Abstract
In this paper, I provide an interpretation of the symploke ton eidon at Soph. 259e. My goal is to show that the specific metaphysical view expressed by the interweaving of forms best accounts for Plato’s explanation of truth and falsehood. In the first section, I introduce the fundamentals of the interpretation of the greatest kinds and their functions. After that, I propose an interpretation of the assertion at 259e, the upshot of which is that the interweaving of forms only deals with extra-linguistic items, that it is related to both truth and meaning of linguistic items, in a very complex way which I aim to explain throughout the paper, and that it never involves sensible particulars. In the second section, I put forward my reading of the Stranger’s description of how logoi are structured and how they work. I pay particular attention to the view that words reveal being when they intertwine to form a statement. In the third section, I interpret the statements concerning Theaetetus. My goal is to advance a new reading of the specific role that kinds and their interweaving play with regard to the truth and falsehood of the statements concerning Theaetetus. The result is the very specific view that the kinds, which are the separated ontological cause of what happens in space and time, are the grounds of both the truth and the meaning of statements.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Francesco Aronadio, Francesco Fronterotta, Federico Maria Petrucci, Pierluigi D’Agostino and Erminia Di Iulio for their support and their helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper. I also thank an anonymous reviewer for pushing me to widen my perspective and better frame my interpretation.
References
Ackrill, J. L. 1965. “Symploke Eidon.” In Studies in Plato’s Metaphysics, edited by R. E. Allen, 199–206. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Ademollo, F. 2015. “Names, Verbs, and Sentences in Ancient Greek Philosophy.” In Linguistic Content. New Essays on the History of Philosophy of Language, edited by M. Cameron, and R. Stainton, 33–54. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198732495.003.0003Search in Google Scholar
Aronadio, F. 2002. Procedure e verità in Platone (Menone Cratilo Repubblica). Napoli: Bibliopolis.Search in Google Scholar
Aronadio, F. 2008. Platone. Cratilo. Roma: Laterza.Search in Google Scholar
Bluck, R. S. 1957. “False Statement in the Sophist.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 77: 181–6, https://doi.org/10.2307/629356.Search in Google Scholar
Bluck, R. S. 1975. Plato’s Sophist, edited by G. C. Neal. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Cavini, W. 2009. “L’ordito e la trama: il Sofista platonico e la tessitura del λόγος.” Dianoia 14: 9–25.Search in Google Scholar
Centrone, B. 2008. Platone. Sofista. Torino: Einaudi.Search in Google Scholar
Centrone, B. 2014. “ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ logica, ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ontologica in Platone.” Méthexis 27: 7–23, https://doi.org/10.1163/24680974-90000630.Search in Google Scholar
Clarke, P. 1994. “The Interweaving of Forms with One Another: Sophist 259e.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 12: 35–62.Search in Google Scholar
Cornford, F. M. 1935. Plato’s Theory of Knowledge. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Crivelli, P. 2012. Plato’s Account of Falsehood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139015004Search in Google Scholar
De Rijk, L. M. 1984. Plato’s Sophist: A Philosophical Commentary. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company.Search in Google Scholar
Di Iulio, E. 2020. “À Rebours: dal Sofista a Parmenide. Platone tra «corrispondenza» e «identità».” Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica 112: 111–25.Search in Google Scholar
Dixsaut, M. 1991. “La négation, le non-être et l’autre dans le Sophiste.” In Étude sur le Sophiste de Platon, publiées sous la direction de P. Aubenque, 165–214. Napoli: Bibliopolis.Search in Google Scholar
Dixsaut, M. 2001. Métamorphoses de la dialectique dans les dialogues de Platon. Paris: Vrin.Search in Google Scholar
Ferrari, F. 2004. Platone. Parmenide. Milan: BUR.Search in Google Scholar
Ferrari, F. 2016. Platone. Menone. Milan: BUR.Search in Google Scholar
Frede, M. 1967. Prädikation und Existenzaussage. Platons Gebrauch von „…ist…“ und „…nicht ist…“ im Sophistes. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Search in Google Scholar
Frede, M. 2006. “The Sophist on False Statements.” In The Cambridge Companion to Plato, edited by R. Kraut, 398–424. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Fronterotta, F. 1995. “L’être et la participation de l’autre: une novelle ontologie dans le Sophiste.” Les Études philosophiques 3: 311–53.Search in Google Scholar
Fronterotta, F. 2007. Platone. Sofista. Milan: BUR.Search in Google Scholar
Fronterotta, F. 2013. “Theaetetus Sits – Theaetetus Flies. Ontology, Predication and Truth in Plato’s Sophist (263a–d).” In Plato’s Sophist Revisited, edited by B. Bossi, and T. M. Robinson, 205–24. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110287134.205Search in Google Scholar
Fronterotta, F. 2019. “Platon sur ONOMA, PHMA et ΛOΓOΣ: théories du ΣHMAINEIN en Sophiste 261d-262e.” Methodos 19: 1–16.10.4000/methodos.5703Search in Google Scholar
Giannantoni, G. 2005. “Dal ti estin socratico all’eidos platonico.” In Dialogo socratico e nascita della dialettica nella filosofia di Platone, edizione postuma a cura di B. Centrone, 313–48. Napoli: Bibliopolis.Search in Google Scholar
Giovannetti, L. 2020. “The Onto-epistemic Nature of Plato’s Forms.” In The Sustainability of Thought. An Itinerary through the History of Philosophy, edited by L. Giovannetti, 45–70. Napoli: Bibliopolis.10.3366/anph.2020.0025Search in Google Scholar
Gómez-Lobo, A. 1977. “Plato’s Description of Dialectic in the Sophist 253d1–e2.” Phronesis 22: 29–47, https://doi.org/10.1163/156852877x00164.Search in Google Scholar
Hamlyn, D. W. 1955. “The Communion of Forms and the Development of Plato’s Logic.” The Philosophical Quarterly 5: 289–302, https://doi.org/10.2307/2217074.Search in Google Scholar
Heinaman, R. E. 1983. “Communion of Forms.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 83: 175–90, https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/83.1.175.Search in Google Scholar
Hestir, B. 2016. Plato on the Metaphysical Foundation of Meaning and Truth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781316450864Search in Google Scholar
Hoekstra, M., and F. Scheppers. 2003. “Ὄνομα, ῥῆμα, et λόγος dans le Cratyle et le Sophiste de Platon. Analyse du lexique et analyse du discours.” L’Antiquité Classique 72: 55–73, https://doi.org/10.3406/antiq.2003.2507.Search in Google Scholar
McDowell, J. 1982. “Falsehood and Not-Being in Plato’s Sophist.” In Language and Logos: Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy Presented to G. E. L. Owen, edited by M. Schofield, and M. Craven Nussbaum, 115–34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511550874.008Search in Google Scholar
Mignucci, M. 1989. “Esistenza e verità nel Sofista di Platone.” Atti dell’Accademia di Scienze Morali e Politiche di Napoli 100: 267–81.Search in Google Scholar
Moravcsik, J. M. E. 1960. “ΣΥΜΠΛΟΚΗ ΕΙΔΩΝ and the Genesis of ΛΟΓΟΣ.” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 42: 117–29, https://doi.org/10.1515/agph.1960.42.2.117.Search in Google Scholar
Moravcsik, J. M. E. 1962. “Being and Meaning in the Sophist.” Acta Philosophica Fennica 14: 23–78.Search in Google Scholar
Noriega-Olmos, S. 2012. “Plato’s Sophist 259e4–6.” Journal of Ancient Philosophy 4/2: 1–35.10.11606/issn.1981-9471.v6i2p1-35Search in Google Scholar
Oberhammer, A. A. 2016. Buchstaben als paradeigma in Platons Spätdialogen. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110465587Search in Google Scholar
O’Brien, D. 2005. “La forma del non essere nel Sofista di Platone.” In Eidos-Idea. Platone, Aristotele e la tradizione platonica, edited by W. Leszl, and F. Fronterotta, 115–60. Sankt Augustin: Academia.Search in Google Scholar
O’Brien, D. 2013. “A Form that ʻIsʼ of What ʻIs Notʼ: Existential Einai in Plato’s Sophist.” In The Platonic Art of Philosophy, edited by G. Boys-Stones, D. El Murr, and C. Gill, 221–48. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139856010.014Search in Google Scholar
Owen, G. E. L. 1971. “Plato on Not-Being.” In Plato. A Collection of Critical Essays, Vol. I, edited by G. Vlastos, 223–67. London: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1007/978-1-349-86203-0_13Search in Google Scholar
Palumbo, L. 1994. Il non essere e l’apparenza. Il Sofista di Platone. Napoli: Loffredo.Search in Google Scholar
Peck, A. L. 1952. “Plato and the MEΓIΣTA ΓENH of the Sophist: A Reinterpretation.” The Classical Quarterly 2: 32–56.10.1017/S000983880000762XSearch in Google Scholar
Peck, A. L. 1962. “Plato’s Sophist: The συμπλοκή τῶν εἰδῶν.” Phronesis 7: 46–66.10.1163/156852862X00034Search in Google Scholar
Rosen, S. 1999. Plato’s Sophist. The Drama of Original and Image. South Bend: St. Augustine’s Press.Search in Google Scholar
Ryle, G. 1965. “Plato’s Parmenides.” In Studies in Plato’s Metaphysics, edited by R. E. Allen, 97–148. London: Routledge.10.1093/mind/XLVIII.190.129Search in Google Scholar
Scott, D. 2006. Plato’s Meno. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511482632Search in Google Scholar
Shields, C. 2013. “The Grounds of Logos: The Interweaving of Forms.” In Reason and Analysis in Ancient Greek Philosophy: Essays in Honor of David Keyt, edited by G. Anagnostopoulos, and F. D. Miller, 221–30. Dordrecht: Springer.10.1007/978-94-007-6004-2_12Search in Google Scholar
Silverman, A. 2002. The Dialectic of Essence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Teisserenc, F. 2007. “Consonnes et voyelles: le fonctions de l’Être e de l’Autre dans le Sophiste de Platon (251a–259e).” Dialogue 46 (2): 231–64, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0012217300001736.Search in Google Scholar
Thomas, C. 2008. “Speaking of Something: Plato’s Sophist and Plato’s Beard.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 38: 631–67, https://doi.org/10.1353/cjp.0.0032.Search in Google Scholar
Trevaskis, J. R. 1967. “Division and Its Relation to Dialectic and Ontology in Plato.” Phronesis 12: 118–29, https://doi.org/10.1163/156852867x00084.Search in Google Scholar
White, N. P. 1993. Plato. Sophist. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.Search in Google Scholar
Wiggins, D. 1971. “Sentence Meaning, Negation and Plato’s Problem of Non-being.” In Plato. A Collection of Critical Essays, Vol. I, edited by G. Vlastos, 268–303. London: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1007/978-1-349-86203-0_14Search in Google Scholar
Zaks, N. 2016. “À quel logos correspond la ΣΥΜΠΛΟΚΗ ΤΩΝ ΕΙΔΩΝ du Sophiste?” Revue de Philosophie Ancienne 34: 37–59, https://doi.org/10.3917/rpha.341.0037.Search in Google Scholar
Zaks, N. 2017. “Science de l’entrelacement des formes, science suprême, science des hommes libres : la dialectique dans le Sophiste 253b–254b.” Elenchos 38 (1–2): 61–81 https://doi.org/10.1515/elen-2017-0004.Search in Google Scholar
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston