaetetus" (2007). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/2227 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Virtue and Inquiry, Knowledge and Ignorance: Lessons From the Theaetetus by Jennifer F. Ingle A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Co-Major Professor: Joanne B. Waugh, Ph.D. Co-Major Professor: John P. Anton, Ph.D. Roger Ariew, Ph.D. Charles Guignon, Ph.D. Bruce Silver, Ph.D. P. Christopher Smith, Ph.D Date of Approval: April 9, 2007 Keywords: Plato, paideia, hermeneutic interpretation, epistemology, classical Greece © Copyright 2007, Jennifer F. Ingle For Jane, who gave me life, and for Joanne, who saved it. Table of Contents Dedication Abstract iii Chapter One: Situating Plato’s Dialogues
    [Show full text]
  • Augustine's Transformation of the Free Will Defence
    Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers Volume 13 Issue 4 Article 1 10-1-1996 Augustine's Transformation of The Free Will Defence Rowan A. Greer Follow this and additional works at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy Recommended Citation Greer, Rowan A. (1996) "Augustine's Transformation of The Free Will Defence," Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers: Vol. 13 : Iss. 4 , Article 1. DOI: 10.5840/faithphil199613445 Available at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy/vol13/iss4/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers by an authorized editor of ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. AUGUSTINE'S TRANSFORMATION OF THE FREE WILL DEFENCE Rowan A. Greer Augustine's first conversion is to the Christian Platonism of his day, which brought along with it a free-will defence to the problem of evil. Formative as this philosophical influence was, however, Augustine's own experience of sin combines with his sense of God's sovereignty to lead him to modify the views he inherited in significant ways. This transformation is demonstrated by setting Augustine's evolving position against that of Gregory of Nyssa. Truth! Truth! How the very marrow of my soul within me yearned for it as they [the Manichees]l dinned it in my ears over and over again! To them it was no more than a name to be voiced or a word to be read in their libraries of huge books.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Digression' in Plato's Theaetetus
    Binghamton University The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB) The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter 12-1999 The ‘Digression’ in Plato’s Theaetetus: A New Interpretation David Levy SUNY Geneseo, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, and the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Levy, David, "The ‘Digression’ in Plato’s Theaetetus: A New Interpretation" (1999). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 195. https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/195 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter by an authorized administrator of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. ÍTO-ST ? ^ y “The ‘Digression’ in Plato’sTheaetetus : A New Interpretation” David Levy University of Rochester I take it that one of Plato’s goals in Theaetetusthe is to point out exactly what is wrong with the following Protagorean doctrine: Man is the measure of all things—alike of the being of things that are and of the not-being of things that are not (152A).1 Indeed, this task occupies the largest single section of the dialogue; the discussion of the Protagorean doctrine takes up the better part of 27 Stephanus pages, beginning at 152A, and continuing through 179D. That this is so should initially surprise the reader of the dialogues. Hadn’t Protagoras already received his due in the dialogue named for him? And why should Protagoras, or at least his teachings, play so central a role in a dialogue concerned with finding a definitionknowledge, of when Protagoras himself, a sophist, was primarily concerned with teaching his students to be better at the game of politics? In this paper, I propose that answers to these questions are found in Socrates’ “digression” atTht.
    [Show full text]
  • The Euthyphro Problem Revisited
    Katja Maria Vogt, katjavogt.com, Columbia University 1 The Euthyphro Problem Revisited. For Explorations in Ethics, ed. David Kaspar The Euthyphro Problem Revisited It is a fairly consensual view that Plato’s Euthyphro is the “urtext” of metaethics. 1 And yet, standard specifications of this view go astray. The Euthyphro is often thought to illustrate the concerns of Divine Command Theory. It is also thought to be the ancestor of metaethical realism, the view that value is attitude-independent. As I argue, the Euthyphro is neither concerned with Divine Command Theory nor is it a defense of realism in today’s sense. Instead, the Euthyphro argues that there is realist value, anti-realist value, and value that is both. Plato’s proposal should strike us as radically revisionist, to the extent that it is not clear whether today’s philosophical “map” can accommodate it. This, I submit, is why the Euthyphro deserves our attention. On standard readings, Plato is a dull dogmatist, rather than an ingenious philosopher raised on a steady diet of rebellious ideas by the likes of Heraclitus, Parmenides, Socrates, and Protagoras. On my reading, the Euthyphro offers a refutation of relativism, finds a place for anti- realism, sketches the beginnings of realism about the good, and envisages a kind of value that is realist and yet constituted by attitudes. After a brief conspectus of how philosophers reconstruct the so-called Euthyphro Problem (section 1), I sketch the most important bits of text (sections 2 and 3). Then I turn to contemporary work by Richard Swinburne, Connie Rosati, Selim Berker, Crispin Wright, and Sharon Street that invokes the Euthyphro.
    [Show full text]