Plato’s Sophist, on Truth, Falsity, & Seeming (Live Reading)

About this event

How can "non-being" exist? Can we meaningfully speak of what is not? Plato’s Sophist examines the nature of sophistry, the distinction between genuine philosophy and intellectual deception, and the fundamental relationship between being and non-being. In the dialogue, Theaetetus, the Eleatic Stranger, and Socrates attempt to "capture" the sophist by tracing his activities as a producer of appearances, imitations, and misleading arguments. The dialogue ultimately develops a complex account of falsehood and negation, and commits "parricide" by challenging Parmenides's prohibition against speaking of what is not. By distinguishing different senses of the verb "to be", the dialogue establishes the possibility of false statements and makes room for the philosophical investigation of illusion, error, appearance, and deception. Alongside its critique of sophistry, The Sophist is one of Plato’s most important contributions to logic, ontology, metaphysics, the philosophy of language, and rhetoric. \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* \* This will be a live reading of Plato's Sophist. Saturday November 7 will (probably) be the first session and thus the ideal time to join our group. Reference will be made to contemporary and older scholarship. Historical context will be brought up whenever necessary to illuminate the dialogue. A translation can be found here (https://app.box.com/s/4v3r6gh4ys9gdrqc705ane2hxriqfqre). This Plato group meets on Saturdays and has previously read the Symposium, Phaedo, the Apology, Philebus, Gorgias, Critias, Laches, Timaeus, Euthyphro, Crito, Protagoras, Hippias Minor, Hippias Major, and other works, including ancient commentaries and texts for contextualisation such as Gorgias’ Praise of Helen. It is our aspiration to read the Platonic corpus over a long period of time. The host is Constantine Lerounis, a distinguished Greek philologist and poet, author of Four Access Points to Shakespeare’s Works (in Greek) and Former Advisor to the President of the Hellenic Republic.