The Structure of Enquiry in Plato's Early Dialogues

Bibliographic Data

ID23133142
AuthorsVasilis Politis (0000-0002-2396-481X, Trinity College Dublin, corresponding author)
Year2015
Publication date2015-03-31
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueStructure of Enquiry in Plato's Early Dialogues (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9781107705746
OpenAlexW1193695552
Open LibraryOL34558214M
ISBN9781107705746
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited64

This book proposes and defends a radically new account of Plato's method of argument and enquiry in his early dialogues. Vasilis Politis challenges the traditional account according to which these dialogues are basically about the demand for definitions, and questions the equally traditional view that what lies behind Plato's method of argument is a peculiar theory of knowledge. He argues that these dialogues are enquiries set in motion by dilemmas and aporiai, incorporating both a sceptical and an anti-sceptical dimension, and he contends that Plato introduces the demand for definitions, and the search for essences, precisely in order to avoid a sceptical conclusion and hold out the prospect that knowledge can be achieved. His argument will be of great value to all readers interested in Plato's dialogues and in methods of philosophical argument more generally.

Argument (complex analysis) · Dimension (graph theory) · Economics · Epistemology · Order (exchange) · Set (abstract data type) · Skepticism · Value (mathematics) · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Computer Science · Historical Philosophy and Science · Mathematics · Medicine · Philosophy · Ancient & Classical · Dialogues · Dialogues (Plato) · History & Surveys · Plato

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