Logos and Pistme: The Constitutive Role of Language in Plato's Theory of Knowledge

AbstractThis essay first differentiates the various meanings of the term <lógos> as it appears in Plato's dialogues Theaetetus and The Sophist. These are: the colloquy of the soul with itself, a single sentence, a proposing aloud, the enumeration of the constitutive elements of a whole and the giving of a specific difference; further, opinion and imagination. These meanings are then related to Plato's determination of knowledge (episteme) and therewith truth and falsity. One can be said to possess knowledge only when the universal contents of thought - dialogical thought - are set in relation to the perceivable, imagination or opinion. Reflections on the principle significance of possibility as such - a thematic not addressed by Plato - conclude the essay.