Plato and the Foundations of Metaphysics

Plato and the Foundations of Metaphysics PDF

Author: Hans Joachim Kramer

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 1990-10-09

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1438409648

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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.

Plato and His Legacy

Plato and His Legacy PDF

Author: Yosef Z. Liebersohn

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2021-07-20

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1527572773

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This volume offers a detailed interpretation of Plato’s texts and Platonic philosophy in its various forms and shapes as a living force in the history of philosophy, from the Hellenistic age, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance Italy, to modern England, America, Japan, and Israel. Most of the contributions here deal with the afterlife and influence of Plato’s dialogues in later Greek philosophy and in various places and periods, and approach a number of dialogues and issues from new perspectives, shedding new light on some ancient problems. These studies represent no single approach, and illustrate, in their various ways, some different methods of approaching the original and ever-surprising author that Plato has always been.

Being Measured

Being Measured PDF

Author: Mark R. Wheeler

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2019-12-15

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 1438476868

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On the basis of careful textual exegesis and philosophical analysis of Aristotle's Metaphysics, Mark R. Wheeler offers a groundbreaking interpretation of Aristotle's theory of truth in terms of measurement. Wheeler demonstrates that Aristotle's investigation of truth and falsehood in the Metaphysics is rigorously methodical, that Aristotle's conceptions of truth contribute to the main lines of thought in the treatise, and that the Metaphysics, taken as a whole, contributes fundamentally to Aristotle's theory of truth. Wheeler provides not only an excellent introduction to the main problems in the theory of truth but also provides contemporary truth theorists with a rigorous explanation of Aristotle's theory of truth.

Being Measured

Being Measured PDF

Author: Mark R. Wheeler

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2019-12-15

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 143847685X

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Advances an interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of truth in terms of accurate measurement. On the basis of careful textual exegesis and philosophical analysis of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Mark R. Wheeler offers a groundbreaking interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of truth in terms of measurement. Wheeler demonstrates that Aristotle’s investigation of truth and falsehood in the Metaphysics is rigorously methodical, that Aristotle’s conceptions of truth contribute to the main lines of thought in the treatise, and that the Metaphysics, taken as a whole, contributes fundamentally to Aristotle’s theory of truth. Wheeler provides not only an excellent introduction to the main problems in the theory of truth but also provides contemporary truth theorists with a rigorous explanation of Aristotle’s theory of truth. “Wheeler’s book constitutes a major contribution to the scholarship on Aristotle’s theory of truth and falsehood. The book offers much in terms of how to read the Metaphysics itself, and Wheeler’s interpretation will strike some as defending a rather controversial and complex thesis centered around the idea that the Metaphysics ought to be read as a more systematically and philosophically unified document with the articulation of a robust theory of truth at the center of the entire work. Wheeler offers much food for thought.” — Blake Hestir, author of Plato on the Metaphysical Foundation of Meaning and Truth

Essays on Plato’s Epistemology

Essays on Plato’s Epistemology PDF

Author: Franco Trabattoni

Publisher: Leuven University Press

Published: 2016-03-21

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 9462700591

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An Innovating approach to Plato’s philosophy Through a careful survey of several significant Platonic texts, mainly focussing on the nature of knowledge, Essays on Plato’s Epistemology offers the reader a fresh and promising approach to Plato’s philosophy as a whole. From the very earliest reception of Plato’s philosophy, there has been a conflict between a dogmatic and a sceptical interpretation of his work and thought. Moreover, the two sides are often associated, respectively, with a metaphysical and an anti-metaphysical approach. This book, continuing a line of thought that is nowadays strongly present in the secondary literature – and also followed by the author in over thirty years of research –, maintains that a third way of thinking is required. Against the widespread view that an anti-dogmatic philosophy must go together with an anti-metaphysical stance, Trabattoni shows that for Plato, on the contrary, a sober and reasonable assessment of both the powers and limits of human reason relies on a proper metaphysical outlook.

Studies in Plato's Metaphysics

Studies in Plato's Metaphysics PDF

Author: Reginald E. Allen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-09-10

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 0415626323

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Did Plato abandon, or sharply modify, the Theory of Forms in later life? In the Phaedo, Symposium, and Republicit is generally agreed that Plato held that universals exist. But in Parmenides, he subjected that theory to criticism. If the criticism were valid, and Plato knew so, then the Parmenidesmarks a turning point in his thought. If, however, Plato became aware that there are radical differences in the logical behaviour of concepts, and the later dialogues are a record of his attempt to analyse those differences, then Plato’s thought can be said to have moved in a new and vitally important direction after the Parmenides. Studies in Plato’s Metaphysicsbrings together twenty essays by leading philosophers from the UK and the USA reflecting upon this important issue and upon the questions arising from it.

The Republic

The Republic PDF

Author: Plato

Publisher: The Floating Press

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 720

ISBN-13: 1775413667

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The Republic is Plato's most famous work and one of the seminal texts of Western philosophy and politics. The characters in this Socratic dialogue - including Socrates himself - discuss whether the just or unjust man is happier. They are the philosopher-kings of imagined cities and they also discuss the nature of philosophy and the soul among other things.

Knowing Persons

Knowing Persons PDF

Author: Lloyd P. Gerson

Publisher: Clarendon Press

Published: 2003-01-16

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0191531537

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Knowing Persons is an original study of Plato's account of personhood. For Plato, embodied persons are images of a disembodied ideal. The ideal person is a knower. Hence, the lives of embodied persons need to be understood according to Plato's metaphysics of imagery. For Gerson, Plato's account of embodied personhood is not accurately conflated with Cartesian dualism. Plato's dualism is more appropriately seen in the contrast between the ideal disembodied person and the embodied one than in the contrast between mind or soul and body. This study argues that Plato's analysis of personhood is intended to cohere with his two-world metaphysics as well as a radical separation of knowledge and belief. Gerson demonstrates that Plato's account of persons plays a key role not just in his theory of mind, but in his theory of knowledge, his metaphysics, and his ethics. A proper understanding of Plato's account of persons must therefore place it in the context of his doctrines in these areas. Knowing Persons fills a significant gap by showing the way to such an understanding.

Aristotle, Plato and Pythagoreanism in the First Century BC

Aristotle, Plato and Pythagoreanism in the First Century BC PDF

Author: Malcolm Schofield

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-01-17

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1139619802

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This book presents an up-to-date overview of the main new directions taken by ancient philosophy in the first century BC, a period in which the dominance exercised in the Hellenistic age by Stoicism, Epicureanism and Academic Scepticism gave way to a more diverse and experimental philosophical scene. Its development has been much less well understood, but here a strong international team of leading scholars of the subject reconstruct key features of the changed environment. They examine afresh the evidence for some of the central Greek thinkers of the period, as well as illuminating Cicero's engagement with Plato both as translator and in his own philosophising. The intensity of renewed study of Aristotle's Categories and Plato's Timaeus is an especially striking outcome of their discussions. The volume will be indispensable for scholars and students interested in the history of Platonism and Aristotelianism.