[German version] Theory of anamnesis. ‘Learning is remembering’ (ἡ μάθησις ἀνάμνησις; hē máthēsis anámnēsis) is Plato's short phrase (Men. 81e 5, Phd. 72e 5, 76a 8) for the idea of anamnesis based upon the Pythagorean belief about the soul. In the Meno, anamnesis is used as an argument against the eristic statement that one cannot inquire about anything (80d-86c). In the Phaedo, knowledge of the ideas, which cannot be empirically acquired, is seen as proof for the immortality of the soul, which viewed the ideas before entering the body (72e-77a). In the Phaedrus, conceptual thinking an…

[German version] from the Greek μαιευτική ( maieutikḗ, sc. téchnē), ‘midwifery. In Plato's dialogue Theaetetus (148e-151d) Socrates compares his ability to recognize whether or not hidden wisdom lies dormant in others, and to help them if necessary to bring it to light, with the craft of his mother, the midwife ( maía) Phaenarete, and of midwives in general, to recognize pregnancies and to help deliver the baby. It is contested whether or not the historical Socrates used this comparison but the stronger arguments speak against it. In Middle Plat…

[German version] A. Etymology The semantic field memory/recollection can be traced back in Greek and Latin - apart from recordor and recordatio, both derivations from cor - to the Indo-European root men-. This dual etymology suggests an inner but not necessarily cognitive activity [1. 11, 20]. Baroin, Catherine (Paris) [German version] B. Greece There is a correlation between μνήμη ( mnḗmē), human memory, and Μνημοσύνη ( Mnēmosýnē ), the mother of the Muses: the Muses exist in an all-encompassing region of knowledge and truth (ἀλήθεια/ alḗtheia, is the opposite of forgetting, λήθη/ lḗt…

[German version] (Κέβης; Kébēs) from Thebes. Friend of Socrates (Pl. Crit. 45b; Xen. Mem. 1,2,48; 3,11,17); together with his companion Simmias  Socrates' main interlocutor in Plato's ‘Phaedon’. According to Pl. Phd. 61d-e, before coming to Athens C. met the Pythagorean  Philolaus in Thebes, but was himself not a Pythagorean [1]. In Diog. Laert. 2,125 three dialogues (not extant), with the titles Pínax (‘Painting), Hebdómē (‘The Seventh Day) and Phrýnichos, are attributed to C. The dialogue entitled Pínax and falsely attributed to C. was probably written during the 1st …

[German version] (Greek ἀπορία [ aporía], opposite εὐπορία [ euporía], Latin dubitatio) means hopelessness, distress, embarrassment and neediness (Xen. An. 5,6,10; Hdt. 1,72,2; Thuc. 1,11,11). In the Meno, Plato adds the inability to procure necessities to the list of meanings (Cra. 415c 5; Symp. 203e, Men. 78c ff.). In Plato's dialogues, aporia describes a state of being (the experience of a need) as well as the cause for this state (the inherent philosophical problem). Aporia is the result of an elenctic conversation, i…

[German version] A. Definition Since K. Praechter, Middle Platonism has been the term for the period of ancient Platonism from the return of the Platonic Academy to dogmatism under Antiochus [20] of Ascalon (died 69 BC) until the beginning of Neoplatonism under Plotinus (died 270 AD; Dogmatists [1]; Neoplatonists). The term is modern, but the periodization is ancient in as far as the Neoplatonists themselves distinguished between the ‘old exegetes’ before Plotinus and the ‘new ones’ (Procl. in Pl. …