@inbook{fd973aab844e400b8f73735f8dd89b72,
title = "Dialectic as a Way of Life: Hans-Georg Gadamer{\textquoteright}s Interpretation of Plato",
abstract = "In this chapter, Morten S. Thaning argues that Gadamer{\textquoteright}s interpretation of Platonic dialectic should be regarded as a double response aimed at answering the Aristotelian critique of Plato{\textquoteright}s conception of forms as well as the later Heidegger{\textquoteright}s claim that Plato{\textquoteright}s philosophy initiates the “forgetting of Being” allegedly characterizing the Western metaphysical tradition. The chapter sets out from Gadamer{\textquoteright}s central claim that Plato{\textquoteright}s dialogues must be read as dramatic depictions of the Socratic practice of philosophy and argues that a major aim of Gadamer is to demonstrate that this way of looking at Plato helps us see responsibility as the central concern in Plato{\textquoteright}s Socratic conception of philosophy. The main part of the chapter then seeks to clarify Gadamer{\textquoteright}s heterodox interpretation of dialectic. Thaning argues that taking the Socratic avowal of ignorance sincerely constitutes the core of Gadamer{\textquoteright}s interpretation and that this leads Gadamer to deny that dialectic can be understood in terms of expert (moral) knowledge. The chapter further seeks to illustrate how Gadamer{\textquoteright}s interpretation of a number of core descriptions of dialectic in Plato{\textquoteright}s dialogues, as well as the central description of the form or idea of the Good in Plato{\textquoteright}s Republic, convincingly and consistently points to a conception of dialectic according to which it is both the capacity to conduct a dialogue and an expression of human life as such.",
author = "Thaning, {Morten S{\o}rensen}",
year = "2021",
doi = "10.1163/9789004446779_008",
language = "English",
isbn = "9789004446762",
series = "Studies in Contemporary Phenomenology",
publisher = "Brill",
pages = "178--201",
editor = "Kristian Larsen and Gilbert, {P{\aa}l Rykkja}",
booktitle = "Phenomenological Interpretations of Ancient Philosophy",
address = "Netherlands",
}