Truth in Republic 6

Gail Fine (Cornell University)

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 Gail Fine, Professor of Philosophy Emerita at Cornell University and Senior Research Fellow Emerita at Merton College (Oxford)

on: Truth in Republic 6

The Seminar will take place online on Wednesday 28 May 2025, 6-8pm (Athens GR local time).

Those interested in attending the seminar 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

I explore Plato’s use of alethic terminology (that is, his use of alêtheia and its cognates) in Republic 6 (to 502c8), as well as in some related passages. I begin by describing ways in which Plato has been thought to use alethic terminology. I then go through the text, asking whether it uses alethic terminology in those ways. It’s been argued that, at least in passages that focus on metaphysics and epistemology in the so-called middle dialogues, some sort of ontological truth is to the fore. I argue that, at least in the passages I explore, semantic truth is more prominent than it has sometimes been taken to be.