What is Socrates’ hypothesis? A proposal for reading Men. 97e2-98b5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_33_13Keywords:
Plato, Meno, knowledge, recollection, aitias logismosAbstract
Recently, some scholars have authoritatively claimed the idea that Men. 97e2-98b5 is a strong criticism of any epistemological perspective based on an additive model of knowledge, in which knowledge is conceived as a form of opinion with the addition of something else. In this article I try to show that Plato's aim is not to criticize this model of knowledge but to pose, in the form of a hypothesis which has to be verified in other texts, the main problem of his epistemology: is the logos, or rather the aitias logismos, able to bind opinions so firmly together that they are transformed into that kind of infallible knowledge that is the episteme? In order to justify this interpretation of Men. 97e2-98b5, I try to provide a new reading of the meaning of the relationship between this passage of the dialogue and some topics exposed in the previous sections of the text (such as the maieutic experiment to which Socrates subjects Meno's slave, the Recollection doctrine and the method by hypothesis).
Downloads
References
ARONADIO, F. (2002). Procedure e verità in Platone (Menone, Cratilo, Repubblica). Napoli, Bibliopolis.
BEDU-ADDO, J.D. (1984). Recollection and the argument from a hypothesis in Plato’s Meno’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 104, p. 1- 14.
BENSON, H. (2015). Clitophon’s Challenge. Dialectic in Plato’s ‘Meno’, ‘Phaedo’, and ‘Republic’. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
BLUCK, R.S. (ed.) (1961). Plato’s Meno. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
BONAZZI, M. (ed.) (2010). Platone. Menone. Torino, Einaudi.
BONELLI, M. (2014). Leggere il ‘Fedone’ di Platone. Roma, Carocci.
BRANCACCI, A. (2002). La determinazione dell’eidos nel Menone. Wiener Studein 115, p. 59-78.
BRISSON, L. (2007). La réminiscence dans le Ménon. In: ERLER, M.; BRISSON, L. (eds.). Gorgias-Menon. Selected Papers from the Seventh Symposium Platonicum. Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag, p. 199-203.
CASERTANO, G. (2007). Paradigmi della verità in Platone. Roma, Editori Riuniti.
CELLUCCI, C. (2012). Dialogando con Platone, su conoscenza e metodo. In: CHIARADONNA, R. (ed.), Il platonismo e le scienze. Roma, Carocci, p. 45-64.
CHIESA, C. (2011) La réfutation socratique et la méthode hypothétique. In: LONGO, A. (ed.), Argument from Hypothesis in Ancient Philosophy. Napoli, Bibliopolis, p. 75-93.
DIXAUT, M. (2001). Métamorphoses de la dialectique dans les dialogues de Platon. Vrin, Paris.
EBERT, T. (2007). The theory of recollection in Plato’s Meno: against a myth of Platonic scholarship. In: ERLER, M.; BRISSON, L. (eds.), Gorgias-Menon. Selected Papers from the Seventh Symposium Platonicum, Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag, p.184- 198.
EBERT, T. (2018). Platon. ‘Menon’, übersetzt und Kommentar. Berlin-Boston, De Gruyter.
EL MURR, D. (2013), Desmos et logos: de l’opinion vrai à la connaissance (Ménon 97E-98A et Théétète 201C-210B). In : EL MURR, D. (éd.), La mesure du savoir. Études sur le Théétète de Platon. Paris, Vrin, p. 151-171.
FERRARI, F. (2007). La transizione epistemica. In: ERLER, M.; BRISSON, L. (eds.), Gorgias-Menon. Selected Papers from the Seventh Symposium Platonicum, Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag, p. 290-296.
FERRARI, F. (2013) L’interpretazione del Teeteto e la natura dell’epistemologia platonica. Alcune osservazioni. Elenchos 34, 399- 422.
FERRARI, F. (ed.) (2016). Platone. Menone. Milano, BUR. FERRARI, F. (2020a). Evento o condizione? Anamnesis e innatismo a partire dal Menone. Rivista di Storia della Filosofia 75, p. 1-24. FERRARI, F. (2020b). Anamnesis e syngeneia: a proposito di Menone, 81c-d, Plato Journal 20, p.127-135
FINCK, F. (2007). Platons Begründung der Seele im absoluten Denken. Berlin-New York, de Gruyter.
FINE, G. (2014). The Possibility of Inquiry: Meno’s Paradox from Socrates to Sextus. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
FRONTEROTTA, F. (2007).The development of Plato’s Theory of Ideas and the ‘Socratic Question.’ Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 32, 2007, p. 37-62.
IONESCU, C. (2007). Plato’s Meno. An interpretation. Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
KAHN, C. (2006). Plato on Recollection. In: BENSON, H. (ed.), A companion to Plato. Oxford, Blackwell, p. 119-132.
KLEIN, J. (1965). A commentary on Plato’s Meno. Chapel Hill, North Carolina University Press.
LEE, S.-I. (2000). Platons Anamnesis in den frühen und mittleren Dialogen. Zur Metapher des vorgeburtlichen Lernens oder Erkennens. Antike und Abendland 46, p. 93-115.
MAFFI, E. (2014). Lo spazio della filosofia. Una lettura del ‘Teeteto’ di Platone. Napoli, Loffredo.
MAFFI, E. (2020). Eἶδος, ἰδέα, παράδειγμα: osservazioni sulla natura del Santo in Eutifrone 6d-10e. Methexis XXXII, 2020, p. 1-25.
MARTINELLI TEMPESTA, S. (2000). Alcune considerazioni su Platone, Menone, 98a3, (αἰτίας λογισμῷ). Acme 53, p. 3-18.
PETRUCCI, F. (2011). Opinione corretta, conoscenza, virtù. Su Menone 96d1-98b9. Elenchos 32, p. 229-261.
SCOTT, D. (2006). Plato’s Meno. Cambridge, CUP.
SEDLEY, D. (1998). Platonic Causes. Phronesis 43, p. 114-132.
SEDLEY, D. (2004). The Midwife of Platonism. Text and Subtext in Plato’s ‘Theaetetus’. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
SEDLEY, D.; LONG, A. (eds.) (2011), Plato. The ‘Meno’ and the ‘Phaedo’, Cambridge, CUP.
SZLEZAK, Th. A. (2007). ‘ἅτε γὰρ τῆς φύσεως ἁπάσης συγγενοῦς οὔσης (Men. 81c9-d11). Die Implikationen der Verwandtschaft der gesamten Natur’, In: ERLER, M.; BRISSON, L. (eds.), Gorgias- Menon. Selected Papers from the Seventh Symposium Platonicum, Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag, p. 333-344.
TRABATTONI, F. (ed.) (2011). Platone. Fedone. Torino, Einaudi. TRABATTONI, F. (2016). Essays on Plato’s Epistemology, Leuven, Leuven University Press.
TRABATTONI, F. (2020). La filosofia di Platone. Verità e ragione umana. Roma, Carocci.
VLASTOS, G. (1965). Anamnesis in the Meno. Dialogue 4, p. 143-67.
WEISS, R. (2001), Virtue in the Cave. Moral Inquiry in Plato’s Meno. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Emanuele Maffi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Given the public access policy of the journal, the use of the published texts is free, with the obligation of recognizing the original authorship and the first publication in this journal. The authors of the published contributions are entirely and exclusively responsible for their contents.
1. The authors authorize the publication of the article in this journal.
2. The authors guarantee that the contribution is original, and take full responsibility for its content in case of impugnation by third parties.
3. The authors guarantee that the contribution is not under evaluation in another journal.
4. The authors keep the copyright and convey to the journal the right of first publication, the work being licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License-BY.
5. The authors are allowed and stimulated to publicize and distribute their work on-line after the publication in the journal.
6. The authors of the approved works authorize the journal to distribute their content, after publication, for reproduction in content indexes, virtual libraries and similars.
7. The editors reserve the right to make adjustments to the text and to adequate the article to the editorial rules of the journal.