Reconsideration of Plato's concepts of idea/eidos: from the theory of Forms to the theory of real beings.

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K20771
• Project/Area Number (Other): 18H05561 (2018)
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund (2019); Single-year Grants (2018)
• Review Section: 0101:Philosophy, art, and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Hayase Atsushi 京都大学, 文学研究科, 准教授 (70826768)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-08-24 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: プラトン / アリストテレス / 形而上学 / イデア論 / 真実在説

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Plato’s metaphysical theory has been called ‘the theory of Forms’ on the basis of Aristotle’s influential report in his /Metaphysics/. In this research project I have examined Plato’s theory exclusively within his dialogues, thereby suspending the judgement as to whether it is the concept of eide/ideai (or Forms) that is located at the heart of Plato’s metaphysics. I discussed in a series of articles that Plato’s eidos/idea is in fact a broad concept, equivalent to ‘intelligibles’, which contains both the ‘real beings’ and its ‘intelligible images’, and tried to show a new way of understanding of Plato's metaphysical theory. I also suggested that it is misleading to call his theory as ‘the theory of Forms’; instead we should call it as ‘the theory of real beings’.

Free Research Field

西洋古代哲学史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

古代以来の伝統において、また現代の教科書的知識として、西洋哲学史を確立した哲学者プラトンの中心的思想は「イデア論」であると理解されてきた。しかし私は、このアリストテレスの報告に依拠する理解にもとづくと、プラトンの著作を整合的に理解できないこと、そしてむしろプラトン著作中の「真実在」を核とする哲学思想を読み取るべきであることを詳しく論じた。プラトン哲学における「イデア」(eidos/idea)の役割を読み替えることによって、西洋哲学史における基礎的諸問題の一つに関して新しい視点を提供した。