PLATONISM AS A PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD IGNACIO GARCÍA PEÑA INTRODUCTION

• PLATONISM = THEORY OF IDEAS • OBVIOUSLY, IT PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE • BUT SEVERAL DIALOGUES DON´T MENTION IT • PLATO’S WORKS ARE VARIED, COMPLEX AND DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

• DOES IT CORRESPOND TO WHAT SOCRATES AFFIRMS IN THE DIALOGUES? • HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE IF HE DEFENDS DIFFERENT IDEAS IN DIFFERENT DIALOGUES? • DID PLATO WRITE HIS ACTUAL THOUGHT OR DID HE RESERVE IT FOR ORAL TRANSMISSION? • ARE MYTHS REALLY IMPORTANT IN HIS PHILOSOPHY OR SHOULD WE THINK THAT HE USES THEM JUST FOR LITERARY PURPOSES? • IS HE A DOGMATIC OR SCEPTICAL PHILOSOPHER? NEW CONCEPT OF PLATONISM

• NOT A SCHOOL OR THEORY BASED ON PLATO • PHILOSOPHICAL AND LOGICAL, MYTHICAL AND POETICAL, ETHICAL AND POLITICAL, SCIENTIFIC AND METAPHYSICAL, SOPHISTIC, PRE-SOCRATIC AND SOCRATIC • BUT ALSO CONNECTED TO THE FORM AND STYLE OF THE DIALOGUES, ITS DIVERSITY, DIFFICULTY AND COMPLEXITY, TO ITS CAPACITY TO STIMULATE, SURPRISE, ANGER AND TO INSPIRE LOVE AND PASSION LEONARDO TARÁN (2001, 218)

• “By Platonism I mean Plato’s philosophic thought as it is expressed in his dialogues, including not only his doctrine of absolute ethical standards, his conception of the soul, the theory of ideas, and so forth, but also his method. For in Plato’s case it is impossible, if one wishes to do justice to the evidence, to separate the doctrine from the method and vice versa. His method includes the elenchus, the procedures of hypothesis and of collection and division, and the very way in which he chose to present his thought: the dialogue.” PLATO’S PHILOSOPHY

• MAKES US THINK ABOUT WHAT PHILOSOPHY IS: • A WAY OF LIVING • A PATH THAT NEVER ENDS • AN OBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE • MAYBE IT COULD BE WRITTEN DOWN OR PERHAPS NOT • PLATO FORCE US TO FACE THE PROBLEM OF INTERPRETATION

GERALD A. PRESS (2015,191) • “The set of literary devices Plato employs is both extensive and in ways so strangely familiar that we may think of him as the original post-modern writer, since the dialogues regularly deploy irony, playfulness, intertextuality, historiographic metafiction, temporal distortion, unreliable narrators, the author as fictional character, and avoidance of traditional thematic closure.” READING PLATONIC DIALOGUES • CAREFULLY COMPOSED FICTIONAL WORKS • DRAMAS IN A CONTEXT • THOUGHT ITSELF IS THE INTERNAL DIALOGUE OF THE SOUL • PLATO IS THE BIGGEST CRITIC OF PLATO • EVERY DIALOGUE IMPLIES THE USING OF “CONJECTURES AND REFUTATIONS” GERALD A. PRESS (2015,188)

• “It was assumed that, for philosophical purposes, one could separate and exclude literary and dramatic elements as mere ‘form’ as opposed to the logical-dogmatic ‘content’ with which alone philosophy is taken to be concerned. One could ignore both the evident artistry of Plato’s use of language, of drama, and the dialogism of the dialectical exchanges, their polyphony and intertextuality. In short, the dialogues were not taken to be literary or dramatic in any sense relevant to their philosophic interpretation.” MULTI-DIMENSIONAL PHILOSOPHY

• MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED CHARACTERS • IDEAS REPEATED AND MODIFIED • RETURNS TO THE STARTING POINT • CONVERSATIONS WITHOUT CONCLUSSION • AN AUTHOR WHO REFUSES TO TAKE PART PEDAGOGICAL LESSONS

• IT CREATES DOUBTS • DIALOGUES ARE A CHALLENGE FOR READERS • IT STIMULATES THE CRITICAL CAPACITY AND THE AUTONOMOUS THINKING • MYTHS, REFUTATIONS AND CONFUSIONS • HE USES IMAGINATION, CONJECTURES AND POETRY CONCLUSION • PLATO IS A FUNDAMENTAL AUTHOR IN METAPHYSICS, EPISTEMOLOGY, POLITICS, ARTS, MYSTICAL MATTERS, ETC. • EVEN WITHOUT BEING SURE OF HIS ACTUAL THOUGHT • HIS METHOD: ABLE TO STIMULATE THINKING THROUGH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS • NOT A METHOD OF IMPOSITION OR DEMONSTRATION BUT A REASONED CONTRAST OF OPINIONS • A PATH THAT WE CAN CONTINUE