N.2/2023 Dalla teoria alla storia. Attualità e metodi della Storia della Filosofia
Dalla storia alla teoria: ancora sul “problema Socrate”
Francesca Pentassuglio
Published in December, 2023
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From History to Theory: A Reappraisal of the “Socratic problem”.
Abstract
The paper examines the relationship between Philosophy, History (of Philosophy) and Historiography through the exemplary case of Socrates, whose philosophy cannot be accessed but via indirect sources. The centrality of the sources, which makes Socratic philosophy an emblematic case of the precedence of history over theory, is itself a historiographical acquisition, which dates back to the XIX century. The first part of the paper outlines some milestones in the Socratic problem, particularly the focus shift from Socrates to the testimonia and some crucial moments such as the “sceptical turn” and the subsequent decline of the Socratic question. The second part of the paper aims to show that the priority of sources in Socratic studies does not rule out an exegetical work that, by capitalising on the results of comparative exegesis, allows us to take the reverse route from testimonia to Socratic philosophy, and thus from history to theory.
Keywords
Socrates, Socratic question, History of Historiography, Comparative Exegesis, logoi Sokratikoi.
DOI
10.53129/gcsi_02-2023-10