PHIL 909 Plato's Theaetetus and Sophist

This course provides a detailed examination of two Platonic dialogues that have been written as a sequence, the Theaetetus and the Sophist. There is an organic continuity between the themes addressed in the two texts and the methods of dialectical investigation employed in them. The Theaetetus inquires into the nature of knowledge, while the Sophist searches for the nature of sophistry and its relation to knowledge and ignorance. In addressing these issues we are going to explore some of the most challenging areas of Plato's metaphysics, ethics, and epistemology.