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The recent proliferation of Large Language Models (LLMs) raises questions as to the role of such tools both within an educational learning environment and their epistemic capacity. If, as Alfred North Whitehead remarked, western philosophy indeed 'consists of a series of footnotes to Plato', it would be of doubtless importance to evaluate the position of LLMs in his epistemological framework. We analyse Plato and existing scholarship regarding his epistemology, combining this with a brief outline of the architectural features of GPT-3 and similar LLMs, before finally addressing whether they meet Plato's criteria, and where they stand in relation to education in general. We conclude that, in conjunction with the well-known factual unreliability of LLMs, they are likewise unsuited for the satisfaction of a Platonic epistemological standard. On account of this, we find LLMs to be sub-optimal within an educational learning environment, and this is why we suggest that their use be accordingly circumscribed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the following close examination of chapter 26 of Aristotle's Poetics it is argued (a) that unlike the main part of the treatise, tragedy and epic are no longer compared in the frame of 'poetic art', i.e. as literary genres, but rather as Gesamtkunstwerke judged by elitist criteria; (b) that the chapter adopts a logical method of argumentation founded on the dialectical method of the Topics ; (c) that, as at the end of Book 8 of the Politics , it mainly reflects disputes in the Academy instigated by the so-called 'New Music'; (d) that for a variety of reasons this chapter of the Poetics and hence the earlier layer of the treatise dates back to Aristotle's first Athenian period (367-347 BCE). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socrates has an implicit argument for his afterlife story that concludes the Gorgias, with two key premises. One is at 527a–c, where he summarizes the ethical position he has been arguing for through most of the dialogue, regarding the intrinsic goodness of justice, the intrinsic badness of injustice, and the desirability of rehabilitative punishments. The second occurs at 507e–508a, where Socrates asserts that the universe is held together by justice. This argument explains why Socrates regards his story as a logos, not merely a muthos. It also helps us understand the nature of the rewards and punishments in his story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean cosmologies shared general assumptions about the interconnectivity of heaven and earth. Plato's Myth of Er, the Book of the Watchers in 1 Enoch, and Cicero's Dream of Scipio, narrate the travels of Er, Enoch, and Scipio, respectively, into the Beyond, where they each learn astonishing things about the cosmos, and are tasked with imparting a message to humanity. This comparative study argues that cosmic travel is an integral means of constructing a rhetoric of authority designed to recruit its audiences to its socio-political vision. By analysing literary conventions like pseudepigraphy and epiphany in the features that make up cosmic travel, we better understand how each story bridges the gap between the narrated (story) world and the external (real) world. The ability to blend the realities of a story and its audiences stems from the ways in which tropes of legitimacy render spatio-temporal reality malleable, but is also imperative to the very authority these tropes offer. Without arguing for deliberate intertextuality between all these sources, this study compares the use of heavenly voyages as a literary device for legitimising worldview across cultures, times, and places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article concerns the so-called irrigation system in the Timaeus 's biology (77a–81e), which replenishes our body's tissues with resources from food delivered as blood. I argue that this system functions mainly by the natural like-to-like motion of the elements and that the circulation of blood is an important case study of Plato's physics. We are forced to revise the view that the elements attract their like. Instead, similar elements merely tend to coalesce with each other in virtue of their tactile features as the atomists describe. The notion of attraction is replaced with this notion of mere coalescence. I begin by outlining how blood is made from food. I then argue that an understanding of health and disease compels us to read Plato as if he were an atomist and to abandon the popular scholarly interpretations according to which the elements attract each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevailing narrative in the history of science maintains that the ancient Greeks did not have a concept of a 'law of nature'. This paper overturns that narrative and shows that some ancient Greek philosophers did have an idea of laws of nature and, moreover, they referred to them as 'laws of nature'. This paper analyzes specific examples of laws of nature in texts by Plato, Aristotle, Philo of Alexandria, Nicomachus of Gerasa, and Galen. These examples emerged out of the closely intertwined Platonic and Pythagorean traditions, and these philosophers' texts make reference to laws of nature when describing arithmetical methods, arithmological doctrines, or medical theories. Nicomachus' laws of nature are especially noteworthy, because they have features that historians look for in the search for the origin of the modern concept of laws of nature. Nicomachus' laws of nature are mathematical, universal, and necessary. This paper raises the possibility that the ancient Platonic and Pythagorean traditions influenced the subsequent development of the idea of laws of nature in medieval and early modern Europe, including the conception of laws of nature deployed by Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fragmentary state of Cicero's De Republica makes it difficult to see how it is a unified work. In this article, I argue that Cicero uses ring composition to unify the dialogue as a polemic against the Epicurean prohibition on political involvement. Cicero is following Plato in his use of ring composition, and just as Plato uses ring composition in the Republic to express his views about philosophical method, so does Cicero. Ring composition turns out to be central to a plausible skeptical reading of the De Republica , in which Cicero both tries to induce suspension of belief in the Epicurean prohibition on political involvement, as well as prevent the reader from unreflectively adopting his own provisionally held views, both consistent with his commitment to the pedagogical aims of Academic skeptical philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for the significance of Euripides' Bacchae to what Socrates, in Book X of the Republic , refers to as the 'ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry'. I argue that the play's presentation of Dionysus – the god of tragic theatre – amounts to a metapoetic treatment of tragic poetry; it is a tragedy about tragedy. The Bacchae can thus be read as a statement of tragic poetry's self-understanding of its pedagogical and political goals as well as of its possible limitations. I conclude by arguing that there is in fact a deep kinship between tragic poetry (as presented by Euripides) and Socratic political philosophy (as presented by Plato), especially with respect to their relation to, and understanding of, the polis. Ultimately, through analyzing the Bacchae 's presentation of Dionysus, I aim to allow tragic poetry to speak for itself as well as to clarify its relation to Platonic/Socratic political philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that despite prima facie impressions, the first Stoics (the 3rd c. bc) put forward a conception of rhetoric of similar if not of equal importance as that of Plato and Aristotle, who represent two landmarks in the earliest development of what we may call 'philosophical rhetoric'. The paper shows that the Stoics built upon their predecessors' ideas, and that once we see this continuity, common features in Plato's, Aristotle's and the Stoics' conception of rhetoric come to the fore. For all of them argumentation, logical or dialectical, is at the core of philosophical rhetoric. The paper also addresses passages in Plutarch which accuse the Stoics of contradiction in their approach to rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Academic Social Resources is the property of Journal of Academic Social Resources and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the use of white space in W.B. Yeats's poem "Among School Children" and its significance in conveying meaning. The author argues that the white space between stanzas invites readers to infer moments of contemplation and allusion to Yeats's personal life. The poem reflects Yeats's feelings of inadequacy and alienation as a schoolchild, as well as his reflections on his love for Maud Gonne. The white space serves as a transition between different thoughts and emotions in the poem. Additionally, the text discusses the philosophical themes in the poem, where Yeats questions the ability of ancient philosophers to prevent aging and death, and instead finds hope in memory and art. Yeats believed in the timeless nature of beauty and the enduring spirit of the soul. The poem uses white space between stanzas to signify transitions in thought and contemplation of the impermanence of human experience. [Extracted from the article]

This article replies to five critical comments (along with a substantive introduction) of the monograph by Melissa Lane, Of Rule and Office: Plato's Ideas of the Political, which was published by Princeton University Press in 2023. Topics discussed include the nature of constitutional rule for Plato; Plato's attitude to democratic suspicions of rule; the topics of accountability, motivation, and knowledge, and the extent to which Platonic political thought can adequately address them; and Lane's positioning of her study as a service conception of rule akin to Joseph Raz' service conception of authority, and the extent to which this brings her close to the legal theory of Adrian Vermeule. In the course of discussing challenges and criticisms on these topics, Lane defends her book's criticism of principal-agent analyses of rule; elaborates, in light of other recent scholarship, her thesis that (Platonic) rule is for the good of the ruled; and develops her characterisation of Plato as a realist as well as an idealist, arguing that his political theory is in fact well suited to provide the kind of normatively illuminated realism for which more sophisticated political realists have called. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Cratylus, Plato addresses the question of the orthótes onomáton, the “accuracy” or “adequacy” of names regarding what they would name. Two positions come into play regarding such adequacy (the conventionalism of Hermogenes and the naturalism of Cratylus), both of which are dismantled by the Platonic Socrates. But only two? Isn’t there in the Cratylus at least an indication of a possible Platonic “adequacy”? This paper presents that possible “adequacy”. For this, the difference between name (or “natural” name) and word is discussed, as well as the need to anchor designation in essences; above all, it is shown that it is necessary to consider the question of name in relation to that of logos. For that purpose, an interpretation of the Cratylus is articulated with some passages from the Phaedo and the Sophist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present article we try to examine the relationship between Plato's theory of Ideas and his political and ethical thoughts. First, we present an outline of the genesis of the theory of Ideas in "Meno", "Phaedo", and "Republic". Then, we go on to examine Plato's political and ethical thoughts in "Apology", "Protagoras", "Gorgias" and again "Republic". The study results in the conclusion that Plato's "cave allegory" is the climax of both his theory of Ideas and his politico-ethical thoughts. A close reading of "Cave Allegory" and comparing its main ideas with the crucial problems of "Protagoras" and "Gorgias" reveals the politico-ethical character of the theory of Ideas. Contrary to the sophists who think they are the locus of Truth, Socrates only keeps open the abyss of truth and makes the student turn around it. In "The Symposium", Alcibiades calls this "madness of philosophy". In the end, we try to provide a possible answer to Nietzsche's and Popper's reproaches to Plato and show that there may be a possible immanent reading of Plato's theory of Ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Socrates' problematic analogy of reading big and little letters in Book 2 of Plato's Republic. The examination highlights a significant grammatical detail, which has been generally overlooked in contemporary Platonic scholarship: Socrates refers to the justice of the city as 'doing one's own thing' (τὸ αὑτοῦ πράττων), in the singular, but the justice of the individual as 'doing one's own things' (τὰ αὑτοῦ πράττων), in the plural. In terms of Socrates' analogy, the big and little letters of justice are not, in fact, the same. Ultimately, the paper argues that Socrates' analogy of reading big and little letters is intentionally problematic, intended to draw attention to this literal difference between the justice of the city and the justice of the individual. The paper concludes with a discussion of a few immediate implications of this grammatical detail for interpreting the argument of Plato's Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early controversy over the Platonic Epistles , a certain type of argument for inauthenticity gained popularity: the character of Plato we find in them is unbefitting a philosopher, so the letters must be later forgeries. Despite the known limitations of this argument type, historians of philosophy in the late eighteenth century gradually extended its use to cases in which "Plato" seems to be a fanatic (Schwärmer), a contemporary slur leveled by sober professionals against amateur philosophers pretending to revelation. Given the shortcomings of this kind of argument from character , I aim to account for its popularization by placing it within larger disciplinary trends. Unlike other reasons for doubting authenticity (such as anachronism, inconsistency, and contradiction), the argument from character allows the critic to editorialize about philosophical norms. Accordingly, arguing from character in the context of the Epistles became a means of responding to Kant's critical philosophy. This paper thus argues that a bad argument for the inauthenticity of the Platonic Epistles proliferated because it was useful for a proxy war over how to do philosophy in the context of a nascent and professionalizing discipline, the history of philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Logos: A Journal, of Religion, Philosophy Comparative Cultural Studies & Art (08687692) is the property of Logos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Beytulhikme: An International Journal of Philosophy is the property of Beytulhikme: An International Journal of Philosophy and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Mathematician and philosopher Charles Howard Hinton posited a plausible correlation between higher-dimensional spaces, also referred to as 'hyperspaces', and the allegorical concept articulated by the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his work, Republic, known as the 'Cave.' In Plato's allegory, individuals find themselves situated in an underground 'Cave', constrained by chains on their legs and neck, perceiving shadows and sound reflections from the 'real' world cast on the 'Cave' wall as their immediate reality. Hinton extended the interpretation of these 'shadows' through the induction method, asserting that, akin to a 3D object casting a 2D shadow, the 'shadow' of a 4D hyper-object would exhibit one dimension less, manifesting as a 3D object. Building upon this conceptual framework, the authors posit a correlation between the perceived acoustic space of the bounded individuals within the 'Cave' and the characteristics of a 4D acoustic space, a proposition substantiated mathematically by scientific inquiry. Furthermore, the authors introduce an interactive art application developed as a methodical approach to exploring the hypothetical 4D acoustic space within Plato's 'Cave', as perceived by the bounded individuals and someone liberated from his constraints navigating through the 'Cave.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nietzsche employs the concept of pregnancy metaphorically at various points in his writings; discussing the pregnancy of philosophers (GM III 8, BGE 292), spiritual pregnancy (EH, Clever 3; GS 72) and being pregnant with thoughts or deeds (D 552). I explore how Nietzsche uses the notion of pregnancy in Dawn, arguing that it connects to the theme of self-cultivation. I employ the various associations that Nietzsche makes with pregnancy, including the unknown, selfishness, strangeness, and solitude, to elucidate Nietzsche's understanding of self-cultivation. I show how the metaphor of pregnancy, in which we do not control what we give birth to, both expresses and helps us explore the problem of what, if the self is made up of and directed by many competing drives, shapes and directs self-cultivation. I argue that Nietzsche's deliberate references to the context of Plato's discussion of pregnancy involve a self-conscious challenge to Plato's concept of the philosopher, and of philosophy, and a reimagining of what they will give birth to. The appropriation of Plato's famous metaphor thus underscores how Nietzsche's concept and method of self-cultivation contrasts to Plato's care for the soul and is rooted in attentiveness to the body and its drives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To show that despite the enormous efforts of M. Heidegger, he failed to find a new way of thinking. Scientific novelty. It is shown that the meeting of two different streams of historical thinking – the destructive thinking of Heidegger, who never stood on the ground of the Pre-Socratics (although he strived for this all his life), and the Pre-Socratic, which gradually lost its vitality in subsequent European culture, never took place. The different streams of thinking – the ancient Greeks and Heidegger – never crossed. The early Greeks sought to understand the nature of essence, that is, they were looking, according to Heidegger, for the first beginning of thinking (and for this they tried to use the tools of openness of thinking, but did not understand its reasons), while Heidegger, who consistently went through a long path of liberation from all the European ones known to him methods of understanding nature, on the contrary, sought to find ways to understand the true nature of human existence, that is, he looked for the second principle of thinking (but also failed to reveal its origins). It was found that European culture throughout its history has stopped between these two extreme streams of thinking – aimed, on the one hand, at the world of things (essence) and, on the other, at the inner world of man (existence), but in both of these streams there are genuine the beginnings of thinking remained unheard. The analysis shows that throughout his life, Heidegger was looking, in fact, not even for being, but for the being of thinking; more precisely, he was looking for thinking that could exist synchronously with the thought of the ancient Greeks, which allowed him, on the one hand, – to reveal the fall of European culture, and on the other hand, to try to find the motives for future thinking.In our opinion, Heidegger heard the main problem of European culture: logos does not illuminate thinking, does not carry either natural or divine light, it is only similar to a given (often artificial) logical scheme. All ancient religions spoke about this. The ancient Greeks knew this; Plato and Aristotle replaced the true divine light with a system of ideas, concepts, categories and logic. It seems that the concealment of the true light (nature and gods) is the path of the fall of European culture, about which Nietzsche, Wagner and Heidegger wrote. Thinking exists only where consciousness disintegrates in the spatio-temporal topos of its existence. And logos, as this study shows, can only exist in a split consciousness. Based on this, it is increasingly clear that we have not learned to think like the Greeks and, moreover, in our selfishness we may finally lose this opportunity. On my own behalf, I would like to add: what Heidegger failed to achieve can be clarified along the paths of contact between Western and Eastern thought.

Often, it is believed that there are only two attitudes towards truth. One is to dogmatically believe in something as absolute, considering it unquestionably true (this position is sometimes mistakenly attributed to philosophers of the stature of Plato and Aristotle). The other attitude is to accept that one’s opinions are just one among many possibilities, leading to adherence to a relativistic perspective, sometimes labelled as “weak thought.” From this perspective, truth can at most be considered as historically influenced (meaning that what emerges historically as true for a certain period would be deemed so), or otherwise limited (meaning that it would be true as it appears from a certain perspective or for a certain group of people). In reality, upon careful reflection, both of these perspectives prove to be problematic and unsatisfactory. Specifically, we refer to those (like certain believers in God or, in a more modern way, in scientific truth) who consider their opinions indisputably true, thus confusing hypotheses (unproven) with principles (uncontested) in Platonic terms. Equally problematic is the attitude of those who, more modestly, admit that their opinions are as true as any other opinion argued in the same way, or that may seem historically true or true for a certain group of people with an interest in it. This attitude ultimately falls into the classic paradoxes of relativism; for instance, one who holds the opinion that relativism itself is false could easily refute it. In this paper, we will demonstrate that both attitudes represent an illusion of choice, as understanding the truth is a complex and subtle topic that goes beyond these two extreme perspectives.

The article examines the influence of Plato’s Republic on Dostoevsky’s late novels. The role of the dialogue in the ideological discourse of Europe and Russia in the mid-nineteenth century is noted, and references to the work in Dostoevsky’s f ive major novels and draft notes are traced, indicating the writer’s acquaintance with it. The main part of the article draws parallels between the socio-philosophical presentation of the concept of justice in the dialogue The Republic and Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. Thus, at the beginning of the dialogue, Socrates’ opponent Frasimachus puts forward the thesis of the harm and uselessness of justice for ordinary citizens, and in the process of substantiating it almost completely anticipates the main provisions of Raskolnikov’s theory. Socrates, in turn, refutes Frasimachus with arguments like those addressed to Raskolnikov. The common vector of Dostoevsky’s and Plato’s interpretation of the theme of justice is revealed. However, there is also an important difference: for Dostoevsky, there is a higher, divine standard of justice by which social justice is also understood. Dostoevsky’s characters seem to be constantly arguing with God, who admits actual injustice and can draw different conclusions from this situation, including fighting with God. For Plato, justice is the harmony of good human will that everyone should strive for in the real world, building a good society with their own hands: it is perfectly intellectually comprehensible and reasonable.

It is a common mistake of contemporary natural law scholarship to overestimate the ancient Greeks' contribution to a meaningful theory of natural law and to mistake an appeal to unwritten law with natural law's criteria for normative validity. This paper was designed to elaborate on two interrelated queries. On the one hand, it labours to reconstruct the ancient Greeks' understanding of a hierarchy of law, which is answered in the affirmative. On the other hand, the paper inquires whether there existed any meaningful sense of natural law in the Classical period, to which question the Archytean nexus of law and natural justice is offered as a palpable compromise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text is the translation of the first of two sessions of a lecture course given by Derrida at the Sorbonne in 1961–62. It was clearly intended as an introduction or survey of the concept or notion of 'world' from the Greek kosmos and the Latin mundus to the Christian sense of a fallen world, the Kantian 'idea' of world, and the Heideggerian rethinking of the very question of world in 'On the Essence of Ground'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a comprehensive review of the rather intricate relationship between contemporary environmental ethics, understood as a philosophical branch, and ancient philosophy. While its primary focus is on Western philosophy, it also includes some brief yet crucial considerations about the influence of Eastern traditions of thought on environmental ethics. Aside from the introduction in the first section, the discussion is organised into three main sections. In the Reception: Ancient philosophy in environmental ethics section, I review the initial reception of ancient philosophy in contemporary environmental ethics. Next, in the Reaction: Environmental ethics in ancient philosophy scholarship section, I examine how the scholarship in AP responded to this early reception. I conclude, in the final section, with some constructive suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematician and philosopher Charles Howard Hinton posited a plausible correlation between higher-dimensional spaces, also referred to as ‘hyperspaces’, and the allegorical concept articulated by the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato in his work, Republic, known as the ‘Cave.’ In Plato’s allegory, individuals find themselves situated in an underground ‘Cave’, constrained by chains on their legs and neck, perceiving shadows and sound reflections from the ‘real’ world cast on the ‘Cave’ wall as their immediate reality. Hinton extended the interpretation of these ‘shadows’ through the induction method, asserting that, akin to a 3D object casting a 2D shadow, the ‘shadow’ of a 4D hyper-object would exhibit one dimension less, manifesting as a 3D object. Building upon this conceptual framework, the authors posit a correlation between the perceived acoustic space of the bounded individuals within the ‘Cave’ and the characteristics of a 4D acoustic space, a proposition substantiated mathematically by scientific inquiry. Furthermore, the authors introduce an interactive art application developed as a methodical approach to exploring the hypothetical 4D acoustic space within Plato’s ‘Cave’, as perceived by the bounded individuals and someone liberated from his constraints navigating through the ‘Cave.’

This article explores the use of feminine metaphorical language in the works of Plato and Origen. Drawing from Hanne Løland’s definition of gendered metaphorical language, it examines how Plato and Origen both inherit and challenge the stereotypical use of feminine metaphorical language to advance their philosophical and theological agendas. While partially adhering to the stereotypical uses of gendered metaphorical language, both Plato and Origen navigate beyond them to conceptualize a fluid and multifaceted feminine continuum. By anchoring the analysis in Plato’s Symposium and Timaeus and in Origen’s exegetical works, the article demonstrates how both authors represent intellectual ascent and spiritual transformation through feminine metaphors. In this regard, the article suggests the possibility that Origen inherited this feminine continuum from Plato’s philosophy. Through this comparative analysis, the article contributes to a deeper understanding of feminine metaphorical language in ancient philosophy and theology, thus challenging a simplistic interpretation of gendered metaphorical language. Overall, the article underscores the complex interplay between cultural constructs, philosophical frameworks, and gender representations in the intellectual legacies of Plato and Origen.

This study explores the essence and dimensions of modern humanity from the perspective of the Quran, focusing on the views of Muhammad Iqbal and Plato. In modern society, there is a prevailing notion that religion and science are irreconcilable entities, complicating the understanding of their relationship. This study aims to analyze the views of Iqbal and Plato on the essence and dimensions of modern humanity. The research method employed is a literature review, utilizing primary data from Iqbal's “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam” and Plato's “The Republic.” Secondary data include books, journals, essays, and other relevant sources. The findings indicate that Iqbal perceives the essence of humanity in its spiritual entity, complemented by intelligence, belief, and morality, while Plato identifies three essential elements of humanity: spirit, reason (intellect), and desire (appetite).

The article is an analysis of the influence of the Platonic concept of the state on the first attempts to build a modern concept of political economy in French. Unlike the English-language economic theories of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the French Traité de l’économie politique by Antoine de Montchrétien is not just an attempt to analyze economic phenomena such as labor productivity, new technologies, or the development of agriculture, industry, and crafts, but is also an attempt to relate the new view of economics with the traditionally Platonic understanding of the state as a three-part structure in which each social group does only its own work. However, the understanding of Platonic justice as each social group doing its own thing is simplified in Montchrétien’s work. The French thinker relies on an archaic form of the social contract, in which individual social groups are dogmatically understood as elements of a fixed and immutable structure, of which the French monarchy system is an expression. On this point, Montchrétien diverges from the author of Republic because the Platonic state - contrary to Popper’s view - is not an example of a closed society along the lines of a feudal or aristocratic monarchy, but a flexible republic in which there is the possibility of passing from one social group to another, provided one possesses adequate personal qualities. It seems that Montchrétien’s attempt to promote the people as a new social class was not successful because his revolutionary demand was not followed by a proposal to build a new social contract through which the goods-producing class could become the real subject and source of the state’s wealth. The new social contract was introduced in Europe as a result of the Industrial Revolution and a series of political revolutions led by the French Revolution while the Montchrétien treatise remained a purely theoretical attempt to build a new concept of political economy.

Socrates’ final argument in the Protagoras is premised on the surprising identification of the pleasant with the good and argues that virtue is the “art of measurement” that can be easily taught to the Many. The view that virtue can be taught is also espoused by Socrates elsewhere, notably in the Phaedrus. However, while the Protagoras identifies virtue with the art of calculating the greatest pleasure, which is identified with the greatest good, in the Phaedrus virtue is shown to consist in the ceaseless search for the good. I argue that the picture of virtue presented in the Protagoras is in agreement with that of the Phaedrus in that the Protagoras depicts the first stage of the process of learning genuine virtue, which is outlined as a whole in the Phaedrus. The argument of the Protagoras then works as a protreptic: it teaches an elementary way of thinking about the ends of one’s actions and opens up the way toward genuine virtue.

Acidic substances were known for thousands of years, and their macroscopic-sensory characteristics were reflected by words in most ancient languages. In the Western canon, the history of the concept of acidity goes back to Ancient Greece. In Greek, the word associated with acidity from its early literary references was ὀξύς ("sharp"), and still in contemporary Greek the words "sour" and "acidic" have the same root. This paper makes a short presentation of the appearance of the abstract concept in the works of Plato and Aristotle and relates it, on one side to the already existing theological-philosophical tradition, starting with Hesiod´s Theogony and on the other, to the then available to the Greeks organoleptic experiences of sourness-vinegar and sour milk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heidegger's interpretation of Plato's philosophy, which emphasizes real existence and phenomena, distorts Plato's concept of eternal truth. This raises questions about the relationship between tangible reality and the idea of the eternal, and how this concept affects human language and intellect to understand the world around them. Heidegger sees language as a tool for humans to understand the universe, but also a source of error in human knowledge of reality. This raises the ethical challenge of how humans are responsible for using language effectively to understand the reality they face. Furthermore, Heidegger's notion of the revelation of nature helps a better understanding of the ontological features of language, which positions language as a tool for humans to understand existence in a larger context. Thus, Heidegger's interpretation of Plato's notion of truth has an influence on our understanding of the relationship between language and human life. This research aims to understand Heidegger's interpretation of Plato's philosophy, with a focus on real existence and phenomena. The research method involves analyzing texts by Heidegger and Plato, as well as evaluating the concept of eternal truth in the context of language and the human intellect. The results show that Heidegger's interpretation of Plato's idea of truth has distorted the concept of eternal truth, resulting in questions about the relationship between tangible reality and eternal ideas. Language is a tool for humans to understand the universe, but it is also a source of error in human knowledge of reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines possible reasons as to why Plato wrote dialogues. Hypotheses raised include the notion that dialogues were designed for public consumption, Plato's Idea of the Good and his protection of himself from the power elite. It describes the features of each variety of Platonic dialogues and discusses the essence of human wisdom, knowledge acquisition and the theoretical pessimism embedded in Plato's book "The Apology of Socrates."

In this paper, I approach Hegel's philosophy under the banner of a "Keplerian Revolution", the implicit reference being, of course, to Kant's supposed Copernican philosophical revolution. Kepler had been an early supporter of the Copernican paradigm in astronomy, but went well beyond his predecessor, and so is invoked here in an attempt to capture some of the important ways in which Hegel attempted to go beyond the philosophy of Kant. To make these issues more determinate, however, Hegel's Keplerian orientation will not be presented in its contrast to Kant's "Copernicanism" as such, but as contrasted with that of another early follower of Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, and this Brunian orientation will be used to characterize Kant's philosophy as seen from Hegel's rival Keplerian point of view. Interpreting Hegel as a philosophical Keplerian will require that we broach those worrisome aspects of Kepler's astronomy, namely his support for Plato's cosmology and the tradition of the "music of the spheres", but this will be shown to have connections to Hegel's own approach to logic. This in turn will help shed light on the meaning of Hegel's form of idealism and, in particular, on its usually unacknowledged Platonic dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both Plato and Confucius were deeply concerned with moral cultivation and political leadership, topics that were inherently gendered in ancient patriarchal societies. I show that both thinkers focused their discussions on concepts that were associated with male aristocratic ideals of gentlemanliness. Yet while Confucian texts emphasize moral behavior and ritual to beautify the male body (shen 身), Plato focuses on the cultivation of a non-physical soul, which women also possess. Various theories have been proposed to explain this difference in their understandings of the self, but when we bear the gendered nature of their inquiry in mind, an important difference takes center stage: for Socrates, the male body is an object of sexual desire. This paper highlights the influence of homoerotic desire in Plato’s unique approach to gentlemanliness, offering a new perspective for comparing these philosophers' views on gender, cultivation, and leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long recognized significant similarities between Plato's Phaedo and the Gospel of Luke. However, the absence of convincing evidence confirming that Luke was acquainted with Phaedo has prevented scholars from asserting that he drew directly from Plato's dialogue. Notably, previously overlooked are the remarkable resemblances between the narratives of Luke 23,27–33 and Phaedo 117c. The most straightforward explanation for these similarities is the direct influence of Plato's narrative on the Lukan text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article examines the interpretations of Platonism in the philosophical systems of selected representatives of the Baden and Marburg schools of neo-Kantianism. Using the method of comparative analysis and focusing on epistemological, metaphysical-ontological, mathematical, and historical interpretations of Plato's idealism, I present the philosophical positions of the following Baden thinkers: Wilhelm Windelband, Emil Lask, Jonas Cohn, Karl Jaspers; and the following Marburg thinkers: Hermann Cohen, Paul Natorp, August Auffarth and Elisabeth Rotten. The choice of these philosophers is deliberate and related to different ways of interpreting ancient Platonic idealism. The historical-philosophical approach in this article consists in describing various ways of interpreting Plato's philosophy at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in the circles of German philosophers inspired by the philosophy of Kant. I will address this research topic using a novel method, considering selected assumptions of the broadly understood intellectual environment associated with critical philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay investigates the little-known dialogue by Zacharias Scholasticus entitled Ammonius, a philosophical dispute over the creation of the world. It examines in particular Zacharias' skill in portraying the character of Ammonius, a pagan teacher of philosophy in Alexandria. Even before illustrating his own eternalist theses, which are later refuted by Zacharias, Ammonius is introduced through subtle yet unequivocal allusions as a malus Socrates, i.e. a bad teacher who corrupts young people and alienates them from philosophy, while being well received by the city in which he teaches. This reversal forms the broader plot that runs through the narrative framework of the dialogue, which is based on the borrowing – and inversion – of narrative schemes, mainly from Plato's Phaedrus. The Ammonius will ultimately be presented as a paradigm of the appropriation of Plato not only on a superficial level (linguistic borrowings, the dialogue form itself), but also on a deeper and more structural level, i.e. as a remarkable case of borrowing Plato's dramaturgy and irony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks the question "Why did Plato not write the 'unwritten doctrine'?" and answers it by citing a combination of two obstacles. The first derives from the limitations of the episteme available to an embodied soul about the essence of the good. Even if the dialectician has access to some kind of knowledge, the mismatch between the unchanging essence of the good and the precarious logoi which aim to identify it (and allow others some measure of access to it) can never fully be overcome. At best, Socrates (or Plato) can lead souls to an incomplete account of it: It is possible that even the most expert dialectician can only have a claim to knowledge, but no absolute certainty. Another obstacle lies in the audience or readership itself: No shortcut to understanding is possible, and yet a mere written presentation, which is all they have, is just such a shortcut, and so represents an empty promise. In memory of Charles H. Kahn (1928–2023), a letter of his from September 5, 1989, concerning the question "Why did Plato not write the 'unwritten doctrine'?" is published, along with some comments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine Socrates' argument that presupposes an audience familiar with Forms and explains why the sight-lovers are not philosophers. It is divided into three parts: the first part (476a1–6) shows why each Form is one in number; the second part (476a6–9) distinguishes Forms from their sensible appearances; and the third part (476a10–d6) draws an analogy between philosophers – people being awake and sight-lovers – people being asleep. Remarkably, the argument works only for opposites, which are mistakenly identified by the sight-lovers with sensible things. Also in this paper I suggest an alternative interpretation of the so-called 'Two Worlds Theory' which is based on the distinction between the objects of knowledge and opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Parmenides Plato claims that by relinquishing Forms one would entirely destroy tên tou dialegesthai dunamin. I argue that this peculiar phrase does not indicate, as often suggested, the power or possibility of all discourse or thought, but the power of dialectic, i. e. the highest science; and that its preservation is, for Plato, a decisive reason for the necessity of the Forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My aim in this paper is to show that Plato's Phaedo makes an important contribution to the development of ideas about the commensuration in value of heterogeneous items that is needed for practical reasoning and rational choice. Because the passage I focus on, the so-called 'right exchange' passage at 69a-c, has not usually been read this way, I motivate the reading by showing how it resolves some puzzles local to the Phaedo concerning the stark contrast Socrates develops between the virtues of philosophers and nonphilosophers, ordinary people who do not pursue wisdom single-mindedly, applying to the latter labels like 'strange', 'unreasonable', 'illusory' and 'slavish'. Socrates says that one should, and suggests that philosophers do, use wisdom as their currency whereas nonphilosophers use pleasure (and perhaps also pains, fears, etc., or bodily conditions in general) as their currency (or currencies). Although it has been generally understood that the basis for this contrast lies in how the two groups evaluate, the details have remained murky. I argue that it's due to the properties of pleasure (or bodily conditions in general) qua measure of value, in particular pleasure's context-dependence, that nonphilosophers' judgements about virtue, e.g. the courage and moderation of particular acts or people, are defective in the ways Socrates says they are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019 I designed and taught two iterations of “Plato and Black Feminist Thought”, a special topics version of a course on Plato. It combined a reading of the Republic with texts from the Black feminist tradition with thematic connections to Plato's dialogue. The course seemed to be highly successful both in promoting student engagement generally and as an approach to teaching Platonic philosophy in particular. In this paper I describe the course in detail and offer an account of my experience teaching it, as well as some student perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surprisingly, the dimples on a golf ball (typically around 300-400) cannot be spaced evenly on the surface. I will explain how this is connected to the Platonic solids. The example is interesting, because it illustrates a difference between efficient and formal causation and explanation. I will discuss a few interesting consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the philosophy of Plato and the Platonic Aristotle there are many imperfect things: becoming, infinite multiplicity, indeterminacy, contradiction, ephemerality, chance, blind necessity, accident, mixture, potency, matter, non-being, evil, etc. If there weren’t, the system wouldn’t spin smoothly on its hinges and wouldn’t be able to cope with the epistemic project of telling the real as it is. But there is, on the other hand, a factor of perfection that organizes and subordinates all of this: the primacy of form (eîdos). None of these notions exist in itself, but orbit around some item linked to the semantic field of form: subsistence, unity, identity, determination, teleology, etc. In this way, even if we admit that the first items are as original as the second, there is a hierarchy of axiological character, in an ontological asymmetry of another game of anteriority and posteriority. Arguing against the primacy of form is equivalent to arguing in favor of the primacy of matter. What kind of landscape do we see when we look at reality from the perspective of a pre-Socratic philosophy, now marked not by the sign of insufficiency but, on the contrary, as a full philosophy? What if the second navigation of the Phaedo had to return to the first? What if the philosophy summarized by the Stranger from Athens in Laws 888e4-890a1 deserved not censure, but applause? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this essay is to show that the dialogue Sophist displays to us the mature conception of Forms in Plato’s philosophy. Such a conception differs in several important aspects from the initial conception of Forms presented in the so-called middle dialogues, especially in the Books V-VII of the Republic. In order to do so, my argumentative and rhetorical strategy consists in making the contrast between the image of the divided line explicitly proposed by Plato in the Republic as a symbol of that initial conception with the image of the tree of Forms as the symbolic image of the mature conception. Although not directly proposed by Plato, such an image, derived from Porphyry’s Isagoge, directly stems from the division method worked out in the Sophist. Through the contrast between these two symbolic images, I present initially the differences between the conceptions of Forms inscribed in the image of the divided line and the image of the tree of Forms. Next, I present two fundamental differences between these conceptions. The first concerns two distinct images of the dialectic present in the Republic and in the Sophist. The second consists in the erasure of the fundamental difference between dianoia and nous in the Republic, giving place to the supremacy of the dianoia in the Sophist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aristoxenus of Tarentum (375-335 BC) was one of Aristotle’s most important students. He was best known for his treatises on musical theory, including the Elements of Harmonic Theory. However, Aristoxenus was also notable as a great author of biographies of personalities such as Pythagoras, Archytas, Socrates and Plato. Unfortunately, only fragments of these works have reached us. However, from reading these fragments we can derive very interesting information about the biographies of these philosophers and the way they were portrayed in Antiquity. Furthermore, we can also reach some conclusions about Aristoxenus’ position regarding Socratic-Platonic theories. In this paper I will discuss the information contained in the fragments of biographies that Aristoxenus wrote about Socrates and Plato and what would be his point of view on these authors would be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the ontological, epistemological and ethical point of view, Saint Augustine was influenced, besides the Scriptures, by the stoic philosophy, by Neoplatonism or, more exactly, by those thinkers that he designates under the expression: “Platonic philosophers”. Regarding the influence he received from the Stoics, the emphasis is placed not only on the concept of virtue, but also on other notions essentially related to the moral acting. As to the ontological and epistemological plane, it was mainly the Platonic or Neoplatonic vision of the two worlds that met in the Bishop of Hippo its most decisive adhesion. Thus, from one hand, there is the sensitive and, therefore, changeable, becoming, non-consistent and not self-sufficient world and, from the other hand, there is the spiritual and, consequently, unwithered, unchangeable, and eternal world. But the principal question requiring an explanation is this: who finally were the “Platonic philosophers” to whom the author of Confessions refers? It is this problematic, together with the ambiguities it raises, that I will explore throughout these reflections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]