DICTUM · Divide and Collect: Understanding Method in Plato

Divide and Collect: Understanding Method in Plato

DICTUM is a basic research project aimed at reexamining Plato’s ideals of philosophical method and, more specifically, his ideal of dialectical inquiry. Among contemporary Plato scholars there exists a near-universal consensus that Plato’s conception of dialectic changed radically through his philosophical career; according to this view it developed from a Socratic ideal of inquiry conducted through questions and answers that aimed at refuting false beliefs into an ideal of a hypothetical method aimed at disclosing the metaphysical foundation of reality and, finally, into an ideal of methodical inquiry directed at disclosing nature similar to an Aristotelian ideal of scientific procedure. The latter ideal, it is assumed, comes to expression in particular through two procedures commonly referred to as collection and division that supposedly characterize the later Plato’s ideal of rational inquiry. In contrast, DICTUM has conducted its main inquiry on the basis of three assumptions: i) Plato has a more or less unified conception of dialectical inquiry. ii) Dialectical inquiry may be carried out through a number of complementary procedures that are unified by the fact that they are all directed at disclosing the nature of the objects under consideration. iii) The procedures of collection and division are key to dialectical inquiry in general and throughout Plato’s dialogues, not because they are particularly technical or scientific procedures, as is commonly assumed, but because human reasoning and discourse in general depend on them. The overall objectives of DICTUM have been to provide a radical re-interpretation of Plato’s ideals of philosophical inquiry and to stimulate fruitful discussion in the scholarly community by challenging widely held convictions about these ideals. Since Plato conceived of dialectic as the highest unfolding of human reason, the reinterpretation of dialectic and, in particular, of collection and division argued for in DICTUM also entails a re-evaluation of Plato’s ideal of reason and rationality. Since Plato’s ideals of reason and rationality have been, and continues to be, a reference point for many philosophical and scientific traditions, a re-interpretation of these ideals also offers the opportunity to reach greater clarity about the lasting importance and relevance of these traditions.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз