Plato S Introduction Of Forms

Plato's Introduction of Forms

Scholars of Plato are divided between those who emphasize the literature of the dialogues and those who emphasize the argument of the dialogues, and between those who see a development in the thought of the dialogues and those who do not. In this important book Russell Dancy focuses on the arguments and defends a developmental picture. He explains the Theory of Forms of the Phaedo and Symposium as an outgrowth of the quest for definitions canvassed in the Socratic dialogues, by constructing a Theory of Definition for the Socratic dialogues based on the refutations of definitions in those dialogues, and showing how that theory is mirrored in the Theory of Forms. His discussion, notable for both its clarity and its meticulous scholarship, ranges in detail over a number of Plato's early and middle dialogues, and will be of interest to readers in Plato studies and in ancient philosophy more generally.

Plato's Introduction of Forms

Forms and Structure in Plato's Metaphysics

This book investigates the thought of two of the most influential philosophers of antiquity, Plato and his predecessor Anaxagoras, with respect to their metaphysical accounts of objects and their properties. Marmodoro introduces a fresh perspective on these two thinkers' ideas, showing Plato's theory to be indebted to Anaxagoras's, and principally arguing that their core metaphysical concept is overlap: overlap between properties and objects in the world. She contends that Plato initially endorses Anaxagoras's model of constitutional overlap, but subsequently develops his own model of qualitative overlap. Overlap is the crux of our understanding of how for Plato objects participate in Forms, of how objects are related without relations, of the role of Forms as causes, and more. Marmodoro's interpretation shows Plato to be ground-breaking in his understanding of structure as a property, in his explanation of composition, and in his account of metaphysical emergence. Book jacket.