Plato's Political Epistemology

Abstract

This article explores how Socrates in the Theaetetus addresses the challenge of relativism and thereby grounds philosophy, arguing that the key to this project is his meticulous attention to the social, moral, and status-seeking phenomena that according to Socratic philosophy constitute our nature as political beings. The dialogue illustrates the human search for knowledge and illuminates the ways this search is often impeded by such passions as fear, pride, hope, acquisitiveness, and the desire for victory and honor. Where the Republic and Phaedo hold out hope that perfect knowledge may be found by escaping to a higher realm of pure ideas, the more sober Theaetetus shows that it is precisely the characteristics that make us political that make us able to know at all. The dialogue thus lays the groundwork for understanding, not knowledge as an incorruptible possession, but knowing as a thoroughly human activity.