Metaphysics and Method in Plato's Statesman

Metaphysics and Method in Plato's Statesman
Author: Kenneth M. Sayre
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 4
Release: 2006-07-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1107321069

At the beginning of his Metaphysics, Aristotle attributed several strange-sounding theses to Plato. Generations of Plato scholars have assumed that these could not be found in the dialogues. In heated arguments, they have debated the significance of these claims, some arguing that they constituted an 'unwritten teaching' and others maintaining that Aristotle was mistaken in attributing them to Plato. In a prior book-length study on Plato's late ontology, Kenneth M. Sayre demonstrated that, despite differences in terminology, these claims correspond to themes developed by Plato in the Parmenides and the Philebus. In this book, he shows how this correspondence can be extended to key, but previously obscure, passages in the Statesman. He also examines the interpretative consequences for other sections of that dialogue, particularly those concerned with the practice of dialectical inquiry.

Philosopher in Plato's Statesman

Philosopher in Plato's Statesman
Author: Mitchell Miller
Publisher: Parmenides Publishing
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2004-09-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1930972431

In the Statesman, Plato brings together--only to challenge and displace--his own crowning contributions to philosophical method, political theory, and drama. In his 1980 study, reprinted here, Mitchell Miller employs literary theory and conceptual analysis to expose the philosophical, political, and pedagogical conflict that is the underlying context of the dialogue, revealing that its chaotic variety of movements is actually a carefully harmonized act of realizing the mean. The original study left one question outstanding: what specifically, in the metaphysical order of things, motivated the nameless Visitor from Elea to abandon bifurcation for his consummating non-bifurcatory division of fifteen kinds at the end of the dialogue? Miller addressed in a separate essay, first published in 1999 and reprinted here. In it, he opens the horizon of interpretation to include the new metaphysics of the Parmenides, the Philebus, and the "e;unwritten teachings."e;

Method and Politics in Plato's Statesman

Method and Politics in Plato's Statesman
Author: M. S. Lane
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 1998-01-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0521582296

Among Plato's works, the Statesman is usually seen as transitional between the Republic and the Laws. This book argues that the dialogue deserves a special place of its own. Whereas Plato is usually thought of as defending unchanging knowledge, Dr Lane demonstrates how, by placing change at the heart of political affairs, Plato reconceives the link between knowledge and authority. The statesman is shown to master the timing of affairs of state, and to use this expertise in managing the conflict of opposed civic factions. To this political argument corresponds a methodological approach which is seen to rely not only on the familiar method of 'division', but equally on the unfamiliar centrality of the use of 'example'. The demonstration that method and politics are interrelated transforms our understanding of the Statesman and its fellow dialogues.

Myth, Metaphysics and Dialectic in Plato's Statesman

Myth, Metaphysics and Dialectic in Plato's Statesman
Author: David A. White
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2016-04-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317090853

Plato's dialogue The Statesman has often been found structurally puzzling by commentators because of its apparent diffuseness and disjointed transitions. In this book David White interprets the dialogue in ways which account for this problematic structure, and which also connect the primary themes of the dialogue with two subsequent dialogues The Philebus and The Laws. The central interpretive focus of the book is the extended myth, sometimes called the 'myth of the reversed cosmos'. As a result of this interpretative approach, White argues that The Statesman can be recognized (a) as both internally coherent and also profound in implication-the myth is crucial in both regards - and (b) as integrally related to the concerns of Plato's later dialogues.

Plato's Parmenides

Plato's Parmenides
Author: Samuel Scolnicov
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2003-07-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0520925114

Of all Plato’s dialogues, the Parmenides is notoriously the most difficult to interpret. Scholars of all periods have disagreed about its aims and subject matter. The interpretations have ranged from reading the dialogue as an introduction to the whole of Platonic metaphysics to seeing it as a collection of sophisticated tricks, or even as an elaborate joke. This work presents an illuminating new translation of the dialogue together with an extensive introduction and running commentary, giving a unified explanation of the Parmenides and integrating it firmly within the context of Plato's metaphysics and methodology. Scolnicov shows that in the Parmenides Plato addresses the most serious challenge to his own philosophy: the monism of Parmenides and the Eleatics. In addition to providing a serious rebuttal to Parmenides, Plato here re-formulates his own theory of forms and participation, arguments that are central to the whole of Platonic thought, and provides these concepts with a rigorous logical and philosophical foundation. In Scolnicov's analysis, the Parmenides emerges as an extension of ideas from Plato's middle dialogues and as an opening to the later dialogues. Scolnicov’s analysis is crisp and lucid, offering a persuasive approach to a complicated dialogue. This translation follows the Greek closely, and the commentary affords the Greekless reader a clear understanding of how Scolnicov’s interpretation emerges from the text. This volume will provide a valuable introduction and framework for understanding a dialogue that continues to generate lively discussion today.

The Philosopher in Plato’s Statesman

The Philosopher in Plato’s Statesman
Author: Mitchell H. Miller
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9400987900

others in his discipline tend not to bring their studies to bear on the substance of the dialogues. Conversely, philosophical interpreters have generally felt free to approach the extensive logical and ontological, cosmological, and political doctrines of the later dialogues without concern for questions of literary style s and form. Given, moreover, the equally sharp distinction between the diSCiplines of philosophy and cultural history, it has been too easy to treat this bulk of doctrine without a pointed sense of the specific historical audience to which it is addressed. As a result, the pervasive tendency has been the reverse of that which has dominated the reading of the early dialogues: here we tend to neglect drama and pedagogy and to focus exclusively on philosophical substance. Both in general and particularly in regard to the later dialogues, the difficulty is that our predispositions have the force of self-fulfilling prophecy. Are we sure that the later Plato's apparent loss of interest in the dramatic is not, on the contrary, a reflection of our limited sense of the integrity of drama and sub stance, form and content? What we lack eyes for, of course, we will not see. The basic purpose of this essay is to develop eyes, as it were, for that integrity. The best way to do this, I think, is to take a later dialogue and to try to read it as a whole of form, content, and communicative function.

Plato and the Foundations of Metaphysics

Plato and the Foundations of Metaphysics
Author: Hans Joachim Kramer
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 1990-10-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438409648

This is a book about the relationship of the two traditions of Platonic interpretation -- the indirect and the direct traditions, the written dialogues and the unwritten doctrines. Kramer, who is the foremost proponent of the Tubingen School of interpretation, presents the unwritten doctrines as the crown of Plato's system and the key revealing it. Kramer unfolds the philosophical significance of the unwritten doctrines in their fullness. He demonstrates the hermeneutic fruitfulness of the unwritten doctrines when applied to the dialogues. He shows that the doctrines are a revival of the presocratic theory renovated and brought to a new plane through Socrates. In this way, Plato emerges as the creator of classical metaphysics. In the Third Part, Kramer compares the structure of Platonism, as construed by the Tubingen School, with current philosophical structures such as analytic philosophy, Hegel, phenomenology, and Heidegger. Of the five appendices, the most important presents English translations of the ancient testimonies on the unwritten doctrines. These include the "self-testimonies of Plato." There is also a bibliography on the problem of the unwritten doctrines.

Memory and Political Art in Plato’s Statesman

Memory and Political Art in Plato’s Statesman
Author: Catherine Craig
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2023-04-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1666919675

In Memory and the Political Art in Plato’s Statesman, Catherine Craig provides an original reading of Plato’s Statesman by bringing memory to the foreground. The dialogue itself explores various components of political memory, such as common speech, myths, and laws, and argues that these create a framework in which we live our political lives. Each of these aspects of political memory serves as an image to move the individual to rational inquiry. In this way, the dialogue suggests that political memory can serve as a starting point for philosophic recollection, allowing for a move from knowledge of the rational soul to first principles. Craig shows how Plato weaves together the personal, political, and philosophic dimensions of memory, providing a richer understanding of the significance of memory for political life. Beyond providing an analysis of the Statesman, this book helps readers consider the challenges of political memory in contemporary political life, while also arguing that memory mediates between universal, rational principles and the particular ends and circumstances of human life.

The Platonic Mind

The Platonic Mind
Author: Peter D. Larsen
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 582
Release: 2024-11-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 104018507X

Plato is one of the most widely read and studied philosophers of all time. A pivotal figure in the history of philosophy, his work is foundational to the Western philosophical tradition. The Platonic Mind provides an extensive survey of his work, not only placing it in its historical context but also exploring its contemporary significance. Comprising over 30 specially commissioned chapters by an international team of contributors, the volume is divided into three clear parts: Reading Plato’s Dialogues Themes From Plato Plato’s Influences and Significance Within these sections key topics are addressed including the nature of reality and the physical world; human cognition, including knowledge, sense perception, and affective states; society, politics, and law; his method of inquiry and literary style; his influence on subsequent thinkers and traditions; and studies on a wide range of individual Platonic dialogues. Plato’s work is central to the study of ancient philosophy, Greek philosophy, history of philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, political philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of science, ethics, philosophy of language, legal philosophy, and philosophy of religion. As such The Platonic Mind is essential reading for all students and researchers in philosophy. It will also be of interest to those studying Plato in related disciplines such as politics, law, ancient history, literature, and religious studies.

New Perspectives on Platonic Dialectic

New Perspectives on Platonic Dialectic
Author: Jens Kristian Larsen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2022-02-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1000543145

For Plato, philosophy depends on, or is perhaps even identical with, dialectic. Few will dispute this claim, but there is little agreement as to what Platonic dialectic is. According to a now prevailing view it is a method for inquiry the conception of which changed so radically for Plato that it "had a strong tendency ... to mean ‘the ideal method’, whatever that may be" (Richard Robinson). Most studies of Platonic dialectic accordingly focus on only one aspect of this method that allegedly characterizes one specific period in Plato’s development. This volume offers fresh perspectives on Platonic dialectic. Its 13 chapters present a comprehensive picture of this crucial aspect of Plato’s philosophy and seek to clarify what Plato takes to be proper dialectical procedures. They examine the ways in which these procedures are related to each other and other aspects of his philosophy, such as ethics, psychology, and metaphysics. Collectively, the chapters challenge the now prevailing understanding of Plato’s ideal of method. New Perspectives on Platonic Dialectic will appeal to scholars and advanced students interested in Plato, ancient philosophy, philosophical method, and the history of logic.