Teoria idei : ewolucja myśli Platońskiej

Abstract

The principal aim of the analyses presented in the work in question is to show the development of the Platonic theory of ideas, starting with the possible conditions of formulating that theory, and ending with its ultimate, mature form, i.e. one that it takes in the so called theory of ideal numbers, and theory of principles. We have to do here with an integral reconstruction of the theory of ideas in the form in which it is presented in the Platonic exoteric science (i.e. the written dialogues), and the esoteric (i.e. unwritten) science. The author’s intention is to prove that the theory of ideas is ideas is not a set of disconnected, philosophical theorems and intuitions, ‘scattered’ haphazardly in various dialogues, but rather an ordered process of development in which several stages can be distinguished. In this sense, the discussed theory should be understood in an evolutionary fashion. The author disclaims then the approach according to which each dialogue is to be discussed as a closed, isolated whole, and the links between the dialogues are only subsequently to be looked for, which is supposed to yield a reconstruction of the Platonic ontology. This approach seems to suggest that the theory of ideas and the ontology proper to it constitute but a ’complement’ in the discussion of the specific questions belonging to each dialogue. In this way, however, we withdraw the recognition of the autonomous character of the ontological research. The present work puts forward a suggestion according to which the solution of “specific” problems appearing in particular dialogues depends entirely on the accepted, precisely determined ontological perspective which, for this reason, should be recognised as the point of departure and the ultimate foundation. In this situation, it is obvious that the subject matter of the dialogues cannot be treated as a leitmotif of the conducted analyses. Instead of this, we should rather turn to ontological problems which provide each time a foundation for the dialogues. One may also find in the present work the conviction voiced that the ultimate form the theory of ideas takes, i.e. the theory of ideal numbers and principles, constitutes a result of Plato’s grappling with numerous difficulties that appeared at the exoteric stage of the theory’s formulation. In this way, an interpretative stance is arrived at which places the considerations contained in the present work on a different cognitive horizon than is the case with the Tübingen School, or G. Reale’s statements. The representatives of the Tübingen School (particularly Gaiser and Krämer) claim that the Platonic theory of principles precedes the concept of ideas as it appeared in the exoteric writings, which is why they prefer to conduct an interpretation of the dialogues from the point of view of the “unwritten knowledge” . G. Reale, in his turn, proposes a rejection of the dialogues as the source on the basis of which Plato’s thought could be reconstructed. In the discussed work, a different theoretical stance has been put forward which, while it stops short of questioning the above mentioned researchers’ achievements, puts them in a different theoretical perspective. An especially important problem, taken up during the research carried out here, is to determine the ontological status of the Platonic ideas. A new concept of understanding ideas, known as the theory of “the idea as a measure”, has been put forward. It is a fundamental link in the presented reasoning, and in the context of the analyses of the Platonic thought it is one of the fundamental elements of that thought’s expounding. Further on, the influence of the contemporary development of mathematics on the Platonic thought has been discussed. This problem is of crucial importance for the interpretation of the Platonic thought. It is exactly in mathematics that the reason should be sought after why the ultimate version of the Platonic theory of ideas took the form of the theory of ideal numbers and theory of principles. Thus we are led to the conclusion that mathematics was for the late Plato an exemplification of his theory. The research on the development of Plato’s ontological views is completed by an analysis of problems related to the theory of cognition. The Platonic axiomatic method, the dialectic method, and the concept of the noetic view have all been considered. Attention has also been paid to the possibility of a cognitive access by means of the “anamnestic procedure” . A lot of space has been devoted to a discussion of the theory of ideal numbers, and theory of principles, while attempting, on the basis of an analysis of such dialogues as Parmenides, Philebus, Timaeus, the so called “intermediate tradition”, and the results of the commentators’ research, to reconstruct the principal elements of that theory. In the work’s conclusion we come across an attempt to analyse the reasons why the Platonic philosophy continues to be so attractive for many modem scientists and thinkers.