Plato's Sophist in Antiquity

Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-009-76183-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 400 Seiten, Gewicht: 500 g

Reihe: Cambridge Texts and Studies in Platonism

Plato's Sophist in Antiquity offers the first comprehensive account of how one of Plato's most challenging and influential dialogues was read, interpreted, and transformed throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Spanning from the Early Academy to Late Neoplatonism, the volume unites leading scholars in a systematic investigation of the Sophist's complex afterlife. Combining historical depth with philosophical insight, it uncovers how ancient thinkers – Aristotle, the Stoics, Plutarch, Plotinus, Porphyry, Proclus, and others – engaged with the dialogue's central questions about being, non-being, truth and falsehood, identity and difference, linguistic reference, and much else. By tracing these rich trajectories of reception, the book not only fills a major gap in Platonic studies but also demonstrates the continuing vitality of the Sophist for contemporary debates in metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of language.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Granieri, Roberto

Fronterotta, Francesco

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction Roberto Granieri and Francesco Fronterotta; 1. Categories, being and not-being: the sophist in the early academy Roberto Granieri; 2. Traces of the sophist in Xenocrates' account of the generation of the soul? Some cautious considerations Giulia De Cesaris; 3. Butchering kinds: Aristotle on Plato's dichotomous, negative, and cross-cutting divisions Justin Vlasits; 4. Aristotle on 'the other principle', the opposites, and Plato's sophist Laura Castelli; 5. The reception of the sophist in Aristotle's metaphysics: being as truth and not-being as falsehood; and knowledge-itself and motion-itself Stephen Menn; 6. Stoic reactions to Plato's sophist Francesco Ademollo; 7. The role of the sophist in Plutarch's onto-theology Arianna Piazzalunga; 8. The role of Plato's sophist in Plutarch's cosmology: the five greatest kinds and the ontological structure of the world-soul Francesco Caruso; 9. Genera of being and the structure of intellect Plotinus' exegesis of the sophist in ennead VI 2 [43] Christian Tornau; 10. Inverted Sumploke. How Does the Dialectician Grasp the Unity of Intellect (Plotinus, Enn. VI.7 (38); VI.2 (43); III.7 (45))? Alexandra Michalewski; 11. Plotinus and porphyry on Plato's sophist Riccardo Chiaradonna; 12. Porphyry and Iamblichus as Readers of the Sophist: Some Marginal Annotations Daniela P. Taormina; 13. Late ancient Platonism and modern (Fregean) predication theory. Some remarks on Proclus' reception of Plato's sophist Benedikt Strobel; 14. The two meanings of not-being as nothingness: Damascius' reading of Plato's sophist Anna Motta.

Über Autor(innen)

Fronterotta, Francesco
Francesco Fronterotta is Full Professor of History of Philosophy at Sapienza University of Rome. He works mainly on pre-Socratic thought, Plato, and the history of ancient and modern Platonic tradition. He has translated and annotated numerous dialogues by Plato, Heraclitus' fragments, and contributed to a new French translation of Plotinus' Enneads.

Granieri, Roberto
Roberto Granieri is Assistant Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Roma Tre University. He works primarily on metaphysical issues in Plato, ancient Platonism, and Aristotle. On these subjects he has published articles in leading journals, and the book Conoscere l'essere. Platone, Aristotele e la costruzione della filosofia prima (Bologna, 2024).