Plato: Theaetetus and Sophist (in Greek)

The Theaetetus is a searching analysis of the nature of knowledge - 'rich, inventive, and profound', as Bernard Williams says. Socrates and Theaetetus discuss the idea that knowledge might be no more than perception; Socrates argues that this would require a radical relativism of the sort developed by the sophist Protagoras, and a view of the world as constituted by fleeting perceptions rather than by enduring physical objects. They go on to discuss and reject the idea that knowledge is true judgment, turn aside from this to discuss how certain sorts of false judgment might be possible, and finally examine what sort of theory might underpin the claim that knowledge is true judgment together with a 'logos'. Plato's treatment of these questions laid much of the foundation of subsequent philosophical enquiry into knowledge. As well as being packed with philosophical argument of great subtlety, the Theaetetus is also a literary masterpiece, thought by many to be Plato's finest dialogue.

The Sophist's enquiry is a much more abstract but no less challenging one. Ostensibly a search for the definition of a sophist, its philosophical focus is the discussion of a group of problems - including those of falsehood (encountered also in Theaetetus) - arising from the notion of not-being, or what is not. The philosopher Parmenides had argued that we cannot think at all about what is not - perhaps on the basis that it is not there to be grasped or thought about - and that, since any change would involve the coming to be of something from what is not, there cannot in fact be any change: reality is a single unchanging thing. Clearly Parmenides must be wrong: Plato attempts to show precisely why, and in the process significantly modifies (some think he actually rejects) his own Theory of Forms.

The examination includes a compulsory question with passages for translation and critical comment, as well as essay questions. You will be expected to have read both dialogues in Greek.

Bernard Williams, introduction to the Levett/Burnyeat translation of the Theaetetus (there are two editions of this translation: one with a short introduction by Williams, and one with a lengthy introduction by Burnyeat which you would wish to read while studying the text in detail). Text: Duke et al. (OCT). Translations: Theaetetus: McDowell (Clarendon Plato Series; also contains an excellent commentary), Levett revised Burnyeat (Hackett); Sophist: White (Hackett).