Ideal and Culture of Knowledge in Plato

The volume collects the contributions to an international conference held at the University of Frankfurt on the relationship between epistemic practices (culture of knowledge) and the concept of knowledge (ideal of knowledge) in Plato. For Plato, both aspects of knowledge were not only of equal importance, he was also well aware of their interdependence, taking into account that no philosopher has yet reached the epistemic level of knowledge. His acknowledgement of this interdependence is, as the papers of this volume show, further counter-evidence against the traditional reading that attributes to Plato a two-worlds-view which tries to keep ordinary belief and philosophical knowledge ontologically distinct. The contributions include essays from both ancient philosophers and ancient historians. Topics of the essays are e.g. the conception of education in the "Republic", the epistemic ascent in the "Symposion", the knowledge of knowledge in the "Charmides", the role of perception in the "Theaetetus" and the sophistic environment of Plato.