Nos mais recentes debates críticos acerca da filosofia de Platão, a doutrina da reminiscência tem suscitado um interesse comparativamente menor em relação aos outros temas tratados na obra do pensador ateniense. Grande parte dos estudiosos modernos tende a considerar a reminiscência um método de pesquisa, bem como a marginalizar a referência a dois mundos e o trânsito da alma entre eles. O que pretendo demonstrar neste artigo é que não só a teoria da reminiscência é a condição de possibilidade necessária (...) das nossas operações cognitivas, como também o é apenas e só em virtude da sua valência metafísica. (shrink)

An Innovating approach to Plato’s philosophy Through a careful survey of several significant Platonic texts, mainly focussing on the nature of knowledge, Essays on Plato’s Epistemology offers the reader a fresh and promising approach to Plato’s philosophy as a whole. From the very earliest reception of Plato’s philosophy, there has been a conflict between a dogmatic and a sceptical interpretation of his work and thought. Moreover, the two sides are often associated, respectively, with a metaphysical and an anti-metaphysical approach. This (...) book, continuing a line of thought that is nowadays strongly present in the secondary literature – and also followed by the author in over thirty years of research –, maintains that a third way of thinking is required. Against the widespread view that an anti-dogmatic philosophy must go together with an anti-metaphysical stance, Trabattoni shows that for Plato, on the contrary, a sober and reasonable assessment of both the powers and limits of human reason relies on a proper metaphysical outlook. (shrink)

This volume gathers an international team of renowned scholars in the fields of ancient greek philosophy, in order to explore the continuous but changing dialogue between Platonism and Aristotelianism from the early imperial age to the end of Antiquity. While most chapters concern Platonists (Philo, Plutarch, Plotinus, Syrianus, Proclus, Damascius, Philoponus), and their uses or criticism of Aristotle's doctrines, several chapters are also devoted to Peripatetic authors (Boethius and mostly Alexander of Aphrodisias) and their attitudes towards Plato's positions. Each of (...) the eleven chapters draws the attention to specific polemical contexts and philosophical problems which made Platonists and Aristotelians unite against common adversaries like the Stoics, or split up, not only in the fields of metaphysics and cosmology, but also in epistemology, psychology and ethics. (shrink)

This article focuses on the Platonic version of the doctrine of oikeiosis set forth by Piso in Cicero’s De finibus, Book V. The article aims to show that: 1) Cicero’s account, while clearly having Stoic features, is also consistent with the eudaemonistic character of Socrates’ and Plato’s ethics; 2) the replacement of oikeiosis with “assimilation to god”, attested in a passage of the Anonymous Commentary on Plato’s Theaetetus, derives from the intent to remove Epicurean egoistic connotations from Plato’s ethics; according (...) to the Anonymous, the Stoic oikeiosis alone would not suffice to attain this purpose. (shrink)

This book aims to provide original solutions to a range of highly debated problems among scholars of Plato's Phaedo, along with an overall interpretation of the dialogue. For each of the topics (or Platonic passages) analysed, the book provides a detailed assessment and discussion of the latest scholarship. On the basis of this approach, From Death to Life: Key Themes in Plato's Phaedo offers partially or widely innovative interpretations (particularly with regard to the knowability of the Forms, "recollection", the doctrine (...) of the soul as a harmony, the problem of causes, and the so-called "second voyage"). This book will undoubtedly spark debate among scholars both in terms of the critical assessment of the theses it proposes and of the objections it raises against alternative interpretations. (shrink)

Dans un travail anterieur j’ai essaye de montrer que Heidegger a finalement refuse de faire place, dans sa philosophie, a la notion platonicienne d’idee, bien qu’elle semblait, selon un certain point de vue, etre une figure capable de representer l’ouverture originelle de l’être qui était au coeur des recherches de Heidegger dans les annees qui entourent Etre et Temps. La raison de cela, a mon avis, est que l’approche aristotelicienne de la philosophie de Platon par Heidegger explicitement adoptee conduisait au (...) bout du compte a interpreter l’idee de Platon comme une substance. Mais qu’en est‑il de l’idee du bien, qui pour sa determination teleologique et pour sa collocation au‑dela de l’ousia d’un cote semblait repondre aux besoins propres a la pensee heideggerienne, et d’un autre cote etait plus refractaire a la substantialisation aristotelicienne? La these que je soutiens est que Heidegger, tout en ayant cultive pour longtemps le projet d’utiliser l’idee du bien comme un precedent important de son ontologie, a finalement decide que ce projet n’etait pas possible, parce que la connotation ethique de cette idee etait largement dominante sur l’aspect ontologique. (shrink)

Il dualismo trascendente / trascendentale come possibile chiave di lettura per una discussione del pensiero platonico.

Poiché nelle Leggi esistono dei passi un cui Platone mostra di apprezzare l'utilità della scrittura, alcuni studiosi hanno pensato che vi sia una certa contraddizione con i noti luoghi del Fedro e della VII Lettera dove Platone privilegia in modo assai netto il discorso orale. In realtà si tratta di una contraddizione solo apparente. Il contrasto oralità/scrittura rappresenta infatti in Platone il contrasto tra un discorso aperto, variabile - dunque funzionale allo scopo di persuadere - e un discorso fisso, rigido, (...) che ripete sempre le stesse cose senza preoccuparsi di convincere chi lo riceve. Ora, tale contrasto appare anche nelle Leggi, e precisamente nel rapporto che esiste tra il proemio alla legge e la legge vera e propria. Il proemio ha infatti lo scopo di promuovere la persuasione, e Platone fa ben capire che si tratta del momento decisivo, perché la legge scritta, se non è preceduta da convinzioni consolidate, ha ben poca utilità e valore. (shrink)