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Chapter 13 - Philebus, Laws, and Self-Ignorance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 November 2018

James M. Ambury
Affiliation:
King's College, Pennsylvania
Andy German
Affiliation:
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
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Summary

This chapter distinguishes awareness of one’s ignorance, or “simple” ignorance, from ignorance of that ignorance, or “double” ignorance. The author illustrates how Plato is careful to show that self-ignorance and its corresponding pretense to knowledge isolates the interlocutor in a world of illusions at the same time as it alienates her from herself and others. Spanning dialogues that include, among others, the Sophist, Statesman, and Philebus, the author treats the erotics of both double and simple ignorance. The flight from recognition of ignorance that we find in the former is not merely epistemological but entails a failure to love oneself and others in their erotic complexity. On the other hand, the embrace of ignorance we find in the latter results in a love of self and other as what they are: erotic and ambiguous souls who could just as easily be Typhonic monsters as they could be divine beings.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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