Being and Not-Being: An Introduction to Plato's Sophist

by P. Seligman

Overview

The present monograph on Plato's Sophist developed from series of lectures given over a number of years to honours and graduate phi­ losophy classes in the University of Waterloo. It is hoped that it will prove a useful guide to anyone trying to come to grips with, and gain a perspective of Plato's mature thought. At the same time my study is addressed to the specialist, and I have considered at the appropriate places a good deal of the scholarly literature that has appeared during the last thirty years. In this connection I regret that some of the pub­ lications which came to my notice after my work was substantially completed (such as KamIah's and Sayre's) have not been referred to in my discussion. As few philosophy students nowadays are familiar with Greek I have (except in a few footnotes) translated as well as transliterated all Greek terms. Citations from Plato's text follow Cornford's admirable trans­ lation as closely as possible, though the reader will find some significant deviations. The most notable of these concerns the key word on which I have rendered throughout as "being," thus avoiding Cornford's "existence" and "reality" which tend to prejudge the issues which the dialogue raises.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789024715800
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	06/30/1974
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1974
Pages:	132
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.01(d)

Table of Contents

§ 1 Approach to Plato.- § 2 Parmenides, Plato and the Sophists.- § 3 The seventh Division and the Statement of the Problem: 233D–237B.- § 4 Absolute Not-being: 237B–239C.- § 5 The Being of Images: 239C–240C.- § 6 False Logos and the Challenge to Parmenides: 240C–242B.- § 7 Being — the Pluralists: 242B–244B.- § 8 Being — the Monists (Parmenides): 244B–245E.- § 9 Being — Materialists and Idealists: 245E–248A.- § 10 Being, Forms and Motion: 248A–249D.- § 11 Can we define Being?: 249D–251A.- § 12 The Communion of Forms and the “Late Learners”: 251A– 252E.- § 13 Dialectic and Meta-dialectic: 252E–254B.- § 14 The very great Kinds — Introduction: 254B–D.- § 15 The very great Kinds — Part 1: 254D–255E.- § 16 Comment on Part.- § 17 The very great Kinds — Part 2: 255E–257A.- § 18 Motion and Rest once more: 256B6-C4.- § 19 The Not-Beautiful, the Not-Just and the Not-Tall: 257B–258C.- § 20 The very great Kinds — Conclusion: 258C–259D.- § 21 The Problem of Falsity and the Possibility of Discourse: 259D–261C.- § 22 The Nature of Logos: 261C–262E.- § 23 True and False: 262E–263D.- § 24 The Being of false Logos.