Ancient Philosophy
Module Code: PI4024
Module Name: Plato: Dialectician or Visionary?
- ECTS Weighting: 5
- Semester/Term Taught: Hilary Term
- Contact Hours: 22 hours of lecture
- Module Personnel: Lecturer – Professor Vasilis Politis
Module Content
It is generally supposed that, for Plato, the highest knowledge that we aspire to, and may be capable of, is the knowledge of the essence of things that is spelled out in a general definition – it being the task of dialectic, in Plato's sense of the term, to search for this. Such knowledge consists in knowing the truth of certain kinds of propositions, those that articulate general definitions; it is, therefore, propositional knowledge.
This view of Plato was not always as orthodox as it is today, and it has come under renewed criticism in the past decade or so. Those who challenge it come in two varieties. Some argue that (at least in the early dialogues) Plato did not think it is possible for us to attain knowledge of the essence of things, and that this is what he intended us to recognise. We may call their Plato: 'Plato–the–Sceptic'.
Others, however, while holding on to the view that, for Plato, knowledge of essence is what we need to aim at, argue that this knowledge is not propositional but in some way intuitive. This means that the essence is something we must try to grasp directly, in the way in which vision is naturally thought to be direct and non–propositional or certainly non–rational; though, for Plato, this intuitive knowledge is not simply sensory – my cat, excellent eyesight though it has, is not capable of anything like it. Their Plato is, as we may say: 'Plato–the–Visionary' – or, as people used to say, 'The Mystic'.
The aim of the seminar is to take up the debate between Plato–the–Demander–of–Definitions and Plato–the–Visionary. A major objective will be to consider the very idea of intuitive knowledge, and the analogy between sensory and intellectual intuitive knowledge. And to consider how such knowledge may be related to propositional knowledge.
To address this topic we will need to study closely some of the most fascinating passages in the Platonic corpus; especially from the central books of the Republic (V – VII): the Sun Analogy; the Line; the Cave; and the account of dialectic.