180019 LPS Plato: Theaetetus (2023W)

Plato's “Theaetetus” is one of his most interesting and rich dialogues. While the dialogue in its entirety addresses the question “What is knowledge?” and can therefore be considered the founding document of epistemology, a number of other philosophical topics and methods are touched on: for example, the Homo-mensura sentence of Protagoras - that man is the measure of all things - is discussed, as is Heraclitus’ "doctrine of flux ", the method of Socratic questioning - the maieutics - peculiarities of philosophers (Thales' fountain fall) etc., which make the dialogue a fascinating read.
In this reading seminar we read the text together, address the question of a definition of “knowledge”, the attempted answers, as well as the modern reception of this important dialogue and its questions. Embedded in background information about Plato's philosophy, each dialogue should stand for itself. For example, Plato's so-called “theory of ideas” does not play a role here. The focus is on the text with its question and the attempted answers to which we want to dedicate ourselves in this introductory reading seminar.
We read the entire text together over the course of the semester. Reading takes place ideally at home, in the sessions students present the respective sections and help to stimulate the discussion in the proseminar. At the end of this course, students should be familiar with the content of the dialogue and have gained an insight into Plato's philosophy and central epistemological questions.