The philosophos phusis and the desire for truth in Plato’s Republic (485b-487a)

Dimitri El El Murr (École Normale Supérieure)

The Research Centre for Greek Philosophy at the Academy of Athens in the course of the Monthly Philosophical Seminar invites you to the next lecture of the seminar series “Plato’s Republic V-VII” by Dimitri El Murr, Professor of Philosophy at École Normale Supérieure (Paris), on: “The philosophos phusis and the desire for truth in Plato’s Republic (485b-487a).”
The Seminar will take place on Wednesday 7 May 2025, 6-8pm (Athens GR local time).
Those interested in attending the seminar online via Zoom are kindly requested to contact Xanthippe Bourlogianni ([email protected]) to obtain the access link.

The organizers: Alexander Nehamas, Thanassis Gkatzaras, Xanthippe Bourlogianni

ABSTRACT:

In a short but important passage of book 6 of the Republic (485b-487a), Socrates lists the necessary virtues and qualities of the ‘philosophical nature’ (philosophos phusis). What makes this passage particularly intriguing is not so much that it claims that philosophers have specific virtues (who would seriously doubt that?) but that these virtues are interconnected in a specific way and attributed to a certain nature. This paper examines in detail this specific interconnection and what Plato means by ‘nature’, arguing that the philosophers’ specific virtues and qualities derive from their wholehearted and unreserved desire for truth.