Lifelong Studies in Love With Plato

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Cover Contents How Plato writes 1. Some examples 2. The reasons for this approach 3. The problem of writing 4. The writing as “game” 5. The Seventh Letter 6. Conclusion The Platonic Philosophy as Dialectic 1. How Plato comes to the doctrine of the Ideas and Principles in the Phaedo 2. Parmenides 3. One important consequence 4. Ontological justification 5. Conclusion Plato: The knowledge of the unstable reality A. First premise. The reasons for the crisis of truth B. Second premise. The multifocal approach to knowledge 1. The sense perception 2. The central role of the soul 3. The necessity and insufficiency of the various ways of knowledge 4. Doxa 5. To know a complex reality 6. The basis of knowledge Are there any “youthful” and/or socratic dialogues? Some reflections on the Apology of Socrates 1. The order of the dialogues 2. The “youthful” dialogues 3. The Apology The charge The gods Socrates’ defence Post-eventum prophecies Platonic elements The contrast between different ways of life 4. Conclusion The Phaedrus Polyphonic Structure 1. A paradoxical situation 2. Introductory elements for reading the dialogue 3. The structure of the dialogue 4. The dominant motif: the technique of oral and written communication and the responsibility of the teacher 5. The central theme of the dialogue: the true between philosophy and mania 6. The most important theme: the soul and the relationship between man and God 7. Conclusion The Statesman explains adequately the role of laws in Plato 1. Some preliminary remarks 2. The politeia in the Republic 3. The help of the Laws 4. The Statesman 5. Law and Politician 6. Pessimism of the intelligence, optimism of the will A Hermeneutic Paradigm for the History of Ancient Philosophy: the Multifocal Approach 1. A peculiar situation 2. A different choice and its implications 3. The emergence of the multifocal approach The sophists’ contribution The Platonic experience Aristotelian developments 4. The contemporary value of this view of ancient philosophy Historiographical Reading and Theoretical Reworking. An Underestimated Distinction 1. Premise 2. The underlying problem 3. Two different hermeneutics The theoretician’s problem The problem of historian and theoretician Some differences between the two hermeneutics First conclusion 4. The problem of method The impossibility of a pure reduplication of thought The alleged univocity of the text An excessive disapproval The inability of fixing the method A clarification on the actual situation 5. The possible objectivity The issue of the reader The issue of the author A short excursus on Plato The necessary rigorousness on the topic of presuppositions 6. A hypothesis on method The whole and the part Context and literature Ancient Philosophy 7. Conclusions Bibliography Index of ancient names Index of modern authors Index of the passages cited in extended form