Hat Plato in der “ungeschriebenen Lehre“ eine “dogmatische Metaphysik und Systematik“ vertreten? Einige Bemerkungen zum Status Quaestionis

Abstract

The paper gives an overview of the philosophical positions regarding Plato’s “so called unwritten doctrines” and the systematic goal of his philosophy. One group of commentators (especially the Tübingen school with Hans Krämer and Konrad Gaiser) argues that in these doctrines, Plato has a closed (finite) concept of philosophy, while another group, in the tradition of Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher and August Wilhelm Schlegel (for example, Ernst Heitsch, Margarita Isnardi-Parente and Wolfgang Kullmann), denies the philosophical relevance of the unwritten doctrines and favours an open (infinite) concept of philosophy which they find mainly in the dialogues. The author discusses and criticizes H. Krämer’s position and tries to show that a third position between finitism and infinitism is possible, that is, an approximation of the presupposed truth, a position anticipated under the label “scepsi costrutttrice” of Luigi Stefanini’s interpretation of the 7th letter.