Sunday, March 26, 2017

Knowledge and Truth

In Book VI of the Republic, Socrates claims that the highest form of wisdom is truth, and then goes on to say that a philosopher should be preoccupied with finding every kind of truth. I found this phrasing to be interesting. By saying there are different kinds of truths, does Socrates mean the truth about various subjects, or that truth comes in multiple forms? I think the second interpretation is more interesting, though I'm not sure that's what Plato intended. Is Socrates potentially saying that truth is not just what is clearly real, that perhaps a different lens is needed in order to understand all the different kinds of truths in the world? And if so, how does the limitation of artists in the city of words lead to or hinder the pursuit of truth?
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1 comment:

  1. Matt SillimanApril 2, 2017 at 2:23 PM

    This could be a significant admission, indeed, that there might be more than one kind of truth, and that this might bear on epistemic methods involving the so-called imitative arts.

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