Plato’s Late Dialogues

Seminar, Dr. Cynthia Freeland

University of Houston
Fall 2007, Tuesdays 2:30-5:30 p.m.

Working Schedule

(subject to revision)

Aug. 21

Introduction

Socrates and Plato; dating Plato’s works

The Theory of Forms (review of Phaedo and Republic)

Parmenides 126-136 (the “First Half”): Attacks on Forms

Aug. 28

Parmenides 126-136

The Third Man Argument

Other Attacks on Forms

Sept. 4

Parmenides 136-166 (the “Second Half”)

Parmenides’ Exercise in Dialectic

Sept. 11
Theaetetus 142a-166a

Introduction; knowledge as perception
Socrates as midwife; Heraclitean flux; definitions of perception

Sept. 18

Theaetetus 166a-183c

Relativism and Protagoras’ self-refutation

Sept. 25
Theaetetus 183c-196c

False judgment; the wax tablet; the aviary

Oct. 2

Theaetetus 196c-201d

Knowledge as true judgment + an account

Socrates’ Dream; conclusions

Oct. 9

Sophist 216a-241d

Introduction; search for the sophist; the method of division

Not-being, false statement, appearances

Oct. 16

Sophist 241d-253c

Parricide of “Father Parmenides”

Gods vs. giants; “Friends of Forms”; one-name hypothesis

Oct. 23

Sophist 253c-260d

Dialectic as the blending of kinds

Non-being as difference (otherness)

Oct. 30

Sophist 260d-268d

False statement as blending of speech with non-being

Final definition of the sophist

Nov. 6

Philebus 11a-31a

Introduction: Pleasure vs. Intellect as the best life

Discourse, the Unlimited, and Limit

The One and the Many; Reason as a cause (Limit)

Nov. 13

Philebus 31a-46b

Analysis of pleasure

Introduction of “false pleasures”

Nov. 20
Philebus 46b-67b