Abstract

ANCHEPE, Ignacio Miguel. Do the ghosts exist? On image (eidolon) and knowledge in the sophist Plato. Prax. filos. [online]. 2017, n.44, pp.37-58. ISSN 0120-4688.

In Sophist, Plato revises some key points to his theory of knowledge, such as the theory of Forms and the notion of image (eídolon). According to some interpreters (Ringbom, Palumbo, Deleuze, Audouard), this dialogue would contain a decisive novelty: there is a remarkable correspondence between true and false knowledge, because both rely on images, the true ones on the eikón and the false ones on the eídolon (according to previous dialogues, the image is restricted to the lower forms of knowledge, bordering with appearance and false). In this paper, I will discuss these interpretations. There is no doubt that Sophist revises the status of false images, nevertheless, I think it does not manage to reach the aforementioned equation between both types of knowledge. Even in this dialogue -I will argue- true knowledge continues operating in a qualitatively different mode regarding the false knowledge, without using images or doing so as little as possible.

Keywords : eídolon; simulacrum; image; Sophist; Plato.

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