Plato's Sophist

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This reading of the Sophist offers a fresh perspective on Plato's writing technique, a central concern for scholars. The thesis posits that Plato excels as a teacher in written form, emphasizing the writer's responsibility to engage the reader. He believes philosophy is both a collaborative effort and a personal journey, requiring the master to exercise 'educational forbearance' to avoid stifling the learner's quest for truth. This approach fosters a teaching style that hints at truth without revealing it outright, necessitating the reader's active involvement in processing the information. Viewed as a 'serious game,' the Platonic dialogues encourage readers to uncover truth with minimal guidance. In the Sophist, numerous Platonic suggestions emerge, including the complexity of the diairetic method, the expansion and fulfillment of Parmenides' ideas, and the critical issue of defining reality. This definition is not established through ontology but through a theoretical exploration of the concepts of whole and part, along with the relationship between one, whole, and all, culminating in the interplay of 'doing' and 'suffering.'