The Sophist Dialogue as a Not-Allegorical Recreation of the Cave’s Image
Keywords:
Allegory of the cave, Sophist, education, politics, appearancesAbstract
The purpose of this paper is to show that the Sophist dialogue can be read as a not-allegorical recreation of the cave’s image found in Republic VII. Through a parallel reading of both texts, we will try to prove that this late work systematically recreates not only the successive phases of the said Socratic image, but also parts of its vocabulary, its ontological classifications, its pedagogical interests and even its practical and political
commitments. This reading will lead us both to clarify some unclear senses of an image such as the Allegory’s (that, being an outline, leaves much unsaid) and to read the Sophist dialogue, whose unity has been questioned, as a whole, while evidencing some dimensions of the dialogue overlooked by the interpreters.
References
Adam, J. (1902). The Republic of Plato. Cambridge: CUP.
Annas, J. (1981). An Introduction to Plato’s Republic. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Barney, R. (2010). Platonic ring-composition and Republic 10. En McPherran, M. (ed.), Plato’s Republic. A Critical Guide (pp. 32-51). Cambridge: CUP.
Brown, E. (2000). Justice and Compulsion for Plato’s Philosopher-Rulers. Ancient Philosophy, 20, 1-17. Doi: 10.5840/ancientphil200020111
Brunschwig, J. (2004). Revisiting Plato’s Cave. En Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, 19, 145–177. Leiden: Brill.
Burnyeat, M. (1999). Culture and Society in Plato’s Republic. The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, 20, 215–324.
Campese, S. (2003). La Caverna. In Vegetti, M. (ed.), Platone. La Repubblica. Vol. V, (pp. 435-72). Napoli: Bibliopolis.
Cartledge, P. (1997). Deep Plays: Theatre as Process in Greek Civic Life. En Easterling, P. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, (pp. 3-35). Cambridge: CUP.
Chantraine, P. (1968-1999). Dictionnaire étymologique de la Langue Grecque. Histoire des mots. Paris: Klincksieck.
Chen, L. (1992). Acquiring Knowledge of the Ideas. Phaedo, Symposium and the Central Book of the Republic. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.
Cordero, N. (1988). Platón. El Sofista. Madrid: Gredos.
Cordero, N. (1993). Platon, Le Sophiste. Paris: Flammarion.
Cordero, N. (2021). Acerca del Sofista de Platón. Parerga, 3, 7-49. Recuperado de: https://www.academia.edu/70284691/Acerca_del_Sofista_de_Plat%C3%B3n
Cornford, F. (1935). Plato’s Theory of Knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Cotton, A. (2014). Platonic Dialogue and the Education of the Reader. Oxford: OUP.
Crombie, I. (1962). An examination of Plato’s doctrines. 1. Plato on man and society. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Cross, R. and Woozley, A. (1964). Plato’s Republic: A Philosophical Commentary. New York: St. Martin’s Press Inc. de Luise, F. and Farinetti, G. (1998). “Infelicità degli archontes e felicità della polis.” En Vegetti, M. (ed.), La Repubblica. Traduzione e commento a cura di M. V., (pp. 107-150). Napoli: Bibliopolis.
Destrée, P. (2012). Spectacles from Hades. On Plato’s Myths and Allegories in the Republic. En Collobert, C., Destrée, P. and Gonzalez, F. (eds), Plato and Myth: Studies on the Use and Status of Platonic Myths, (pp. 109-26). Leiden: Brill.
Dixsaut, M. (2000). Images du philosophe. Kleos, 4, 191-248.
Dorter, K. (2006). The Transformation of Plato’s Republic. New York: Lexington Book.
Eggers Lan, C. (1988). Platón, República. Madrid: Gredos.
El Murr, D. (2016). Logique ou dialectique? La puissance normative de la division platonicienne. En Gourinat, J-B. and Lemaire, J. (eds.), Logique et dialectique dans l’Antiquité, (pp. 107-33). Paris: Vrin.
Ferguson, A. (1921). Plato’s Simile of Light Part I. Classical Quarterly, 15, 131-152.
Ferguson, A. (1922). Plato’s Simile of Light, Part 2. Classical Quarterly, 16, 15–28.
Fronterotta, F. (2007). Platone. Sofista. Milano: BUR.
Gill, M. (2010). Division and Definition in Plato’s Sophist and Statesman. En Charles, D. (ed.), Definition in Greek Philosophy, (pp. 172-201). Oxford: OUP.
Gocer, A. (1999). The Puppet Theater in Plato’s Parable of the Cave. The Classical Journal, 95(2), 119-129.
Gourinat, J-B. (2016). La diérèse est-elle une partie de la dialectique?. En Gourinat, J-B. and Lemaire, J. (eds.), Logique et Dialectique dans l’Antiquité, (pp. 85-106). Paris: Vrin.
Guthrie, W. (1975). A history of greek philosophy. Volume IV. Plato. The man and his dialogues: earlier period. Cambridge: CUP.
Gutiérrez, R. (2003). La estructura de los símiles de la República como clave hermenéutica: el Parménides y otros. In Gutiérrez, R. (ed.), Los símiles de la República VI-VII de Platón, (pp. 119-143). Lima: Fondo Editorial PUCP.
Gutiérrez, R. (2017). El Arte de la Conversión. Un estudio sobre la República de Platón. Lima: Fondo Editorial PUCP.
Hall, E. (2006). The Theatrical Cast of Athens. Interactions Between Ancient Greek Drama and Society. Cambridge: CUP.
Henry, D. (2012). A Sharp Eye for Kinds: Plato on Collection and Division. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 41, 229-255.
Ionescu, C. (2013). Dialectic in Plato’s Sophist: Division and the Communion of Kinds. Arethusa, XLVI (1), 41-64.
Karasmanis, V. (1988). Plato’s Republic: The Line and the Cave. Apeiron, 21(3), 147-171.
Kahn, C. (1993). Proleptic Composition in the Republic, or Why Book 1 Was Never a Separate Dialogue. The Classical Quarterly. New Series, 43(1), 131-142.
Keuls, E. (1978). Plato and Greek Painting. Leiden: Brill.
Kraut, R. (1999). Return to the Cave: Republic 519-521. En Fine, G. (ed.), Oxford Readings in Philosophy. Plato: Ethics, Politics, Religion, and the Soul, (pp. 235-54). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lafrance, Y. (1987). Pour interpréter Platon. La ligne en République VI, 509d–511e. Bilan analytique des études (1804–1984). Montréal-Paris: Bellarmin-Les Belles Lettres.
Lafrance, Y. (1994). Pour interpréter Platon II. La ligne en République VI, 509d–511e. Le texte et son histoire. Montréal: Bellarmin.
Ledbetter, G. (2017). The Power of Plato’s Cave. En Destrée, P. and Edmonds III, R. (eds.), Plato and the Power of Images, (pp. 121-37). Leiden: Brill.
Li Carrillo, V. (1959-60). Las definiciones del sofista. Episteme, 1261, 83-184.
Malcolm, J. (1962). The Line and the Cave. Phronesis, 7, 38-45.
Malcolm, J. (1981). The Cave Revisited. The Classical Quarterly, 31(1), 60-68.
Marcos G. (1995). Platón ante el problema del error. La formulación del Teeteto y la solución del Sofista. Buenos Aires: Fundec.
Marcos, G. (2020). La crítica de Platón a los matemáticos que toman las hipótesis por principios (República VI-VII). Una interpretación a la luz de la metáfora del sueño. Plato Journal, 20, 67-80. Doi: https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-4105_20_5
McCabe, M. (2000). Plato and his Predecessors. The Dramatisation of Reason. Cambridge: CUP.
Miller, M. (2004). The Philosopher in Plato’s Statesman. Las Vegas: Parmenides Publishing.
Muecke, F. (1982). ‘I know you – by your rag’ Costume and Disguise in Fifth-century Drama. Antichthon, 16, 17-34.
Nails, D. (2012). Plato’s Republic in its Athenian Context. History of Political Thought, 33(1), 1-23.
Napolitano, L. (2007). Platone e le ‘ragioni’ dell’immagine. Percorsi filosofici e deviazioni tra metafore e miti. Milano: Vita e Pensiero.
Nightingale A. (2004). Spectacles of Truth in Classical Greek Philosophy. Theoria in its Cultural Context. Cambridge: CUP.
Nercam, N. (2012). «Topos» en question dans l’introduction du Sophiste (216a1-217a1). Plato. The electronic Journal of the International Plato Society, 12, 1-18. Doi: https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-4105_12_1
Notomi, N. (1999). The unity of Plato’s Sophist. Cambridge: CUP.
Ober, J. and Strauss, B. (1990). Drama, political rhetoric, and the discourse of Athenian democracy. In Winkler, J. and Zeitlin, F. (eds.), Nothing to do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in its Social Context, (pp. 237-70). Princeton: PUP.
Palumbo, L. (2008). Mímesis. Rappresentazione, teatro e mondo nei dialoghi di Platone e nella Poetica di Aristotele. Napoli: Loffredo.
Pinotti, P. (1989). Aristotele, Platone e la meraviglia del filosofo. In Lanza, D. and Longo, O. (eds.), Il meraviglioso e il verosimile tra antichita e medioevo, (pp. 29-55). Firenze: Olschki.
Press, G. (2007). Plato: A Guide for the Perplexed. New York: Continuum.
Puchner, M. (2010). The Drama of Ideas. Platonic Provocations in Theater and Philosophy. Oxford: OUP.
Repellini, F. (2003). La linea e la caverna. In Vegetti, M. (ed.), Platone. La Repubblica, vol. II, (pp. 355-404). Napoli: Bibliopolis.
Robinson, R. (1953). Plato’s Earlier Dialectic. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rosen, S. (1983). Plato’s Sophist. The Dream of Original and Image. New Haven: YUP.
Rosen, S. (2005). Plato’s Republic. A Study. New Haven: YUP.
Ryle, G. (1966). Plato’s Progress. Cambridge: CUP.
Schofield M. (1999). Saving the City: Philosopher-kings and Other Classical Paradigms. Issues in Ancient Philosophy. London and New York: Routledge.
Schofield M. (2007). Metaspeleology. En Scott, D. (ed.), Maieusis: Essays in Ancient Philosophy in Honour of Myles Burnyeat, (pp. 216-31). Oxford: OUP.
Scodel, H. (1987). Diaeresis and Myth in Plato’s Statesman. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.
Slings, S. (1999). Plato. Clitophon. Cambridge: CUP.
Slings, S., ed. (2003). Platonis Rempublicam. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Smith, N. (1999). How the Prisoners in the Cave are «Like Us». Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, XIII, 187-204.
Taylor, C. (2006). Socrates the Sophist. En Judson, L. and Karasmanis, V. (eds.), Remembering Socrates, (pp. 157-68). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Thesleff, H. (1967). Studies in The Styles Of Plato. Helsinki: Societas Philosophica Fennica.
Thesleff, H. (1982). Studies in Platonic Chronology. Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica.
Thesleff, H. (1993). Looking for Clues: An Interpretation of Some Literary Aspects of Plato’s ‘Two-Level Model’. En Press, G. (ed.), Plato’s Dialogues. New Studies and Interpretations, (pp. 17-45). Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Vallejo Campos, Á. (2018). Adonde nos lleve el lógos. Para leer la República de Platón. Madrid: Trotta.
Zeitlin, F. (2002). Playing the Other: Theater, Theatrical and the Feminine in Greek Drama. En McClure, L. (ed.), Sexuality and Gender in the Classical World. Readings and Sources, (pp. 103-138). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Eidos
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term "Work" shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
The Author shall grant to the Publisher a nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons 3.0 License Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported CC BY-NC 3.0, or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions: (a) Attribution: Other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;(b) Noncommercial: Other users (including Publisher) may not use this Work for commercial purposes;
4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
5. Authors are permitted, and Eidos promotes, to post online the preprint manuscript of the Work in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work is expected be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Eidos's assigned URL to the Article and its final published version in Eidos.
