First Chop Your Logos … : Socrates and the Sophists on Language, Logic and Development. Issue 2 (3rd April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McCabe, Mary Margaret
• Is Part Of: Australasian philosophical review. Volume 3:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 131
• Page End: 150
• Publication Date: 2019-04-03
• Subjects: Plato -- Euthydemus -- Socrates -- sophists -- truth -- falsehood -- saying -- counter-saying -- 'chopped logos' -- self-refutation -- aspects of verbs -- perfect -- imperfect; Philosophy -- Periodicals; 101
• DOI: 10.1080/24740500.2020.1716659
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2474-0500

Abstract

ABSTRACT: At the centre of Plato's Euthydemus lie a series of arguments in which Socrates' interlocutors, the sophists Euthydemus and Dionysodorus propose a radical account of truth ('chopped logos ') according to which there is no such thing as falsehood, and no such thing as disagreement (here 'counter-saying'). This account of truth is not directly refutable; but in response Socrates offers a revised account of 'saying' focussed on the different aspects of the verb (perfect and imperfect) to give a rich account of saying, of truth and of knowledge. I argue that Socrates' response has much to offer, notably in its amplification of the process of saying and cognition, and the development of virtue.