Abstract
Through a close reading of a number of Platonic dialogues—namely, the Cratylus, the Gorgias, the Theaetetus, and the Apology—this chapter sheds light upon the event of philosophical dialogue, as well as upon the literary genre that shares its name.
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Notes
- 1.
See Sallis (1975, 7): “In the dialogues philosophical activity is concretely presented, it is presented in an individual mode.”
- 2.
This would become Feldweg-Gespräche (GA 77), translated by Brett W. Davis as Country Path Conversations.
- 3.
There are many archaic examples of philosophical dialogue that antedate Plato’s works. For a partial list, see Hösle (2012, 71–73).
- 4.
See Hösle (2012, xviii): “Whitehead’s famous remark that Western philosophy ‘consists of a series of footnotes to Plato’ strikes many people as an exaggeration; but there is no doubt that it is true of the philosophical dialogue. No one who had access to Plato’s works could have escaped his influence; even in the dark centuries his indirect influence can be seen.”
- 5.
Indeed, Plato is the first author on record to use the noun διάλογος. See Jazdewska (2014, 19).
- 6.
See Kahn (1996, 41): “The anonymity of the dialogue form, together with Plato’s problematic irony in the presentation of Socrates, makes it impossible for us to see through these dramatic works in such a way as to read the mind of their author.”
- 7.
At the time of Plato, the word λόγος carried many different (though related) significations, including “speech,” “discourse ,” “word,” “statement ,” “story,” “account,” and, arguably, “argument.” I leave it largely untranslated throughout this chapter in order to avoid hastily deciding in favour of one of these significations to the exclusion of the others. On the risks involved in such hasty decisions, see Sallis (1975, 14–15).
- 8.
The word “dialogue” is often mistakenly believed to refer specifically to a conversation between two people, an argument erroneously based upon the conflating of the Greek δία (meaning “through” or “across”) with the Greek δι (meaning “two”). However, the Greek word δiάλογος does imply a conversation, that is, a speaking involving at least two. (On the origin and history of this term in antiquity, see Jazdewska 2014, 17–36.) In Plato’s Gorgias, Socrates at one point holds a dialogue with himself. (This passage is mentioned in greater detail below.) In light of this, one might say that a dialogue entails a conversation between at least two perspectives, even if it does not literally involve two people.
- 9.
For a much more comprehensive treatment of this text along these lines, please see Ewegen (2013).
- 10.
On this point, Hans-Georg Gadamer is quite lucid: “Reaching an understanding in conversation presupposes that both partners are ready for it and are trying to recognize the full value of what is alien and opposed to them. If this happens mutually … it is finally possible to achieve … a common diction and a common dictum” (Gadamer 1975, 387).
- 11.
Both meanings draw upon the original sense of the Greek διάλογος and διαλἐγεσθαι.
- 12.
See Apology, 21b–e, et al.
- 13.
- 14.
See Gadamer (1975, 367–68).
- 15.
See Protagoras, 337a ff.
- 16.
See Gorgias, 454b.
- 17.
See, for example, Euthyphro, 15c–d; Protagoras, 361c–d; Cratylus, 440a–d; Theaetetus, 209b–d.
- 18.
Even Plato’s Apology, which is ostensibly a record of Socrates’s trial, is highly poetized.
- 19.
Ποίησις derives from ποιέω, which principally means make, create, or produce.
- 20.
On this, see Sallis (1975, 14–18).
- 21.
For a similar point, see Hösle (2012): “By essence, a philosophical dialogue necessarily includes a philosophical question, argumentative efforts to answer it, their linguistic articulation, and a plurality of participants in the conversation. Accordingly, the philosophical dialogue has the task of clarifying the relation between certain kinds of people, certain philosophical views, and certain forms of debate, between certain arguments and the emotional reactions to them, between ways of thinking and ways of life, and also ideally between thoughts and language” (48–49).
- 22.
See Sallis (1975, 22).
- 23.
As Jill Gordon puts it, Plato’s dialogues are, in this way, “an occasion for self-examination” (Gordon 1999, 9).
Bibliography
Ewegen, Shane. 2013. Plato’s Cratylus: The Comedy of Language. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Gadamer, Hans Georg. 1975. Truth and Method. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. New York, NY: Continuum Publishing.
Gordon, Jill. 1999. Turning Toward Philosophy: Literary Device and Dramatic Structure in Plato’s Dialogues. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Heidegger, Martin. 2010a. Country Path Conversations. Translated by Bret W. Davis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
———. 2010b. Letters to His Wife. Edited by Getrud Heidegger and translated by R.D.V. Glasow. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hösle, Vittorio. 2012. The Philosophical Dialogue: A Poetics and Hermeneutics. Translated by Steven Randall. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Jazdewska, Katarzyna. 2014. From Dialogos to Dialogue: The Use of the Term from Plato to the Second Century CE. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 54: 17–36.
Kahn, Charles. 1996. Plato and the Socratic Dialogue: The Philosophical Use of a Literary Form. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Plato. 1914. Apology. Translated by H.N. Fowler. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
———. 1921. Theaetetus. Translated by H.N. Fowler. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
———. 1925. Gorgias. Translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
———. 1926. Cratylus. Translated by H.N. Fowler. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
———. 2001. Symposium. Translated by Seth Benardete. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sallis, John. 1975. Being and Logos. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
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Ewegen, S.M. (2018). What Is Philosophical Dialogue?. In: Stocker, B., Mack, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54794-1_2
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