he article shows that several studies on the meaning of νοῦς, νόησις, νοεῖν, and derivatives in pre-Platonic literature, especially in Homer, but also in some pre-Socratic thinkers, have concluded that these terms are never used in strictly abstract situations, but, on the contrary, always appear linked to emotions connected to concrete events. Plato is certainly the main “author” to be studied when it comes to the use of this terminology in cognitive functions. Indeed, he was the first to systematize a (...) specialized vocabulary for these functions, and emphatically use these terms in passages of the Middle dialogues, when, according to Aristotle’s account of his Philosophy, in _Metaphysics_ A 6, unlike Socrates, he began to suppose that the essence (οὐσία) of things is not in the things themselves, but lies beyond them, thus creating a separation (χωρισμός) which will be the fundamental source of all the difficulties concerning the “Theory of Ideas”. After hypothesizing the existence of the Ideas, abstract entities he considered more real than material ones, he created _a_ special type of apprehension capable of capturing invisible, intelligible entities, νόησις, thus introducing a new dimension of reality: a previously non-existent, invisible, and radically abstract one. Based on these assumptions, the article ends by raising a series of questions to be addressed in a future approach to the same subject. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that Socrates' speech in Plato’s Symposium cannot by itself express Plato’s view of love. All the non-philosophical speeches, each standing for a different contemporary view of love, should be taken into serious consideration, for they are not mere pastiches of empty theories. In fact, they seem to have been placed there to have their intellectual strength tested by philosophy, for not only their contents reveal commonsensical accepted wisdom, but their discursive beauty powerfully impresses the audience, (...) making them true challenges to the cold, though persuasive logos of philosophy. Furthermore, placing Alcibiades' speech right after Diotima’s austere account of love, when the program of speeches as proposed seemed to have arrived at an end, would be unnecessary, if Plato’s aim were simply to disapprove Alcibiades’ behavior to excuse Socrates political attitudes, as it is assumed by Leon Robin in his Notice to his famous translation to the Belles Lettres edition. On the contrary, Alcibiades’ speech sounds more like a criticism of Socratic love made by Plato himself. (shrink)

Plotino, o filósofo que viveu no século III d.C. considerava-se um exegeta de antigas doutrinas, maximamente de Platão.