Philosophos: Plato's Missing Dialogue

301 Pages·2015·1.475 MB·English

by  Mary Louise Gill

Philosophos
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Philosophos
’
Plato s Missing Dialogue
Mary Louise Gill
1
3
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Preface
Thisbookhasbeenlonginthemaking,andIhaveincurredmanydebts,heregratefully
acknowledged. Official work on the project began in 1999–2000, when I was a
MemberoftheInstituteforAdvancedStudyinPrinceton,anidealsettingforresearch
and stimulating discussion. I initially conceived the project as an investigation into
Plato’s later metaphysics in dialogues responding to the critique of forms in
the Parmenides—a dialogue I had studied intensively in connection with an earlier
book—but changed course that year, because the investigation of knowledge in the
TheaetetuscametoseemmoreimportantthantheParmenidesforunderstandingPlato’s
later metaphysics and method. The final project returns to something close to the
original conception, now combined with the second, with a focus on the Parmenides
andtheseriesofdialoguesTheaetetus,Sophist,andStatesmanculminatingintheprom-
ised but missing Philosopher. I profited from an NEH Summer Stipend (2004) and a
rewardingyearattheRadcliffeInstituteforAdvancedStudyatHarvard(2005–6),and
theseawardsenabledmetocompleteafirstfulldraftofthebook.Thebookgainedits
currentshapeonlygraduallyintheyearssince.Iamgratefultothoseinstitutionsforthe
precious time and resources to read, think, and write, and to the University of
Pittsburgh for granting me two terms of research leave and to Brown University for
grantingmefoursuchterms.
Mydebtsgobacklongbefore1999toG.E.L.Owen’sclassesonPlatointhelate
1970sinCambridge,especiallyhislecturesonPlato’sSophistandagraduateseminaron
thesecondpartoftheParmenides.Owen’sfascinationwiththeseworkswasinfectious,
and the clarity and rigor of his writings continues to be a model for me. I take this
opportunitytothankhim.
Versions of parts of the book have been presented in many venues since 1999.
IthanktheparticipantsinagraduateseminarattheUniversityofPittsburghandinmy
undergraduateandgraduateclassesonPlato atBrown fortheir perceptive comments
and questions. I gave papers and seminars related to the project at the American
PhilosophicalAssociation, University of Arizona, Brown,University of Connecticut,
University of California at Berkeley and Davis, City University of New York,
Dartmouth College, Harvard, Lehigh, University of Michigan, University of Notre
Dame,UniversityofPittsburgh,Princeton,StCloudState,SaintLouis,Universityof
South Carolina, Stanford, University of Texas at Austin, University of Toronto,
Wesleyan, Williams College, and Yale; and abroad at conferences in Barcelona,
Chania, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, and Prague. I am grateful for the feedback at
all those events, and especially thank Eric Brown, Dimitri El Murr, Rachel Singpur-
walla, and my late friend and colleague, Steven Strange, for their challenging
vi PREFACE
commentsonfourofthoseoccasions.Mostvaluablefortheprojectasawholewasthe
opportunity to give five seminars at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon–Sorbonne in
thespring2010.Ithankmyhosts,DimitriElMurrandAnnickJaulin,fororganizing
myvisitandentertainingmesowell.
IalsothankDimitriElMurrfordetailedwrittencommentsontheIntroduction
andChapter1,SandraPetersononChapter2,JohnMalcolmonpapersdealingwith
the Theaetetus and Sophist, Jan Szaif on papers dealing with the Theaetetus and
Philebus, Devin Henry on papers treating division in the Sophist, Statesman, and
Philebus, and Scott Berman on a paper pertaining to Chapter 7. I profited from
numerous discussions about Plato with my colleagues Alan Boegehold, Justin
Broackes, David Konstan, Fernando Muniz, and Joshua Schechter. I am grateful
to Christine Thomas for her advice on the whole project, and to Paul Ryan for
comments on the whole and for on-going advice and discussion, especially about
technicalmattersofGreek.
I owe special thanks to Seana McNamara for her beautiful and innovative
cover design “Knots,” and to Robert Howton for his conceptual insight and
expertise in rendering the Figures in Chapters 5 and 6. Over the years I have
profited from stimulating discussions about Plato with David Berger and Heike
Sefrin-Weis. Nicolas Bommarito prepared the Index of Names; Eric LaPointe and
Allison Kemmerle developed preliminary drafts of the Index Locorum and gave
me helpful comments on the manuscript. Many students have raised penetrating
objections, forcing me to rethink and rewrite, including Derek Bowman, Thomas
Fisher, Daniel Hagen, Randall Rose, and members of the Working Groups in
Ancient Philosophy at Berkeley (2005) and Yale (2007). I thank Sara Kramer for
helping me start the abstracts. My debts to individuals for particular points are
recorded in the notes.
Peter Momtchiloff, my editor at Oxford, generously solicited four sets of reader’s
reports—two at the time the book was accepted, and two more after I revised the
manuscriptinlightofthefirstreports.Oneofthefinalpairofrefereesrevealedherself
as Constance Meinwald, and I am delighted to be able to thank her by name. I am
gratefultoherandtheotherreadersforOxfordUniversityPressfortheirconstructive
criticismsandsuggestions,allofwhichIhavetriedtoaddress.Ialsothankthemembers
of the Oxford production staff for their patience and expert guidance, and Aimee
McDermottforhertimelyassistancewiththeproofs.
Thanks to the following presses and editors for permission to use my previously
published work: Hackett Publishing Company; Franz Steiner Verlag; Edward Zalta,
editoroftheStanfordEncyclopediaofPhilosophy;GretchenReydams-Schils,editorofthe
JournaloftheInternationalPlatoSociety;AcademiaVerlag;andOxfordUniversityPress.
DetailsaregiveninWorksCited.Forabbreviationsoftitlesofancienttextscited,see
theIndexLocorum.
My greatest thanks go to Paul Coppock, who read the whole manuscript at three
different stages and gave me comments both global (on structuring the project) and
PREFACE vii
particular,catchingmanyerrors.HeisresponsibleforpreliminaryworkontheGeneral
Index and for the photo of me on the dust jacket. Most important have been our
discussions over the years, which have helped me think through philosophical pro-
blemsrelevanttoPlato.
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Contents
Introduction 1
1 TheMissingDialogue 1
2 PortraitofthePhilosopher 6
3 PuzzleofthePhilosopher 13
1. FormsinQuestion 18
1.1 Socrates’TheoryofFormsintheParmenides 19
1.2 Parmenides’Critique 27
1.3 AWorldwithoutForms 43
2. APhilosophicalExercise 45
2.1 PlanoftheExerciseinParmenidesPartII 47
2.2 ThePositiveHypothesis 57
2.3 TheFirstAntinomy 62
2.4 InstantofChange 64
2.5 TheSecondAntinomy 65
2.6 SummaryofthePositiveHypothesis 69
2.7 RetrospectiveoftheExercise 70
2.8 BeingandParticipation 72
3. TheContestbetweenHeraclitusandParmenides 76
3.1 TheParmenideanThreadintheTheaetetus 78
3.2 HeracliteanPerceptionanditsObjects 81
3.3 ParmenideanPerceptionanditsObjects 86
3.4 ParmenidesonNot-BeingandBeingintheSophist 92
3.5 BattleoftheGodsandGiants 95
4. KnowledgeasExpertise 101
4.1 PrologueoftheTheaetetus 103
4.2 DefinitionofClay 104
4.3 LimitsofPerception 107
4.4 TrueJudgment 120
4.5 ElementsandComplexes 125
4.6 Accounts 127
4.7 KnowledgeandTrueBelief 131
5. AppearancesoftheSophist 138
5.1 TheAnglerandtheSophist 139
5.2 PuzzleoftheSophist 145
5.3 GreatKinds 149