Plato's account of falsehood
Subtitle: a study of the Sophist
By: Paolo Crivelli
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 309
ISBN-13: 9780521199131
Subjects: PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical; Meaning (Philosophy); Ontology; Philosophy; Language and languages; Truthfulness and falsehood
Description: "Some philosophers argue that false speech and false belief are impossible. In the Sophist, Plato addresses this 'falsehood paradox', which purports to prove that one can neither say nor believe falsehoods (because to say or believe a falsehood is to say or believe something that is not, and is therefore not there to be said or believed). In this book Paolo Crivelli closely examines the whole dialogue and shows how Plato's brilliant solution to the paradox is radically different from those put forward by modern philosophers. He surveys and critically discusses the vast range of literature which has developed around the Sophist over the past fifty years, and provides original solutions to several problems that are so far unsolved. His book will be important for all who are interested in the Sophist and in ancient ontology and philosophy of language more generally"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction; 1. The sophist defined; 2. Puzzles about not-being; 3. Puzzles about being; 4. The communion of kinds; 5. Negation and not-being; 6. Sentences, false sentences, and false beliefs; Appendix: the Sophist on true and false sentences: formal presentation.