|Ideas: ideas are representations of objects, circumstances or properties of objects as opposed to their manifestations in the external world. At times the concept of the idea is connected with the claim of perfection. See also idealism, idealization, thing in itself, Platonism.<_____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. |
Plato on Ideas - Dictionary of Arguments
Gadamer I 434
Ideas/Plato/Gadamer: The idea, the true being of the thing, is not recognisable in any other way than in going through (...) mediations. But is there a realization of the idea itself as this particular and individual?
Is not the essence of things a whole in the same way that language is a whole?
Recognition: Just as in the unity of speech the individual words only gain their meaning and relative unambiguity, so too, true cognition of the essence can only be achieved in the whole of the relational structure of ideas.
Knowledge/Whole/Parmenides: This is the thesis of the Platonic "Parmenides". From this, however, the question arises: in order to define even a single idea, i.e. to be able to distinguish in what it is from everything else that is, does one not have to know the whole?
Gadamer: One can hardly escape this consequence if, like Plato, one conceives the cosmos of ideas as the true structure of being.
Speusippos: In fact, it is reported by the Platonist Speusipp, Plato's successor in the leadership of the Academy, that he drew this conclusion. We know from him that he particularly cultivated the search for the common (homoia), going far beyond what was generalization in the sense of the logic of the genus, by using analogy, i.e. the proportional equivalent, as a research method. >Analogies/Speusippus.
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Bubner I 27
Ideas/The Republic/Plato/Bubner: it is no accident that the theory of ideas is developed in The Republic: (>philosopher king).
Strange: that also the practical good should belong to the ideas.
Bubner I 28
Definition Ideas/Plato: The reasons of being of everything real.
Bubner I 51
Being/Parmenides: had forbidden to attribute a being to non-being.
>Existence/Parmenides, >Appearance/Parmenides, >Existence predicate/Parmenides.
Being/Appearance/PlatoVsParmenides: the solution of the problem of being has to be re-established, in memory of the linguistic nature of the concept.
Only in language can the concept of being express what it means, and also the concept of being is only meaningful in propositions.
Ideas/Plato: now only one step is needed to introduce the community of ideas among themselves: the presocratic ontology provides, as a matter of course, the concepts of being, rest, and movement.
Each determination is now itself and not another. Thus, determinateness implies negation.
Here the dialectics finds its highest field of activity as the doctrine of the relations between one and many.
Cf. >Ontology/Plato, >Unity and multiplicity. _____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.
Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik 7. durchgesehene Auflage Tübingen 1960/2010
H. G. Gadamer
The Relevance of the Beautiful, London 1986
Die Aktualität des Schönen: Kunst als Spiel, Symbol und Fest Stuttgart 1977
Antike Themen und ihre moderne Verwandlung Frankfurt 1992