Form And Good In Platos Eleatic Dialogues: The Parmenides, Theatetus, Sophist, And Statesman

Preparing link to download Please wait... Download

E-Book Overview

In this innovative analysis, Plato's four eleatic dialogues are treated as a continuous argument. In Kenneth Dorter's view, Plato reconsiders the theory of forms propounded in his earlier dialogues and through an examination of the theory's limitations reaffirms and proves it essential. Contradicted are both those philosophers who argue that Plato espoused his theory of forms uncritically and those who argue that Plato in some sense rejected the theory and moved toward the categorical analysis developed byAristotle. Dorter's reexamination of Plato's insights implies an important new direction for modern philosophical inquiry.

E-Book Content

Form and Good in Plato's Eleatic Dialogues The Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman Kenneth Dorter UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford For more e-books plea se contact me:D Sociology,philosophy, history... [email protected] Preface The four dialogues examined here form a natural group with sequential concerns. Since the aim of the present study is to try to understand the group as a whole, I have sacrificed the advantage of greater detail that book-length commentaries would provide, in order to present a more synoptic picture. But although the treatment of individual dialogues will not be as extensively detailed as in book-length studies, I have tried to pay careful attention both to the conceptual arguments and to the dramatic and literary events, and have tried to ensure that the lessening of detail would not mean a lessening of attentiveness. I call this group of dialogues Eleatic, as a convenient inclusive term, even though the term is only indirectly applicable to the Theaetetus . Unlike the other three dialogues, the Theaetetus is conducted neither by Par