| Abstract [eng] |
This is an attempt to read anew the 4th tetralogy of Plato’s dialogues on the soul (Symposium, Phaedrus, The Republic and Phaedo) in the light of the viewpoint that the texts of Greek philosophy appeared not just an outcome of the effort to write down the results of theoretical thinking. In accordance with the view of some historians of philosophy that philosophizing should be treated as a way of life of Greek philosophers, an interrelation between the latter’s acting and talking (thinking) is sought. It is attempted to reconstruct the aims and contents of philosophizing from the point of view that life activity was the fundamental for a Greek philosopher. In the post-modern terms, Plato dialogues are treated as the said (le dit) and their contents are read by means of reconstructing the circumstances of the Greek saying (le dire). Plato made an effort to elucidate the origin and vocation of philosophy in the aforesaid dialogues and consequently dealt with the fundamental problems of philosophy, namely, with the problems of being, knowledge and values. The saying, that presumably generated Greek philosophy, was related to rhapsodic telling while Plato’s reasoning – to the utterances of some pre-Socratic philosophers, thus some original conclusions concerning Plato’s solutions of the fundamental problems of philosophy and the origins of Greek philosophizing are reached. As Plato’s dialogues are interpreted from the position of post-modern thinking, the position itself needs to be elucidated. Therefore, the interpretation is supported by the analysis of the main writings of the founder of modern thinking, René Descartes, namely, Rules for the Direction of the Mind, Discourse on the Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. The ideas of both classical philosophers are compared and some parallels discovered, which, in its turn, has been helpful in revealing the meaning of some conventionally ignored passages of Plato‘s dialogues and facilitated a better insight into the intentions of Cartesian reasoning. |
