Sarale Ben Asher

Topic: Define ‘definition’: Socratic definition and its subject-matter

Socratic philosophy consists in defining things like “courage,” “virtue,” and “love.” We will ask about this practice in general; what is Socrates doing when he asks people ‘what is’ questions? What is the subject-matter of his questioning? How do he and his interlocutors pursue their common goal? We will focus first on the “what is” question as it appears in the early dialogues. Socrates asks his questions, which he insists are prior to his interlocutors' concerns, with great urgency. But why should Socrates’ questions override other questions? Is socratic questioning about “courage,” “virtue” or “justice” prior to other questions we ask or simply different? Modern readers of Plato often accuse Socratic philosophy of moving indiscriminately between questions about terms in ordinary language, what a word signifies, and the real essence of what is so signified, the object of scientific study. Has Socrates failed to distinguish between what is prior for us and what is prior by nature? In the second part of the course we will continue to ask about definition and its object by reading parts of dialogues from the middle and later period. Our focus in this part of the course will be on the method of collection and division as a way of defining things. We will focus on the unity of definition, its relationship to forms, and the difference between scientific taxonomy and the philosophical need to comprehend the unity of beings by defining.