Plato's Account of Falsehood
Plato's Account of Falsehood
Some philosophers argue that false speech and false belief are impossible. In the Sophist, Plato addresses this 'falsehood paradox', which purports to prove that one can neither say nor believe falsehoods (because to say or believe a falsehood is to say or believe something that is not, and is therefore not there to be said or believed). In this book Paolo Crivelli closely examines the whole dialogue and shows how Plato's brilliant solution to the paradox is radically different from those put forward by modern philosophers. He surveys and critically discusses the vast range of literature which has developed around the Sophist over the past fifty years, and provides original solutions to several problems that are so far unsolved. His book will be important for all who are interested in the Sophist and in ancient ontology and philosophy of language more generally.
- Provides an overall account and complete picture of the dialogue for Plato's Sophist
- Discusses a large amount of the relevant secondary literature on the Sophist
- Demonstrates Plato's brilliant solution to the falsehood paradox
Reviews & endorsements
'My overview obviously cannot do justice to the subtlety and richness of Crivelli's analysis … He soberly chooses among the interpretative possibilities, never yielding to speculative interpretations. The virtues of his account are comprehensiveness, detailed and clear presentation, and the philosophical coherence of the interpretation embraced.' László Bene, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Product details
February 2012Hardback
9780521199131
322 pages
229 × 152 × 19 mm
0.66kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. The sophist defined
- 2. Puzzles about not-being
- 3. Puzzles about being
- 4. The communion of kinds
- 5. Negation and not-being
- 6. Sentences, false sentences, and false beliefs
- Appendix: the Sophist on true and false sentences: formal presentation.
