Didactic Platonism: a System of Thought and its Metaphysical Patterns / Anti-Dogmatic Patterns

• Applicant: Dr. Anna Motta, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 394776507

The aim of the overall project is to examine the schematic trend in Platonism, a trend that might seem very strange because it concerns a philosophy connected to a corpus of dialogues that resisted several attempts at systematization. The aim of this part of the project – which was not foreseen in the original project and for which I am asking for a one-year extension – is to study some isagogical questions that may bear witness to the Socratic way of arguing. What I wish to show is that even those who believed it was impossible to infer any doctrine from the dialogues – namely, the Neo-Academics – derived from them a method to justify the use of reading schemes that were bound to support a doctrinal system. The didactic hints scattered throughout Plato’s dialogues gave certain discussions (and later doctrines) a methodological foundation. This method not only helped clarify certain discussions or doctrines, but also assigned them a truth content.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Italy
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Federico Maria Petrucci