Платон и сложный γένος «Софиста»

What is it about?

To reveal the sophist’s genos, the Sophist offers seven logoi, each of which picks out a different aspect of sophistry. How are we to judge them? Which is the best definition? Although scholars have divided opinions, the text clearly states that thesophist is most correctly exposed through the seventh logos. If so, then what are we tomake of the first six logoi? Does the seventh logos prove them to be untrue? Or does itrather paint a more complex picture of the genos in question, which nonetheless relates to the previous logoi? The present paper defends this last option. Specifically, it arguesthat the seventh definition singles out the unifying element of the different concrete images of the sophist presented in the first five logoi. Besides that, the paper claims that the sixth logos is the only one that does not correspond to the sophist, but to the philosopher. Thus, by contrasting the sixth and seventh definitions of the Sophist, Plato offers an important key line of demarcation between the philosopher and the sophist, despite recognizing that the former may share some specific characteristics of the latter.

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