Plato's Second Best Method

Review of Metaphysics 39 (3):455 - 482 (1986)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

AT PHAEDO 96A-C Plato portrays Socrates as describing his past study of "the kind of wisdom known as περὶ φυσέως ἱστορία." At 96c-97b, Socrates says that this study led him to realize that he had an inadequate understanding of certain basic concepts which it involved. In consequence, he says at 97b, he abandoned this method and turned to a method of his own. But at this point in the dialogue, instead of proceeding immediately to describe his method, Plato has him interjecting a complaint concerning Anaxagoras and his view that everything should be explained in terms of Mind. His complaint is that Mind would order things in the best possible way and that, therefore, an account of things in terms of Mind would amount to showing that they are ordered in the best possible way. But Anaxagoras did not show this and, instead, offered other kinds of explanations of the various phenomena. Socrates is not just criticizing Anaxagoras here for not doing what he set out to do; he makes it clear, for example at 99b-c, that he believes that the best kind of explanation of the phenomena would be to show that they are ordered in the best possible way. But he was unable to discover an explanation of this kind, either for himself or from others, and so turned to a method which he calls "second best". The actual description of this method is contained in two passages, 99e5-100a7 and 101d5-e1. Between these passages, Socrates invokes the doctrine of Forms and, in particular, the formula.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Plato's Method of Division.S. Marc Cohen - 1973 - In J. M. E. Moravcsik (ed.), Patterns in Plato's Thought. Reidel. pp. 181--191.
Recollection and the Mathematician's Method in Plato's Meno.E. Landry - 2012 - Philosophia Mathematica 20 (2):143-169.
Plato's method of dialectic.Julius Stenzel - 1940 - New York,: Arno Press. Edited by D. J. Allan.
Plato's method meets cognitive science.Stephen Stich - 2001 - Free Inquiry 21 (2):36-38.
The Role of the Earlier Speeches in the "Symposium": Plato's Endoxic Method?Frisbee C. C. Sheffield - 2006 - In James H. Lesher, Debra Nails & Frisbee Candida Cheyenne Sheffield (eds.), Plato's Symposium: Issues in Interpretation and Reception. Harvard University Press.
Dialogue and Dialectic.David Evans - 2007 - The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 10:61-65.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-05-29

Downloads
28 (#490,139)

6 months
4 (#319,344)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

William W. Tait
University of Chicago

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references