| Summary: | 博士 === 輔仁大學 === 哲學系 === 102 === Ph. D Student: Yip-mei Loh
Department: Philosophy
Supervisor: Professor Bernard Li
Thesis: On Plato’s Development from Muthos to Epistemology
Key words: muthos, gods, soul, epistēmē, anamnesis
Total pages: 253 pages
Content of this Abstract:
This thesis begins with Plato’s muthos through his theory of eikōs logos and the soul to an investigation into his epistemology on the grounds that his role as a muthologos has been neglected and that the Aufheben of dialectics in his muthoi has not been taken seriously, or even has been overlooked. Hence the purpose is to attach due significance to his muthos in his philosophical framework and to revalue its critical roles which have played such important functions in his doctrine of epistemology. In brief, if we want to closely scrutinize his doctrines of doxa and epistēmē without understanding the roles of his muthoi, it is probable that we may be misled or misunderstand his real philosophical thoughts, since his muthoi, which are invented by motivation of Thaumas, are his philosophical groundwork. Or we can say that Plato’s role in western philosophy is as the lover of Thaumas, who was walking on the path of searching and pursuing truth.
In the Platonic corpus his muthoi can be divided into two types: Socratic and non-Socratic. The most famous comparison between them occurs in the Protagoras and the Politikos. In these two dialogues muthoi manifest the different values between Socrates/Plato and Protagoras/the sophists. The dispute between them is not only the concept of ‘to on’ and ‘to mē on’, but also of differing dialectics from eristic. In view of this, it is unavoidable that the sophists’ role among the citizens of Athens is involved in the discussion, so as to exhibit Plato’s worrying about the crisis of his culture and his intention of reconstructing the core values of his polis.
Furthermore, this thesis makes a distinction between daimones, gods and god, with a view to understanding his idea of the soul, which Plato presents by means of his eikōs logos; and which paves the way for analyzing his construction of epistemology through the theory of recollection, since his eikōs logos is the account of eternity and the manifestation of ideas. From Plato’s point of view, only the gods and a few people are able to possess knowledge itself, the majority of people can only possess either true views (doxai) or opinions (doxai). This means that the concept of doxai as the as-structure has two scales. One is ‘something is stated as something’, which we call the ‘as-structure of being/judging’. This ‘as-structure’ is branded as ‘view’. The other is ‘something appears as something’, which is named the ‘as-structure of seeming’, and which is labelled as ‘opinion’. Both of them are manifested in this thesis; and through which the difference and the relationship between doxa and epistēmē is brought to light.
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