The Metaphysics of Personhood in Plato's Dialogues

220 Pages·2017·0.97 MB·English

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Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy Philosophy
2017
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Daniel T. Sheffler
University of Kentucky, [email protected]
Author ORCID Identifier:
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9308-2679
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.142
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Sheffler, Daniel T., "The Metaphysics of Personhood in Plato's Dialogues" (2017). Theses and
Dissertations--Philosophy. 16.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/philosophy_etds/16
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Dr. David Bradshaw, Major Professor
Dr. Clare Batty, Director of Graduate Studies
THEMETAPHYSICSOFPERSONHOODINPLATO’SDIALOGUES
DISSERTATION
Adissertationsubmi(cid:308)edinpartialfulfillment
oftherequirementsforthedegreeofDoctorofPhilosophy
intheCollegeofArtsandSciences
attheUniversityofKentucky
By
D.T.Sheffler
Director: Dr. DavidBradshaw,ProfessorofPhilosophy
LexingtonKentucky
Copyright©D.T.Sheffler2017
ABSTRACTOFDISSERTATION
THEMETAPHYSICSOFPERSONHOODINPLATO’SDIALOGUES
While most scholars know, or think they know, what Plato says about the
soul, there is less certainty regarding what he says about the self. Some scholars
even assert that the ancient Greeks did not possess the concepts of self or person.
This dissertation sets out to examine those passages throughout Plato’s dialogues
that most clearly require some notion of the self or the person, and by doing so
to clarify the logical lineaments of these concepts as they existed in fourth century
Athens. Because Plato wrote dialogues, I restrict myself to analyzing the concepts
of self and person as they appear in the mouths of various Platonic characters and
refrainfromspeculatingwhetherPlatohimselfendorseswhathischaracterssay. In
spiteofthisrestriction,Ifindanumberofstrikingideasthatsetthestageforfurther
philosophical development. After an introductory chapter, in Chapters 2 and 3 I
arguethattheidentificationofthepersonwiththesoulandtheidentificationofthe
humanbeingwiththecompositeofsoulandbodymakepossibleaconceptualsplit
betweenpersonandhumanbeing. InChapter4,Iarguethatthetripartiteaccount
ofthesoulsuggestsanidealidentificationofthepersonwiththerationalaspectof
the soul rather than the lower aspects of one’s psychology. Finally, in Chapter 5
I argue that the analogical link between rationality in us and the rational order of
thecosmosleadstotheconclusionthatthetrueselfis,insomesense,divine.
KEYWORDS:Plato,Platonism,self,person,personhood
D.T.Sheffler
April17,2017
THEMETAPHYSICSOFPERSONHOODINPLATO’SDIALOGUES
By
D.T.Sheffler
Dr. DavidBradshaw
DissertationDirector
Dr. ClareBa(cid:308)y
DirectorofGraduateStudies
April17,2017
ForRose
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IamespeciallygratefultotoDavidBradshawforagreeingtoactasmyadvi-
soronthisproject. Hehasundoubtedlyputmorehoursthananyoneelseintohelp-
ingmecompleteitandpushingmetowardexcellenceindoingso. Iamalsograteful
toEricSandayforhisinvaluablecoursesonPlato,whereIlearnedtoread,andfor
agreeingtoserveonmycommi(cid:308)ee. TimothySundelltaughtmemorethananyone
elseaboutanalyticphilosophyandencouragedmetothinkrigorouslyaboutlogic.
Robert Rabel taught me to love Greek poetry and I will never forget the enthusi-
asmwithwhichhemarchedusthroughtheArgonautica. Iwouldalsoliketothank
Keith Buhler and Eric Peterson for being kind fellow travelers through graduate
school. Outside the academy, I am profoundly grateful to my wife, Rose, for her
love, friendship, support, and comfort. Writing this dissertation would not have
been possible apart from the beautiful culture that my parents and extended fam-
ily have created around me all my life. Finally, I would like to thank Jack Luckey
andBillyHendersonforteachingmewhatitmeanstolovewisdomandimparting
someoftheirstome.
iii
TableofContents
Acknowledgments iii
1 PreviousScholarship,Terminology,andMethod 1
1.1 PreviousScholarshiponGreekThoughtAboutthePerson . . . . . . 2
1.2 PreviousScholarshiponPlato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3 CoreConcepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.4 Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.5 DivisionofChaptersandSelectionofTexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2 Body,Soul,andSelf 32
2.1 Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.2 Alcibiades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.3 SoulasSubjectattheBeginningofthe Phaedo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.4 UsandHumansintheRecollectionandKinshipArguments . . . . . 57
2.5 ThePollutedversustheIdealSelf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.6 HistoricallyAvailableNotions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3 AfterlifeandMetempsychosis 74
3.1 IfYouCanCatchMe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.2 CapabilityandIntelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.3 TheMythoftheGorgias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.4 TheMythofthePhaedo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
3.5 TheMythofEr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
3.6 TheMythofthePhaedrus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4 Tripartition 115
4.1 Self-Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.2 ExplainingInternalConflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
4.3 TheHumanBeingWithin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
4.4 WhatSurvives? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
4.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
5 ΝοῦςandtheDivineinUs 154
5.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
iv
5.2 Divinityand Νοῦςinthe Timaeus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
5.3 DivineΝοῦςinthe Philebus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
5.4 OurDivinityinthe Phaedrus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
5.5 Self-KnowledgeandtheDivineinthe Alcibiades . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Bibliography 206
Vita 209
v
Chapter1
PreviousScholarship,Terminology,andMethod
AnyonewhohastheleastfamiliaritywiththephilosophyofPlatowillhaveheard
somethingorotheraboutthesoul. Theliteratureonthetripartitetheoryofthesoul
alone runs to many thousands of pages. Many undergraduate students will have
some notion, more or less vague, that Socrates preaches an opposition between
bodyandsoulbeforehedies. Despitetheeasewithwhichwespeakaboutthesoul
in Plato’s dialogues, however, we may find it rather difficult to speak about the
self. WemayintelligiblyaskwhetherallthethingsSocratessaysabouthissoulare
thingshewouldsayabouthimself. Beforewecananswerthisquestionandengage
in the serious business of working out Plato’s theory of the person or the self, we
mustconfrontatrickyhistoricalproblem. Ononeinterpretationofintellectualhis-
tory the concept of the self or the person only arises within the context of modern,
especiallypost-Cartesian,thought. Onanotherinterpretationofthishistory,these
concepts come from Christian theological reflection. Both interpretations pose a
difficult problem for the scholar who wishes to work out Plato’s theory of the self,
since it may be that such a scholar would simply be searching in vain, anachronis-
ticallyimposingupontextsaconceptthatwouldbeforeigntotheirauthor. Hence,
anysuchinterpretiveprojectmustfirstaskwhethertheseconceptsareavailableto
1