Justice as Form in Plato's 'Republic'

• Grant number: 17/09211-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: September 04, 2017
• End date: March 03, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Marco Antônio de Ávila Zingano
• Grantee: Ana Beatriz Barbosa de Carvalho e Silva
• Supervisor: Francesco Fronterotta
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Italy
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/04948-7 - Justice as 'psychic harmony' and the tripartition of the soul in Plato's 'Republic', BP.MS

Abstract

In the search of the correct definition of justice in the 'Republic', we run into the problem of what it is, that assures a definition as a real one. This is attributed to the fact that its referent is a Form, the source of stability of any possible knowledge. There still remains the questioning, however, of how this explanatory force operates. In the intended research I aim at establishing a possible relationship between a certain Form, its definition (which contains the name of the Form and its formula) and particular objects (which are called by the same name). To achieve this, I will investigate the characterization of Forms in the Middle Dialogues, such as 'Republic' (V, VI and VII), the 'Phaedo' and the 'Cratylus', explaining the case of the Form of Justice in the 'Republic'.