Plato and Gadamer. On the concept of the philosophical dialogue

Abstract

One of the most remarkable aspects of Plato’s philosophy is its form of representation, i.e. his dialogues. From what Plato says in some of his texts (especially in Phaedrus and in the Seventh Letter) but also from the openness and ambiguity of his own thinking, as reflected in many of his writings, it seems evident that their dialogic structure is not only an external attribute. I shall argue that doing philosophy and doing it by means of dialogues are the same thing for Plato. Moreover, many aspects of modern hermeneutics can be recognised in the way Plato’s dialogues are written. If we study the oeuvre of Hans-Georg Gadamer, this fact can be revealed particularly well. Gadamer, who called himself a “Platonist”, was not only one of the most influential representatives of philosophical hermeneutics, but also an outstanding scholar of ancient philosophy. He often refers to Plato in his writings on hermeneutics, and his own conception of hermeneutics can be read in many aspects as a commentary on how Plato described “dialogic” thinking and reasoning. Both his explicit references and his own theory of hermeneutics may show Plato’s influence on Gadamer’s work. And, on the other hand, Gadamer’s ideas can be made fruitful tools for interpreting the structure and scope of Plato’s dialogues. Refs 16.