Dialectic in Late Plato - 19/05/2016, Leeds (England)
What is dialectic? What is it for? How should it be practised (or exercised)? The workshop poses these questions in relation to Plato’s Republic and post-Republic dialogues.
Robinson’s 1953 work proposed that “dialectic” was simply Plato’s name for whatever his favoured philosophical method of inquiry was. More recent scholarship has brought to the fore a number of questions that suggest that understanding dialectic in Plato is a much more complex matter. These questions concern:
how much continuity we should find between dialectic in later Plato and the kind of distinctive conversation-based style used by Socrates
how significant the inter-personal nature of “dialogue” is for “dialectic”
the extent to which one should see persuasive elements within dialectic
how we should understand the relationship between dialectic and methods of collection and division
how we should connect an understanding of dialectic in these later Platonic works with what we know of competitive dialectical practices within the Academy
what level of continuity we should discern between dialectic in the Platonic diaogues, and later (e.g. Aristotelian) views of dialectic
how an understanding of dialectic might explain the ways in which it is contrasted with rhetoric in some dialogues
how an understanding of dialectic explains the ways in which it can contribute to rhetoric.
Against this background, the workshop returns to the dialogues to elucidate the understanding of dialectic in play in the arguments of particular works. The workshop's focus will be on careful interpretation of key passages in late Platonic works. But the questions listed above show that this carries much wider significance for our understanding of the nature and value of dialectic, and of philosophical method, in Plato and beyond.
FECHA/DATE/DATA: 19/05/2016
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Inter-disciplinary Ethics Applied CETL (Leeds, England)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Leading Minds research project - Jamie Dow
INFO: web - j.dow@leeds.ac.uk INSCRIPCIÓN/REGISTRATION/REGISTRAZIONE: gratis / free / gratuito
PROGRAMA/PROGRAM/PROGRAMMA:
SPEAKERS: Dr Matthew Duncombe (Durham) Dr Fiona Leigh (University College London) Prof. Vasilis Politis (Trinity College Dublin)