NOCTUA
La tradizione filosofica dall’antico al moderno
History of Philosophy from the Ancient to the Modern Age
Autore / Author: Walter Lapini
Affiliazione / Author affiliation: Università degli Studi di Genova
Titolo / Title: L’hermeneus prima dell’ermeneutica: Platone e la filosofizzazione coatta
Abstract: The essay aims at demonstrating that it is dangerous to try to reconstruct a philosophical doctrine taking into account solely or predominantly the analysis of vocabulary. This is particularly true of the philosophical doctrines of the ancients, who generally did not feel obliged to adopt a coherent and unambiguous technical terminology. Starting from the essay of F. Camera, Sui molteplici significati di hermeneia in Platone, which was published in 2004 and then re-edited in 2011 with few modifications but with a different title (Platone e l’ermenutica), the author shows that the method of facing Plato’s hermeneutics through the ἑρμηνεύειν-words is a source of distortions and over-interpretations; that is, it causes excessive density and conceptual significance to be attributed to words used instead in their current meaning. One must remember, even if it should be well known to anyone who devotes himself to these themes, that not all words, expressions and concepts become philosophical entities only because they appear in the works of an author tagged “philosophy.”
Keywords: Plato; Hermes; Plato’s Cratylus; Plato’s Epinomis; hermeneutics; philosophical technical vocabulary.
English title: The Hermeneus Before Hermeneutics: Plato and Forced Philosophization
DOI: 10.14640/NoctuaVI7
Anno / Volume: VI
Fascicolo / Issue: 1-2
Pagine / Pages: 325–345
Pubblicazione / Publication date: 15/06/2019
Permalink: https://dx.doi.org/10.14640/NoctuaVI7
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ISSN 2284-1180