TY - JOUR

T1 - Gorgias’ revising of ancient epistemology: On non-being by Gorgias and its paraphrases

AU - Volf, Marina

N1 - Funding Information: The study is funded by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) (No.19-18-00128 project). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The authors.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - The philosophical nature of the two versions of paraphrasing the Gorgias' treatise On Non-Being ' the skeptical version by Sextus Empiricus and the peripatetic version by an anonymous author ' are discussed. The paper gives a comparative analysis of the arguments upheld by the informants enunciating Gorgias' thoughts, demonstrates the range of philosophical problems, which Gorgias considered, judging by the narratives of his speech, and shows how both versions add to and clarify each other in terms of philosophical issues. The work provides insights as to how Gorgias modernizes and transforms the initial attitudes of Parmenides, shifting the reasoning plan: from how thought can be directed to an object and the qualities of this object to how thought can be directed to the non-existent. Accordingly, the problems of intentionality in the Gorgias' teaching are considered as well as the privileged status of any of mental states, the nature of word or speech as an autonomous way to develop knowledge about external objects, the issue of meaning as a reference, and inter-subjectivity in cognition. A conclusion is reached that giving preference to one of the paraphrasing versions considerably impoverishes our understanding of the Gorgias' teaching, while the joint analysis of both versions demonstrates the engagement of the sophistic issues, raised by Gorgias, in the general philosophic and, particularly, epistemological paradigm of the ancient as well as modern philosophy.

AB - The philosophical nature of the two versions of paraphrasing the Gorgias' treatise On Non-Being ' the skeptical version by Sextus Empiricus and the peripatetic version by an anonymous author ' are discussed. The paper gives a comparative analysis of the arguments upheld by the informants enunciating Gorgias' thoughts, demonstrates the range of philosophical problems, which Gorgias considered, judging by the narratives of his speech, and shows how both versions add to and clarify each other in terms of philosophical issues. The work provides insights as to how Gorgias modernizes and transforms the initial attitudes of Parmenides, shifting the reasoning plan: from how thought can be directed to an object and the qualities of this object to how thought can be directed to the non-existent. Accordingly, the problems of intentionality in the Gorgias' teaching are considered as well as the privileged status of any of mental states, the nature of word or speech as an autonomous way to develop knowledge about external objects, the issue of meaning as a reference, and inter-subjectivity in cognition. A conclusion is reached that giving preference to one of the paraphrasing versions considerably impoverishes our understanding of the Gorgias' teaching, while the joint analysis of both versions demonstrates the engagement of the sophistic issues, raised by Gorgias, in the general philosophic and, particularly, epistemological paradigm of the ancient as well as modern philosophy.

KW - Ancient epistemology

KW - Argumentation

KW - Argumentative structure

KW - Gorgias

KW - Parmenides

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124655036&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.14195/1984-249X_31_27

DO - 10.14195/1984-249X_31_27

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85124655036

JO - Revista Archai

JF - Revista Archai

SN - 2179-4960

IS - 31

M1 - e03127

ER -