Peritrope

Peritrope

The Peritrope is Socrates' argument against Protagoras' view of relative truth, as presented in Plato's book known as "Theatetus" (169–171e). The name comes from the ancient Greek for "turning around". Sextus Empiricus is attributed with coining the appellation in a commentary on the passage. The name has been in continuous use ever since, as Socrates' argument provides the foundation for classical propositional logic and hence much of traditional western philosophy (or analytic philosophy). Well-known attestations of "Peritrope" include Avicenna and Thomas Aquinas, and in modern times Myles Burnyeat and many others. The word is occasionally used to describe argument forms similar in nature to that of Socrates' overturning of Protagoras.

For many centuries the Peritrope was used primarily as a tool for refuting skepticism. Skepticism proposes that "There is no truth", which can be challenged by responding with the Peritrope — the rhetorical question, "Well, then, isn't "that" true?" Skepticism and similar views are considered to be "self-refuting." In other words, a philosopher has retained what he has disavowed in and by the disavowal itself. In general, versions of the Peritrope can be used to challenge many kinds of assertion that universality is impossibile.

In "What Plato Said", Paul Shorey notes: "The first argument advanced by Socrates is the so-called "peritrope", to use the later technical term, that the opinion of Protagoras destroys itself, for, if truth is what each man troweth, and the majority of mankind in fact repudiates Protagoras' definition of truth, it is on Protagoras' own pragmatic showing more often false than true".

ee also

Self-refuting idea

External links

*Myles Fredric Burnyeat, [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2183729 'Protagoras and Self-Refutation in Plato's Theaetetus',] "The Philosophical Review", 85 (1976): 172-195.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Peritrope — Eine Peritropè bezeichnet einen Sachverhalt, in der eine Behauptung aufgestellt wird, deren Widerlegung paradoxerweise die Behauptung selbst wieder untermauert. Ein Beispiel findet man in der Behauptung Mindestens eine Behauptung ist wahr .… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Peritropè — Eine Peritropè bezeichnet einen Sachverhalt, in der eine Behauptung aufgestellt wird, deren Widerlegung paradoxerweise die Behauptung selbst wieder untermauert. Ein Beispiel findet man in der Behauptung Mindestens eine Behauptung ist wahr .… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • peritrope — The turning of the tables, whereby Plato (Theaetetus, 171 a) opposes the relativism of Protagoras . Protagoras holds the doctrine that whatever seems true for a person is true for them; hence he must accept that those who believe that the… …   Philosophy dictionary

  • péritrope — (pé ri tro p ) adj. Terme de botanique. Qui se dirige de l axe du fruit vers les côtés du péricarpe. Graines péritropes. ÉTYMOLOGIE    Péri 3..., et du grec, tourner …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • peritrope — …   Useful english dictionary

  • Divine command theory — This article is about the meta ethical theory. For the divine command theory of happiness, see Positive psychology. Divine command theory is the meta ethical view about the semantics or meaning of ethical sentences, which claims that ethical… …   Wikipedia

  • List of topics in ancient philosophy — * Abderites * Academy * Acumenus * Aenesidemus * Aeschines Socraticus * Aetius (philosopher) * Albinus (philosopher) * Alcmaeon of Croton * Alexander of Aphrodisias * Allegory of the cave * Analogy of the divided line * Anaxagoras * Anaximenes of …   Wikipedia

  • Ishmael effect — The claimed ability of some philosophical theory to escape from the fate to which it condemns all other discourse. The effect is named by the modern Australian philosopher D. C. Stove, after Ishmael s epilogue to Moby Dick : ‘and I only am… …   Philosophy dictionary

  • Protagoras of Abdera — (c. 490– c. 420 BC) The most successful of the Sophists, whose independent importance is attested by Plato, Aristotle, and Sextus Empiricus . He taught virtue (aretē ) in Athens, was a friend of Pericles, and was employed to draw up the code of… …   Philosophy dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”