Dialogues · Chapter
Endnotes explained
This chapter consists of endnotes referencing various Platonic dialogues, Aristotle's works, and other classical sources, providing citations, cross-references, and textual clarifications for the preceding text.
What happens
This chapter consists of endnotes referencing various Platonic dialogues, Aristotle's works, and other classical sources, providing citations, cross-references, and textual clarifications for the preceding text.
Themes in this chapter
Knowledge and Ignorance
Endnotes reference the Theaetetus and Protagoras' 'Truth,' engaging with themes of knowledge, language, and the nature of truth.
Law, Custom, and Legislation
Numerous citations to the Laws and Aristotle's Politics highlight discussions on legal systems, governance, and societal norms.
Characters to notice
- Socrates
Referenced in multiple endnotes citing dialogues such as Cratylus, Phaedrus, Republic, and Gorgias.
- Plato
Implied as the author of the dialogues cited throughout the endnotes.
- Aristotle
Cited in numerous endnotes, including references to Politics, Nicomachean Ethics, and Metaphysics.
- Protagoras
Mentioned in an endnote referencing his book titled 'Truth' and the Theaetetus.
- Homer
Quoted in several endnotes, including passages from the Iliad and Odyssey.
Key passages
“Athenian Stranger: And have there not been thousands and thousands of cities which have come into being and perished during this period? And has not every place had endless forms of government, and been sometimes rising, and at other times falling, and again improving or waning?”
The Athenian Stranger observes that countless cities have risen and fallen over time, each experiencing various forms of government in cycles of growth, decline, and renewal.
This quote from the Laws reflects the cyclical view of political history common in Greek thought.
“And if a person should conceive the tales of mythology to mean only that men thought the gods to be the first essences of things, he would deem the reflection to have been inspired and would consider that, whereas probably every art and part of wisdom had been discovered and lost many times over, such notions were but a remnant of the past which has survived to our day.”
If one interprets myths as early humans believing gods were the original substances of all things, that insight would seem inspired, suggesting that all arts and knowledge have been repeatedly discovered and lost, with such ideas being mere survivals from earlier times.
This endnote from Aristotle's Metaphysics touches on the cyclical theory of knowledge and the survival of ancient ideas.