Gorgias and Antilogic in Plato's Parmenides

Mathilde Brémond (1, 2)

1 PHIER - Laboratoire Philosophies et Rationalités
2 CRPA - Centre de recherches sur la pensée antique : CENTRE LEON ROBIN

This paper focuses on the influence of Gorgias and his antilogic method on the second part of the Parmenides. I will show that Plato was directly inspired by Gorgias' treatise On Not-Being, not only in specific passages but also and more importantly in his whole approach and reasoning. This use of the sophist can shed light, as I will show, on one of the most disputed questions in Platonic studies, namely the aim of the second part of the Parmenides. I will finally highlight the similarities between the Gorgian method Plato uses in the Parmenides and a practice he otherwise condemns, namely antilogic.

Mots clés: Gorgias; dialectic; sophists; method; antilogic

Domaines: Philosophie; Etudes classiques

Mathilde Brémond. Gorgias and Antilogic in Plato's Parmenides. Plato's Parmenides: selected papers of the twelfth Symposium Platonicum, 2022. ⟨hal-03878964⟩