Abstract
In the Sophist, Plato claims that the philosopher is always engaged through reasonings with the idea tou ontos (254a4–b1). I argue that, contrary to appearances and to what various commentators believe, this phrase does not refer to the Kind Being singled out in the Sophist as one of the so-called ‘greatest’ or ‘most important’ Kinds, but to the whole intelligible realm. The proposed reading better accounts for Plato’s exact wording at Sophist 254a4–b1 and preserves the consistency of Plato’s view on the object of philosophical knowledge. I conclude with some broader considerations on the relationship between this passage, Platonic dialectic and Aristotle’s conception of a science of being qua being.
Funding source: H2020 European Research Council
Award Identifier / Grant number: 885273
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Measuring the End: Heraclitus and Diogenes of Babylon on the Great Year and Ekpyrosis
- Nature as an Instrumental Cause in Proclus
- Alexander of Aphrodisias’ Theory of Action and the Capacity of Doing Otherwise
- Being and the Philosopher’s Object in Plato’s Sophist
- Plato on Sunaitia
- The Sophists’ Detractors and Plato’s Representation of Socrates
- From Dunamis as Active/Passive Capacity to Dunamis as Nature in Aristotle’s Metaphysics Theta
- Aristotle on Compulsive Affections and the Natural Capacity to Withstand
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Measuring the End: Heraclitus and Diogenes of Babylon on the Great Year and Ekpyrosis
- Nature as an Instrumental Cause in Proclus
- Alexander of Aphrodisias’ Theory of Action and the Capacity of Doing Otherwise
- Being and the Philosopher’s Object in Plato’s Sophist
- Plato on Sunaitia
- The Sophists’ Detractors and Plato’s Representation of Socrates
- From Dunamis as Active/Passive Capacity to Dunamis as Nature in Aristotle’s Metaphysics Theta
- Aristotle on Compulsive Affections and the Natural Capacity to Withstand