Ignorance, Shame and Love of Truth
Diagnosing the Sophist's Error in Plato's Sophist
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3940032 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Micah Lott (0000-0002-5919-7640, corresponding author), Micah Lott Micah Lott |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 66 |
| Issue | 1/2 |
| Pages | 36 |
| Publication date | 2012-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Phoenix (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.7834/phoenix.66.1-2.0036 |
| OpenAlex | W2386835336 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 6 |
In the past several decades, philosophers have shown substantial interest in Plato’s dialogue the Sophist. Much of this interest has focused on the sections of the dialogue which provide an account of being and not-being, and of true and false speech. The sixth definition of the sophist, however, which is developed at 226b–231e, has received less attention. Moreover, there have been even fewer sustained attempts to connect the sixth definition of the sophist to the final definition of the sophist given at the end of the dialogue. According to the sixth definition, the sophist is a soul-cleanser, and his expertise lies in refuting people in order to cleanse them of a false belief in their own wisdom. It is the thesis of this paper that the sixth definition sheds important light on the final definition. More specifically, the sixth definition helps us to grasp more precisely the nature and cause of the sophist’s error—namely, that the sophist has a disguised disregard for the truth, and this disregard is rooted in the sophist’s concern for protecting his own status as one who is thought to be a wise person. Understanding the sophist’s error enables us not only to grasp a key part of the dialogue’s final account of the sophist, but also to appreciate more fully the dialogue’s subtle portrayal of the attitudes and emotions involved in the search for truth. In particular, the sixth definition helps us to see how the sophist forms a kind of exception to the principle, laid down at 228c, that “no soul is willingly ignorant of anything.” The sophist is willingly ignorant
Art · Epistemology · Ignorance · Literature · Shame · Sophist · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Families in Therapy and Culture · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Psychology · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,38 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2021 (4) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |