Speaker: Ellisif Wasmuth (Essex)

Title: "What the many know and teach: Plato on the knowledge of language users"

Abstract. "Plato is known for his low opinion of the epistemic achievements of the many. He usually grants knowledge (epistēmē or technē) only to the expert or master dialectician, but in the First Alcibiades Socrates seems to agree with Alcibiades that even the many have some knowledge – they know Greek (111c3). In this paper I ask what, if anything, the many actually know in knowing Greek. What kind of grasp of reality must they have, according to Plato, in order to be competent users of language, and can knowledge of language be had independently of knowledge of the world? 
I argue that Plato structures the First Alcibiades so as to draw a parallel between playing games and using language, suggesting a continuum between basic language mastery and philosophical inquiry or dialectic. According to this view, gaining knowledge of a language, and learning or inquiring about the things talked about are – at least within virtuous linguistic communities – two sides of the same coin. I argue that this role of language is illustrated in the famous questioning of the slave in the Meno, before looking at the puzzling discussion of names, and the understanding embedded in them, in the Cratylus."

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/global-insights-covid-19-and-the-future-of-international-order-tickets-109973409428

PAIS presents the final panel in the first series of our weekly live-streamed Global Insights webinar with our partners in Canada, the US, Ethiopia and Germany - we'll be back in September for more...

Pundits argued that the rules-based international order (RBIO) of the post World War II has been unraveling in the twenty-first century, a trend that is now being exacerbated by the pandemic. Panelists will discuss the impact of Covid-19 on the RBIO, and speculate on what future may hold for the order in a post-pandemic world.

Panelists

Miles Kahler, American University

Abdul Mohammed, African Union High Level Panel

Michael Saward, University of Warwick

David Welch, University of Waterloo/BSIA

Moderated by Ann Fitz-Gerald, Director, Balsillie School of International Affairs

About the Global Insights series

“Global Insights” is a weekly live-streamed, moderated panel series which provides different national and regional perspectives on big questions currently facing researchers, policymakers and planners worldwide in light of the Coronavirus pandemic.

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