Kozi Asano, April 1994

Degrees of Reality in Plato: Part I1

Kozi ASANO
1. The Problem

According to traditional interpretations such as found in Cross and Woozley,2

there is the doctrine of degrees of reality in Platos philosophy. The doctrine of degrees
of reality says that Forms exist while particulars are half existent and half non-existent.
If such a doctrine is found in Platos text, it is found in the argument at the end of the
Book V of the Republic. But do we find degrees of reality there? If there are degrees of
reality, what kind of degrees of reality are they? This is the question which I want to
pursue in the present paper. First of all, let us see the context of the argument and the
argument itself at the end of the Book V of the Republic.
Toward the end of Book V of the Republic, when Socrates 3 is asked to explain
the possibility of his ideally good state, which is characterized by a kind of communism
of the warrior class, he expresses his thought of philosopher-kings as follows:
Unless the philosophers rule as kings or those now called kings and chiefs
genuinely and adequately philosophize, and political power and philosophy
coincide in the same place, -- there is no rest from ills for the cities, my dear
Glaucon, nor I think for human kind, nor will the regime we have now
1

This paper was originally written as part of my Ph. D. dissertation to be submitted to

the University of Texas at Austin; and about a half of the paper was read at the Ancient
Philosophy Workshop held at the University of Oklahoma in Feb. 93, and about a
third of the paper was read in Japanese at the Tohoku Philosophical Society, Sendai, in
Oct. 93 and is published in the Societys Nempo (Proceedings), Vol. 10 (1994), pp.
15-27. Only the first part of the paper is published here, and the second part will
appear in Hannnan Ronshu: Humanities and Natural Science (Journal of Hannan
University), Vol. 30 (1994), 2nd Issue. I apologize to the reader for the inconvenience
of this arrangement.

Cross and Woozley, Platos Republic: A Philosophical Commentary, Chaps. 7-9.

By Socrates I mean an interlocutor, Socrates, in Platos Republic rather than a historical Socrates.

Kozi Asano, April 1994

described in speech ever come forth from nature, insofar as possible, and see
the light of the sun. -- in no other city would there be private or public
happiness.4 (473c11-e5)
The philosophers claim to rule a state is based on their knowledge. What people does
Socrates mean by philosophers, however? Philosophers, Socrates says, are lovers of
wisdom (475b8-9).5 The lover of wisdom is the one who is willing to taste every kind
of learning with gusto, and who approaches learning with delight, and is insatiable(475c6-7). Then Glaucon points out the ambiguity of this definition of philosophers:
Then youll have many strange ones. For all the lovers of sights are in my
opinion what they are because they enjoy learning;6 and the lovers of hearing
would be some of the strangest to include among philosophers, those who
4
5

The translation is that by A. Bloom, unless otherwise indicated.

It is important to note that Socrates defines philosophers in terms of love and the
objects in which they find pleasure. Philosophers are not lovers of young boys, nor
lovers of wine, nor lovers of honor, but lovers of wisdom. Philosophers are contrasted
with lovers of honor and lovers of money later in Book IX, and these are the three
main types of human beings (580d7-581c4). What one finds pleasure in naturally
gives an orientation to ones life. Thus what is essential to philosophers is their love
and their way of life. Note what Aristotle says in a similar vein:
We must take as a sign of states of character the pleasure or pain that
ensues on acts; for the man who abstains from bodily pleasures and delights in this very fact is temperate, while the man who is annoyed at it is
self-indulgent, and he who stands his ground against things that are
terrible and delights in this or at least is not pained is brave, while the man
who is pained is a coward. For moral excellence is concerned with pleasures and pains. (Nicomachean Ethics II. 2. 1104b3-9. Translated by W.
D. Ross.)
So from what one finds pleasure in, we can tell what kind of person one is. See also
M. F. Burnyeats Aristotle on Learning to Be Good.

Cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics I.1. 980a21-24:

All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we
take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for
themselves; and above all others the sense of sight.

Kozi Asano, April 1994

would never be willing to go voluntarily to a discussion and such occupations

but who -- just as though they had hired their ears for hearing -- run around
to every chorus at the Dionysia, missing none in the cities or the villages.
Will we say that all these men and other learners of such things and the petty
arts are philosophers? (475d1-e1)
Socrates answers that the lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing are similar to
philosophers, but are quite different from them (475e2). How are philosophers
different from the lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing? What does Socrates mean
by learning and wisdom? Socrates says that philosophers are the lovers of the sight of
the truth (475e4). Although it is implicit in Socrates claim that what the lovers of
sights and the lovers of hearing love is not the truth, what he means by the truth is still
unclear.
At this point, Socrates introduces the Theory of Forms, according to which there
are on the one hand fair sounds and colors and shapes and all that craft makes from
such things (476b4-6), which the lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing love, and
on the other hand the fair (beauty) itself, which philosophers love. The relationship
between those many fair things and beauty itself is that the many fair things are
likenesses of beauty itself, and the lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing, since their
thought is limited to likenesses, are dreaming in comparison with philosophers, who are
awake, since their thought extends to the original of which the many fair things are
likenesses (476c2-d4). The conclusion which Socrates draws from this is that the
thought of philosophers is knowledge while that of the lovers of sights and the lovers of
hearing is opinion (476d5-7). What is implicit in Socrates claim here is that the lovers
of sights and the lovers of hearing do not know what they opine (476d9).
Next Socrates tries to persuade the lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing of

I suppose that human beings, and possibly other animals as well, are characterized
more or less by this kind of curiosity. Curiosity, which seeks novelty and change, is,
however, to be distinguished from wonder, which, Socrates says in the Theaetetus
(155c8-d5), is the mark of the philosopher.

Kozi Asano, April 1994

the correctness of his claim that they do not know but only opine what they opine.
Knowledge is related to what is, and ignorance to what is not (476e7-477a10). If there
is something such as to be and not to be, it is between what is and what is not (477a6-8).
Opinion is between knowledge and ignorance (478c13-d4). So opinion is related to that
which is between what is and what is not (478e1-6). Now what the lovers of sights and
the lovers of hearing think of are of such nature as to be and not to be (479a5-d6). So
their thought is opinion (479e1-6).
One key premise in Socrates argument above is that opinion is different from
knowledge, which he tries hard to prove; for if opinion and knowledge were the same,
they would be related to the same thing, what is. His proof and argument go like this.
First, opinion and knowledge are faculties (477d7-e3). The principle of individuation of
faculties is what they are related to and what they accomplish: if two faculties are related
to different things and accomplish different things, they are different faculties(477c6d6). Since opinion is fallible and knowledge infallible, they accomplish different things;
since they accomplish different things, they are different faculties(477e6-478a2); and
since they are different faculties, they are related to different things (478a12-b2).
Two questions naturally arise: First, what is meant by what is? and, second,
even if knowledge and opinion accomplish different things, why can they not be related
to the same things? About the first question, the traditional interpretation7 takes what
is in the sense of what exists. Three different uses of being, however, are commonly
distinguished: they are the existential use, the predicative use, and the veridical use of
being.8 If so, to take is as exists may not be necessary, and what Socrates has in
mind may be the predicative or the veridical use of is. Before we see more closely
the various possible interpretations of what is, I should explain the three different uses
of to be. The second question will be examined along with the possible interpretations of what is.
7

Cross and Woozley, op. cit.

Cf. C. Kahn, On the Theory of the Verb To Be.

Kozi Asano, April 1994

2. The Three Different Uses of To Be

The first use of to be is existential. For example, there is God. In this

example, is is used in the sense of existence. The second use of to be is predicative. For example, Socrates is tall. In this example, the function of is is to connect the subject Socrates and the predicate tall together. The third use of to be
is veridical. For example, Tell it like it is. In this example, no specific predicate is
understood after is, but is stands for is the case or is true. The underlying
subject for the veridical use of is is a sentence, which can be the case, rather than a
noun or a noun phrase. For example, It is the case that Socrates is tall.
These three uses of to be are distinct. First, the predicative use of to be
does not necessarily imply the existence of a subject. So we can say, for example,
There is not Pegasus who is a winged horse. For even if Pegasus is a winged horse
by definition, it does not follow that there is such a creature in the world.9 Secondly,
the predicative use of to be does not necessarily imply the truth of a sentence. For
example, we can say It is not the case that Pegasus is a winged rabbit. Thirdly, the
veridical use of to be does not necessarily imply the existence of a subject. Thus, for
example, we can say, It is true that Pegasus is a winged horse, but Pegasus does not
exist. So no two uses of to be are equivalent.

3. Possible Interpretations

i. Vlastos Interpretation
As stated already, the traditional interpretation understands what is in
Socrates argument primarily in the sense of what exists. According to this interpre9

This is partially an old Aristotelian thesis that essence does not imply existence for
composed substances. Cf. Aquinas, On Being and Essence, Ch. V, Parag. 77.

Kozi Asano, April 1994

tation, knowledge is related to what exists, opinion to what half exists and half does not
exist, and ignorance to what does not exist. One major difficulty with this interpretation
is to make sense of the notion of degrees of existence: especially to explain what it
means to be half existent and half non-existent. Critics of the traditional interpretation,
such as Vlastos, say that degrees of it [existence] make no sense whatever.1 0
Vlastos thinks that is and is not should be supplied with a predicate F when they
are used without such a predicate in Socrates argument at 477a-479d.1 1 When a
predicate is supplied, Socrates claim would be that knowledge is related to what is F,
and opinion to what is F and is not F. How does Vlastos interpret the meaning of
Socrates claim?
Although Vlastos denies the degrees of existence, he admits degrees of reality in
Plato. Vlastos finds two senses of real (or being) for Plato. One sense of
real (or being) is cognitively dependable, undeceiving.1 2 Thus to say that
there are degrees of reality means that some predications are more cognitively
dependable than others. Vlastos takes what is F, to which knowledge is related, as what
is really (dependably) F, and what is F and is not F, to which opinion is related, as what
is F but is not really (dependably) F. How are some predications dependable while
others not? For example, predicating tallness of Simmias is not very dependable, while
predicating oddness of three is much more dependable. The reason why predicating
tallness of Simmias is not dependable is that Simmias is only contingently tall, and the
reason why predicating oddness of three is dependable is that three is necessarily odd.
In other words, three cannot be but odd, while Simmias could be short. So, according to
Vlastos interpretation, there are on the one hand certain things which have their
predicates1 3 (or properties) necessarily, and on the other hand others which have their
10

G. Vlastos, Degrees of Reality in Plato, p. 65. See also J Annas, An Introduction

to Platos Republic, p.196.

11

G. Vlastos, op. cit., p. 63, n. 21.

12

Ibid., p. 63.

Kozi Asano, April 1994

predicates (or properties) only contingently. The former are the objects of knowledge
and the latter are the objects of opinion.1 4
The other sense of real (or being) which Vlastos finds in Plato is
reliably valuable1 5 . While what are cognitively dependable are objects of cognition
(knowledge), what are reliably valuable are objects of a philosophers love. So what are
real in this sense are lovable and beautiful as well. This sense becomes most
prominent when [Plato] thinks of the really real things, the Forms, as objects of
mystical experience.1 6 What are real in this sense are valuable, as Plato describes
13

A predicate is primarily a linguistic notion. However, we may loosely use an expression predicate as meaning a corresponding property possessed by an object.

14

Vlastos says that what are true (or cognitively dependable) are primarily propositions, and derivatively things described by propositions (ibid., p. 59). For example,
what is dependable is primarily a proposition that three is odd, and three is said to be
dependable only derivatively from the dependability of the proposition that three is
odd. In the actual practice of interpretation, however, Vlastos seems to mean by the
cognitive dependability the dependability of predications, for he talks about the
necessary connection between subjects and predicates, and the contingent relationship
between subjects and predicates. After all, Vlastos does not seem to distinguish the
dependability of propositions and the dependability of predications clearly. Maybe he
is right if predication is the way of making propositions: predicating F of a subject is
(necessarily) true if and only if it is (necessarily) true that the subject is F. An
emphasis on propositions, however, may miss an important point if it suggests that
propositions are basic constituents of reality. As propositions, a contingent proposition
that Charmides is beautiful and a necessary proposition that the Beauty itself is
beautiful are just two different propositions. But they share the same predicate beautiful, as Plato seems to intend. Thus the same predicate has very different relations
with two different kinds of things (subjects): a necessary connection with one kind of
things, and a contingent relation with another kind of things. So the same predicate F
is dependable when applied to one kind of objects, and not dependable when applied
to another kind of objects. None the less, whichever of propositions and predications
are primary, cognitive dependability is an epistemological notion, and that is why the
things described by predicates are said to be dependable only derivatively. Ontologically, however, those things described by predicates should be dependable in the
primary sense; for they have their predicates (properties) dependably because of their
being what they are. (Cf. Vlastos, Degrees of Reality in Plato, pp. 69-70)

15

Vlastos, Metaphysical Paradox, pp. 49-50.

Kozi Asano, April 1994

them, in the sense which transcends the usual specifications of value, moral, aesthetic,
and religious; it connotes more than goodness, beauty, or holiness, or even than all three
of them in conjunction.1 7 So in this sense, certain things are reliably valuable and
satisfying, while others leave us with dissatisfaction and make us move from one to
another. How is the real in the first sense related to the real in the second sense? The
happiness which the vision of Forms brings to philosophers is also intellectual, since it
marks a climactic point in the pursuit of knowledge.1 8 This is all Vlastos says:
otherwise, the real in the second sense is very different1 9 from the real in the first
sense.2 0

ii. Goslings Interpretation

Another major objection to the traditional interpretation is that, read in the
existential use of to be, Socrates argument makes an assumption that opinion is
related to what exists and does not exist, an assumption which the lovers of sights and
the lovers of hearing are not likely to accept. For it is not likely that they are going to
admit such a dubious thing, i.e., what half exists and half does not exist, as that to which
16

Vlastos, Degrees of Reality in Plato, pp. 63-4. What are real in the first sense and
what are real in the second sense are extentionally different, for the former include,
but the latter do not include, such bona fide Forms as Injustice and Ugliness.

17

Vlastos, Degrees of Reality in Plato, p. 64.

18

Vlastos, Metaphysical Paradox, p. 52.

19

Vlastos, Degrees of Reality in Plato, p. 63.

20

Vlastos seems to think that Plato should have clearly distinguished the real in the
first sense from the real in the second sense and propounded the latter as a personal
vision for which demonstrative certainty cannot be claimed. (Metaphysical Paradox,
p. 56) The same two dimensions of Platos understanding of Forms, a discursive
understanding of Forms as things about which propositions and demonstrations are
and an intuitive understanding of Forms as objects of vision, are often pointed out; for
example, J. Stenzel, Platos Method of Dialectic, translated by D. J. Allen. These two
dimensions are also sometimes pointed out by the difference between knowing that
and knowing an object, or propositional knowledge and knowledge by acquaintance:
cf. Cross and Woozley, op. cit., pp. 170-1.

Kozi Asano, April 1994

opinion is related.2 1 But Socrates argument, the objection continues, should not begin
with such a controversial assumption which the lovers of sights and the lovers of
hearing are not likely to accept, since it, beginning from 476e7, is supposed to persuade
them.2 2
Reading is in Socrates argument in its veridical use, Gosling offers a
degrees of truth interpretation.2 3 According to him, knowledge is related to what is true,
and opinion to what is (partly) true and (partly) false. As this is a veridical reading of
being, what is true, or is not true, is a proposition rather than an object (a single object in
the accusative).2 4 What is true is a true account to answer a question, what X is, and
21

At this stage, 477a6-b1, Socrates argument proceeds on a formal ground as noted

by Fine, Knowledge and Belief in Republic V, p. 125: it specifies what the objects of
opinion should be like; but it does not say what opinion is, nor who have opinion.
But, according to Fine, the merely formal characterization of the objects of opinion as
what is and is not is objectionable for the sightlovers, if is and is not is taken in its
existential use, because of the introduction of such dubious entities as what is half
existent and half non-existent.

22

This objection is found in G. Fine, ibid. The principle that Socrates argument here
cannot assume controversial premises unacceptable to the lovers of sights and the
lovers of hearing is called the condition of noncontroversiality by Fine, ibid., p. 123.
About the condition of noncontroversiality, see also J. C. Gosling, Doxa and Dunamis
in Platos Republic, pp. 120-2. The same kind of objection using the condition of
noncontroversiality can be raised against Vlastos predicative interpretation of
Socrates argument, too.

23

J. C. Gosling, op.cit., and also Republic V: ta polla kala etc. A degrees of truth
interpretation, abbreviated as DT, is how Goslings interpretation is called by G. Fine.
See G. Fine, op.cit., p. 126.

24

This is called a contents analysis of knowledge (and belief), as opposed to an objects

analysis, by G. Fine. Ibid., p. 124. An objects analysis takes that to which knowledge
is related as an object of knowledge which is expressed by a noun in the accusative as
in knowing a house. A contents analysis takes that to which knowledge is related as
the content of knowledge which is expressed by a that clause as in knowing that the
house is blue. G. Ryle, in his classical paper, Platos Parmenides, explains a
contents analysis of knowledge as follows:
knowledge requires for its expression not just a name but a sentence or
statement. And what a sentence or statement expresses always contains a

Kozi Asano, April 1994

what is (partly) true and (partly) false is an account of X which does not give us what
X is, yet does not give us what is in no sense X.2 5 For example, an account that
justice is the repayment of debts accounts for some just acts, but not for others: some
other just acts are not repayments of debts (and also some other acts of repaying debts
are not just). Such an account is near the mark: it is far better than another account,
for example, that justice is a pair of spectacles. But it is only near the mark: it is
different from the correct definition of justice, which must be a single unifying
definition accounting for all and only just things.
The above second objection to the traditional interpretation can be applied to
Vlastos predicative interpretation, too. According to Gosling,2 6 a predicative reading of
being makes Socrates argument assume that every object with which the lovers of
sights and the lovers of hearing are concerned is F and is not F (479a5-b2), but the
lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing cannot accept such a drastic assertion at the
outset. For it is not obvious that, for example, a particular act of paying this debt, which
is apparently just, is not just. This is an objection to an objects analysis2 7 in general in
the interpretation of Socrates argument. And that is why Gosling takes a contents
analysis, that is, a veridical reading. Then how does Gosling read Socrates assumption
at 479a5-b2 as an uncontroversial assumption? What is said to be true, or not true, is an
account of something X, and not a particular object. An account of X, which the lovers
plurality, at least a duality of distinguishable elements or factors. (p. 136)
Another name for contents is internal accusative(I. M. Crombie, An Examination of
Platos Doctrines, vol. II, p. 57).
Both Fine and Gosling take a veridical reading of being, that is, a contents analysis
of knowledge (and belief), and so their interpretations are considerably similar,
especially in their criticisms of existential and predicative readings. I shall describe
Fines interpretation after Goslings interpretation.
25
26

27

J. C. Gosling, Doxa and dunamis in Platos Republic, p. 125.

J. C. Gosling, Republic Book V: ta polla kala etc. pp. 118-9. See also Fine,
op.cit., p.125.
For an objects analysis, see note 24.

10

Kozi Asano, April 1994

of sights and the lovers of hearing offer, is true for some tokens of X, but not for others,
and this is exactly what the lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing want to say.
Who are the lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing and what are they saying?
According to Gosling, the lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing are not just nonphilosophers in general, but they are learners (475e1), lovers of crafts , and practical
(476a10). In a word, they are the people who have something to say about justice, the
beautiful, and others. For example, they do not attend festivals merely to fill in time,
like the Saturday cinema queues; but they would be more likely to be found at the
Cannes Festival, studying the art.2 8 One of their discoveries will be that objects of
varied descriptions are beautiful,2 9 and they will think that a request for a single
account of the beautiful is unsophisticated and uneducated.3 0 They are practical
people, and they give many accounts of X: one account for this X thing while another
account for that X thing. Their accounts of X, although many, have immediate
relevance to behaviour.3 1 That is why they are very willing to admit that an account of
X, which they offer, is true for some tokens of X, but not for others.

iii. Fines Interpretation

Fine offers a different version of the veridical reading.3 2 According to her,
opinion is related to what is true and is not true, not in the sense that each token belief
[opinion] is true and not true,3 3 but in the sense that the set of beliefs covered by
the capacity [of opinion] -- contains true as well as false members.3 4 So there are not
28

Gosling, op.cit., p. 121.

29

Ibid., p. 122.

30

Ibid., p. 121.

31

Ibid., p.123.

32

Fine calls her interpretation T. It is not clear why it is called T. I suppose that she
means that her interpretation (T) is Goslings interpretation (DT) minus degrees of
truth (D).

33

Fine, op.cit., p. 126.

34

Ibid.

11

Kozi Asano, April 1994

degrees of truth, and every opinion is either definitely true or definitely false; but
opinions as a set contain false as well as true members, while knowledge as a set
contains true members only. Fine is much concerned with denying a stronger thesis of
the two worlds theory: a thesis that the objects of opinion (the world of sensibles)
cannot be known while the objects of knowledge (the world of Forms) cannot be
opined.3 5 One of her convictions is that a thing (object or proposition) can be both
known and opined.3 6 This is why she disagrees with Goslings interpretation.
Goslings interpretation makes the contents of knowledge and belief -- irreducibly
different: knowledge will range over truths, and belief over partial truths.3 7 This is
unintuitive3 8 , according to Fine. But, in Fines interpretation, the same proposition
can be the content of belief and of knowledge.3 9
Socrates proposed to distinguish faculties by what they are related to and what
they accomplish (477c9-d2). He says that if two faculties are related to the same thing
and accomplish the same thing, they are the same faculty, and that if they are related to
different things and accomplish different things, they are different faculties (477d2-5).
This leaves two possibilities open: two faculties may be related to the same thing but
accomplish different things, and two faculties may be related to different things but
accomplish the same thing.4 0 From an admission that knowledge and opinion accomplish different things (one infallible, and the other fallible), however, Socrates seems to
35
36

Ibid., pp. 121-2.

The Meno 97-8 suggests a thesis that what is believed becomes knowledge if it is
accompanied by reasoning about the cause (aitias logismos). According to this suggestion, the difference between knowledge and belief is not in the objects or contents,
but in the justification, grounding, or method by which one reaches a belief. We
might say that Fines interpretation is a Meno inspired interpretation of the Republics
epistemology.

37

Fine, op. cit., p. 126

38

Ibid.

39

Ibid.

40

Ibid., p.128.

12

Kozi Asano, April 1994

infer that knowledge and opinion are related to different things (477e6-478a5). What is
he thinking? According to Fine, Socrates is saying, not that knowledge and opinion are
related to different objects (or cannot be related to the same proposition),4 1 but that the
faculty of knowledge is related to a piece of knowledge, while the faculty of opinion is
related to an opinion.4 2 Thus interpreted, Socrates claim is simple: knowledge has as
its content a piece of knowledge and produces a set of truths, and opinion has as its
content an opinion and produces a set of truths and falsehoods. Socrates does not distinguish knowledge and opinion by their different objects,4 3 and, further, the same
proposition can be a piece of knowledge when it is produced by knowledge, and an
opinion when it is produced by opinion.
Fine is silent about the identity of the lovers of sights and the lovers of
hearing.4 4 However, since she, unlike Gosling, does not limit opinion to accounts in
answer to what X is, she seems to include a more general public among the lovers of
sights and the lovers of hearing. The lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing, since
they do not recognize Forms, account for things in terms of observable properties. An
account of X in terms of observable properties is unsatisfactory, however, since it
accounts for some X cases but not for others. Since such an account is unsatisfactory, it
is simply false. Reliance on such a false account naturally leads people to false as well
as true opinions about X cases. This is how the lovers of sights and the lovers of
hearing are limited to opinion.
41

42
43

44

According to Fine, if Socrates meaning were this, his argument would be invalid.
For even if knowledge and opinion accomplish different things, it does not follow that
they are related to different objects (or different propositions). Knowledge and
opinion may be related to the same thing but accomplish different things, like
husbandry and butchery. See Fine, ibid.
Ibid., p. 129.
Nor by their individual contents, but by their contents as collectively seen as sets.
That is to say, a set of contents of knowledge and a set of contents of opinion are
different; but a member of the former set can be the same as a member of the latter set.
At least in her paper, Knowledge and Belief in Republic V .

13

Kozi Asano, April 1994

After persuading the lovers of sights and the lovers of hearing that they only
opine, Socrates can introduce Forms as those by reference to which one could acquire
knowledgeable accounts.4 5 So the sensible world is not good enough to provide
knowledge, and all knowledge requires knowledge of Forms.4 6 But if one knows
the true account of X by reference to Forms, ones judgment about a particular X that X
is Y, being based on the true account of X by reference to Forms, can be knowledge.
And thus particulars, which are only opined by the lovers of sights and the lovers of
hearing, can be known by the philosophers. And also philosophers at the stage of
learning may only have opinions about Forms.

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Burnyeat, M. F. Aristotle on Learning to Be Good. In Rorty, pp. 69-92.
Crombie, I. M. An Examination of Platos Doctrines, vol. II. 1962.
Cross and Woozley. Platos Republic: A Philosophical Commentary. 1964.
Fine, G. Knowledge and Belief in Republic V. Archiv fr Geschichte der
Philosophie 60(1978), pp. 121-39.
Gosling, J. C. Republic V: ta polla kala etc. Phronesis 5(1960), pp. 116-28.
Doxa and Dunamis in Platos Republic. Phronesis 13(1968), pp. 119-30.
Kahn, C. On the Theory of the Verb To Be. In Muniz, pp. 1- 20.
Munitz, M. K.(ed.). Logic and Ontology. 1973.
Plato. Meno.
Respublic.
45

Ibid., p. 137.

46

Ibid.

14

Kozi Asano, April 1994

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(This paper appeared in Aichi (Kobe University) 10 (1993): (1)-(14).)

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