Maurizio Migliori Livres

The study delves into Plato's unique writing technique, emphasizing his use of a laborious game that engages readers through provocations and Socratic maieutics. This approach fosters an interactive dialogue, serving as a protreptic that reveals Plato's complex vision of reality. Authored by Maurizio Migliori, a former philosophy professor and expert on Plato, the work draws from his extensive research, including numerous publications in international journals.

There is a significant distinction between our modern approach to philosophy, influenced by Descartes' clear thinking and focused on alternative models, and the classical method rooted in Platonic-Aristotelian traditions, which employs technical and methodical pluralism to juxtapose various schemes essential for understanding a complex reality. Ancient philosophers utilized a rich array of schemes in diverse forms, allowing for statements that may appear mismatched or contradictory without resulting in genuine contradictions or relativism. This approach emphasizes the necessity of understanding a multiform reality. By adopting this interpretative paradigm and applying it to key reflections from the Sophists, Plato, and Aristotle, the contributors offer compelling examples of the distinctly 'Greek' tendency to advance through associations of possibilities. This method rejects binary thinking, favoring a more open and dynamic 'and-and' combination. The authors argue that many puzzles in Ancient philosophy that have historically perplexed scholars can be reinterpreted and clarified through this paradigm, providing fresh insights into longstanding debates.

The concept of the soul, one of the greatest 'inventions' of Greek philosophy, which crossed the whole history of the Western civilisation, was defined in its fundamental philosophical features by Plato. Developing the numerous issues naturally linked to this concept, Plato's thought does not only focus on metaphysical and religious themes, but also to all issues related to spirituality and the human psyche, including their ethical consequences. Therefore, the concept of soul opens the door to an endless process involving the analysis of a subject's interiority. It is not by chance, that this Platonic theme recurs in many texts and even represents the backbone of whole dialogues. In this collection, some of the most important contemporary Platonic scholars looked at these complex philosophical issues from innovative perspectives, especially with regard to texts that previously were either underestimated or largely ignored. This perspective gives the reader a chance to evaluate the hermeneutic power of different approaches and interpretations of Plato's texts, revaluating as well the richness of Plato's contribution to questions that have been received and developed in contemporary philosophical reflections.

This reading of the Sophist offers a fresh perspective on Plato's writing technique, a central concern for scholars. The thesis posits that Plato excels as a teacher in written form, emphasizing the writer's responsibility to engage the reader. He believes philosophy is both a collaborative effort and a personal journey, requiring the master to exercise 'educational forbearance' to avoid stifling the learner's quest for truth. This approach fosters a teaching style that hints at truth without revealing it outright, necessitating the reader's active involvement in processing the information. Viewed as a 'serious game,' the Platonic dialogues encourage readers to uncover truth with minimal guidance. In the Sophist, numerous Platonic suggestions emerge, including the complexity of the diairetic method, the expansion and fulfillment of Parmenides' ideas, and the critical issue of defining reality. This definition is not established through ontology but through a theoretical exploration of the concepts of whole and part, along with the relationship between one, whole, and all, culminating in the interplay of 'doing' and 'suffering.'