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Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Both Theaetetus and Eudoxus contributed to the further study of irrationals, and their followers collected the results into a substantial theory, as represented by the propositions of Book X of the Elements.
Thus we complete the dialogue without discovering what knowledge is. Just as speech is explicit outer dialogue, so thought is explicit inner dialogue. These are only two of the questions that have preoccupied Plato scholars in their attempt to interpret this highly complex dialogue. It remains possible that perception is just as Heracleitus describes it. The primary evidence for this order is that the Sophist begins with a reference back to the Theaetetus and a reference forward to the Statesman. See Parmenides a-d, where Plato explicitly says—using Parmenides as his mouthpiece—that these arguments will be refuted by anyone of adequate philosophical training.
Book X, which comprises roughly one-fourth of the Elements , seems disproportionate to the importance of its classification of incommensurable lines and areas although study of this book would inspire Johannes Kepler [—] in his search for a cosmological model. Geometry , the branch of mathematics concerned with the shape of individual objects, spatial relationships among various objects, and the properties of surrounding space.
It is one of the oldest branches of mathematics, having arisen in response to such practical problems as those found in surveying, and its name is derived…. Socrates , Greek philosopher whose way of life, character, and thought exerted a profound influence on ancient and modern philosophy. Plato , ancient Greek philosopher, student of Socrates c. The pre-Euclidean period influence on Euclid In Euclid: Sources and contents of the Elements.
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Hippias Minor 7 Plato: Dubia and Spuria 13 Plato's Works, Misc Jobs in this area. Options 1 filter applied. Using PhilPapers from home? Create an account to enable off-campus access through your institution's proxy server.
Be alerted of all new items appearing on this page. Choose how you want to monitor it: Add an entry to this list: Cast as a conversation between Socrates and a clever but modest student, Theaetetus, it explores one of the key issues in philosophy: Though no definite answer is reached, the discussion is penetrating and wide-ranging, covering the claims of perception to be knowledge, the theory that all is in motion, and the perennially tempting idea The inquirers go on to explore the connection between knowledge and true judgement, and the famous threefold definition of knowledge as justified true belief.
Packed with subtle arguments, the dialogue is also a work of literary genius, with an unforgettable portrait of Socrates as a midwife of wisdom. This new edition uses the acclaimed translation by John McDowell.
It includes a valuable introduction that locates the work in Plato's oeuvre, and explains some of the competing interpretations of its overall meaning. The notes elucidate Plato's arguments and draw connections within the work and with other philosophical discussions. For over years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe.
Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. Theaetetus in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy.
Remove from this list. Any comprehensive interpretation of the "Theaetetus" has to provide answers to, among others, two very general questions concerning that dialogue: In this study of the Wax Block and the Aviary models of judgment that occur in the second part of the "Theaetetus" as part of its discussion of the problem of false judgment, I argue that the problems faced there actually arise because of the neglect of Forms. The discussion of the second part is, I contend, carried out on a materialist ontology, an ontology assumed because it suits the definition of knowledge as true judgment which inaugurates that part of the dialogue, an ontology in no way subscribed to by Plato.
The Wax Block is, I explain, a materialist model and fails in the case of judgments about numbers for treating them on a par with material subjects, ignoring their intelligible status.
In particular, it fails to distinguish judging 5 and 7 to be 11 from judging 12 to be 11 because of its neglect of Forms; Plato would distinguish those judgments by distinguishing 5 and 7 from 12 with help from his part-whole analysis, to which the Forms are essential. This dissertation is a study of Plato's Theaetetus. I argue that the Theaetetus is fundamentally an extended reductio of a radical materialist viewthe view that the only things that there are perceptible, material particulars with no properties or relations.
Based on evidence from the Sophistthe sequel dialogue to the TheaetetusI show that, according to Plato, this radical materialism results from ignoring the intelligible Forms and the participation of things in them. The radical materialist ontology also implies a certain view He also cannot explain the possibility of systematic knowledge and expertise in a field, such as arithmetic or grammar, because of his commitment to the particularity of what there is, and therefore, of what is known.
The Theaetetus is one of Plato's dialogues concerning the nature of knowledge, written circa BCE. In this dialogue, Socrates and Theaetetus discuss three. The Theaetetus poses a special difficulty for Plato scholars trying to interpret the dialogue: in light of Plato's metaphysical and epistemological commitments.
The Theaetetus is subtitled peri epistemes, on knowledge, and peirastikos, tentative. Theaetetus' three attempted definitions of knowledge, each ventured only to fail, are structured in a cascading reduction. This regress functions both negatively, as an indirect demonstration that knowledge is not definable in term of opinion or judgment, that is, knowledge is not "opinion plus," but also positively, as the ill-fated definitions build upon one another to delineate the elements necessary for a possible theory of judgment. The themes of knowledge One could go on. The guiding question, how to define knowledge, is a theoretical one, and the reasoning becomes progressively more abstract as the dialogue proceeds, while at the same time never straying far from practical implications: The dialogue about knowledge is also a dialogue about wisdom.
Forms in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy.
Plato in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy. History of Western Philosophy. I argue that Plato's purpose in the discussion of false belief in the "Theaetetus" is to entertain and then to reject the idea that thinking is a kind of mental grasping. The interpretation allows us to make good sense of Plato's discussion of 'other-judging' ce , of his remarks about mathematical error dc , and most importantly, of the initial statement of the puzzle about falsity a-c.
That puzzle shows that if we insist on conceiving of the relation between thought and its For no one who is literally grasping two things in his hands would seriously entertain the idea that one of the things is numerically identical with the other.