plato’s account of falsehood -...

PLATO’S ACCOUNT OFFALSEHOOD

In the Sophist, Plato addresses the ‘falsehood paradox’, an argumentwhich purports to prove that one can neither say nor believe falsehoods(because to say or believe a falsehood is to say or believe something thatis not, and is therefore not there to be said or believed). In this bookPaolo Crivelli closely examines the whole dialogue and shows howPlato’s brilliant solution to the paradox is radically different fromthose put forward by many modern philosophers. He surveys andcritically discusses the vast range of literature which has developedaround the Sophist over the past fifty years, and provides originalsolutions to several problems. His book will be important for all whoare interested in the Sophist and in ancient ontology and philosophyof language more generally.

paolo crivelli is Professor of Ancient Philosophy at theUniversity of Geneva. He is the author of Aristotle on Truth(Cambridge, 2004).

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PLATO’S ACCOUNT OFFALSEHOODA Study of the Sophist

PAOLO CRIVELLI






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c© Paolo Crivelli, 2012

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First published 2012

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Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication dataCrivelli, Paolo, Dr.

Plato’s account of falsehood : a study of the Sophist / Paolo Crivelli.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.isbn 978-0-521-19913-1 (hardback)

1. Plato. Sophist. 2. Ontology. 3. Truthfulness and falsehood. 4. Languageand languages – Philosophy. 5. Meaning (Philosophy) I. Title.

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For Annamaria






Contents

Acknowledgements page ixAbbreviations of titles of Plato’s works xNote on the text xi

Introduction 10.1 The main problems addressed by the Sophist and their solutions 10.2 Methodology 11

1 The sophist defined 131.1 Characters and task of the dialogue 131.2 The method of division 151.3 The master of appearance 23

2 Puzzles about not-being 282.1 What is not is unsayable 282.2 Images are impossible 482.3 Falsehood is impossible 512.4 False beliefs and false sentences described 60

3 Puzzles about being 713.1 How many beings are there? 713.2 What are beings like? 863.3 The refutation of the final characterization of being 95

4 The communion of kinds 1024.1 The late-learners 1034.2 The combination of kinds 1094.3 Identity and difference are different from change and stability 1184.4 Identity is different from being 1364.5 Difference is different from being 1404.6 Apparently inconsistent sentences 1494.7 Not-being and difference 166

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viii Contents

5 Negation and not-being 1775.1 Negative predication 1775.2 Negative kinds 2045.3 The being of not-being 214

6 Sentences, false sentences, and false belief 2216.1 Sentences 2216.2 False sentences 2336.3 False belief 259

Appendix: The Sophist on true and false sentences: formalpresentation 261

References 275Index of names 290Index of subjects 294Index of passages cited 296






Acknowledgements

Drafts of parts of this book were presented in Cambridge, Florence, andOxford. The Arts and Humanities Research Council funded one term ofsabbatical leave. Among the individuals who in various ways contributed tobring the project to completion, I should like to thank Francesco Ademollo,Francesco Adorno, Alexander Bown, Lesley Brown, Ettore Casari, WalterCavini, David Charles, Thomas Coates, Francesco Del Punta, MichaelFrede, Fritz-Gregor Herrmann, Stefan Koller, Scott Liddle, Stephen Menn,Benjamin Morison, Massimo Mugnai, Robert Parker, David Robinson,Annamaria Schiaparelli, Christopher Strachan, and Tim Williamson. I amgrateful also to two anonymous referees for Cambridge University Press,who provided a wealth of comments and saved me from many mistakes.Robert Colborn skilfully prepared the index of names and that of passagescited, and the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Oxford generouslyprovided funds for this. The responsibility for the remaining errors is ofcourse only mine.

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Abbreviations of titles of Plato’s works

Alc. 1, 2 Alcibiades 1, 2Ap. ApologiaChrm. CharmidesCra. CratylusCri. CritoCriti. CritiasEp. EpistulaEuthd. EuthydemusEuthphr. EuthyphroGrg. GorgiasHp.Ma., Mi. Hippias Major, MinorLg. LegesLy. LysisMen. MenoPhd. PhaedoPhdr. PhaedrusPhlb. PhilebusPlt. PoliticusPrm. ParmenidesPrt. ProtagorasR. RespublicaSmp. SymposiumSph. SophistaTht. TheaetetusTi. TimaeusVirt. De virtute

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Note on the text

References to pages, sections, and lines of Plato’s works are based onBurnet’s edition except for vol. 1, where I use the edition by E. A. Duke,W. F. Hicken, W. S. M. Nicoll, D. B. Robinson, and J. C. G. Strachan.

‘LSJ’ abbreviates the well-known Greek–English lexicon. For Greekauthors I use LSJ’s abbreviations. For Latin authors, I employ abbrevi-ations that are easy to decode.

‘Cf.’ at the beginning of a footnote indicates that the passages subse-quently referred to express views close to those formulated in the corre-sponding portion of the main text. If I disagree with an author, I say soexplicitly (I never use ‘cf.’ in case of disagreement).

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