“Mythos and Logos in Plato” (original) (raw)
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Investigação Filosófica, 2019
The aim of this paper is the analysis of myth in Plato's work based on a paper of Ludwig Edels-tein. In his work, Edelstein presents to us the reason why Plato uses myth and its function in his philosophy. The author contributes to the development of thought on the subject and provides development for later studies on myth in Plato. We finished with a critical conclusion about the relation of dialectics and myth.
What the ancient Greeks—at least in the archaic phase of their civilization —called muthos was quite different from what we and the media nowadays call " myth ". For them a muthos was a true story, a story that unveils the true origin of the world and human beings. For us a myth is something to be " debunked " : a widespread, popular belief that is in fact false. In archaic Greece the memorable was transmitted orally through poetry, which often relied on myth. However, starting with the beginning of the seventh century BC two types of discourse emerged that were set in opposition to poetry: history (as shaped by, most notably, Thucydides) and philosophy (as shaped by the peri phuseōs tradition of the sixth and fifth centuries BC). These two types of discourse were naturalistic alternatives to the poetic accounts of things. Plato broke to some extent from the philosophical tradition of the sixth and fifth centuries in that he uses both traditional myths and myths he invents and gives them some role to play in his philosophical endeavor. He thus seems to attempt to overcome the traditional opposition between muthos and logos. There are many myths in Plato's dialogues: traditional myths, which he sometimes modifies, as well as myths that he invents, although many of these contain mythical elements from various traditions. Plato is both a myth teller and a myth maker. In general, he uses myth to inculcate in his less philosophical readers noble beliefs and/or teach them various philosophical matters that may be too difficult for them to follow if expounded in a blunt, philosophical discourse. More and more scholars have argued in recent years that in Plato myth and philosophy are tightly bound together, in spite of his occasional claim that they are opposed modes of discourse.
Myths' function in Platos work
My aim in this paper is to show the results of a portion of my research about the functions of myth in Plato’s work. I would like to start by talking about the way some thinkers see myth generally. Secondly, I will summarize some main views of the place of myth in Plato’s dialogues. In a third and last part I will point out how Plato himself describes the manner in which myths persuade human souls.
Why are myths true: Plato on the veracity of myths
2020
Distinguishing myths in terms of their veracity had almost been neglected in Plato’s studies. In this article, the author focuses on Plato’s controversial claims about the truth-status of myths. An attempt is made to elucidate what he really had in mind when assessing the veracity of myths. The author claims that Plato, while discussing the epistemic status of myths, actually distinguished three kinds of myths in regard to what they narrate. Additionally, it is argued that he endorses three different kinds of truth value for myths: they can be either true or false, probable, or factually false but conveying some valuable truths. In the Republic II and III, Plato implicitly distinguishes the truth value of theological myths from the truth value of aetiological and normative ones, each of which are explained in detail in the article. In Plato’s view, the theological myths can be either true or false, because he determines the divine nature a priori. When ascribing the probable charact...
Myth, Allegory and Inspired Symbolism in Early and Late Antique Platonism
The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 2020
The idea that mythos and logos are incompatible, and that truth is a product of scientific and dialectical thinking, was certainly disproven by later Platonic philosophers. Deploying the works of Hesiod and Homer, Homeric Hymns and other such literature, they considered myth a valuable and significant augment to philosophical discourse. Plato’s denigration of myth gave his followers an incentive to read myth as allegory. The Stoics and first-century philosophers such as Philo, treated allegory as a legitimate interpretive strategy. The Middle Platonists incorporated myth, for example, deifying the Monad and Dyad, as did 2nd century Platonists. Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris (2nd century CE), for example, equates Isis and Osiris with form and matter: the god (Osiris) sows in matter (Isis) logoi (forms or ideas) from himself (De Iside. 372F). Porphyry’s allegorizing of Plato’s Cave of the Nymphs is another example. Plotinus is a strong influence on how the late Neoplatonists regarded myth...