L'Aisthesis e le strategie argomentative di Platone nel Teeteto

Although the structure of Plato's Theaetetus appears simple, it is actually complex, due to a variety of narrative, compositional, and conceptual devices used by Plato in this work. To fully understand the ideas in this work, therefore, we must take into consideration the ways in which the author, through his characters, conducts his argumentation. This is especially true in regard to the question of the epistemological value of perception, an important theme of the dialogue. This book focuses on the dual planes of Plato's Theaetetus--the dramatic plane, which centers around the dynamic of the ongoing dialectical confrontation, and the doctrinal plane, more profound and less apparent, on which Plato introduces his theoretical convictions. Plato's preoccupation with opposing all forms of sensism, along with his need to justify the possibility of a cognitive ascent that begins with the empirical, is the source of his mode of treatment of "aisthesis" and of the argumentative strategies that he adopts in the Theaetetus.