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Leonidas Bargeliotes
UDC 162.6 Plato
PLATO AS A MEDIATOR OF EAST AND WEST:
THE PARADIGM CASES OF K. WANG
AND J. ANTON
It is a common “topos" that the Hellenic art of Dialectic has
been introduced by Socrates and perfected by Plato. Plato has conceived
Dialectic as the meeting of minds on a plane of intellectual
contest for excellence of the whole man in soul and body. This
means that genuine and fruitful “dialogos" presupposes first of all
the ability of the partners to have a real knowledge and understanding
of what justice, virtue, friendship and the like are. The real
knowledge of the interlocutors enables both parts and partners to
give and receive an account of the subject matter, to be involved in
a process of questioning and answering and to achieve a mutual understanding
of their subject matter.
This kind of dialectic provides the interplay of its own conflicting
opposites: philosophy and “doxosophia", objectivity and subjectivity,
freedom and arbitrariness, deliberation of nous and misconceptions.
The procedure for the formation of definition presupposes
not only the general concepts and laws of thought, but also
the midwifery, “maieytik0" movement from the particular to the
general and from the paradigm to the rule. In its negative movement
the elenchos and the refutation bring the interlocutor to recognition
of his ignorance, thus, paving the way for an applied positive procedure
of the method. This is the logic of growth by and through
which he becomes mature, responsible and aware of his limitations,
and can, therefore, effectively criticize himself and others.
The activity of giving and receiving an account through which
knowledge is achieved, is the highest of all studies, the peak of our
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