Shame in Plato's Dialogues

• Grant number: 17/18451-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: December 01, 2017
• End date: August 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Roberto Bolzani Filho
• Grantee: Luiz Eduardo Gonçalves Oliveira Freitas
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 15/05317-8 - Theories of causation and human agency in ancient Greek philosophy, AP.TEM

Abstract

This project aims to analyze Plato's views on shame. The occasion in which shame is explictly discussed in the dialogues are rare; its definitions, at least in comparison with the definitional discussions about virtues, are rather opaque. If we adopt the Republic's famous tripartition of the soul model, shame, among other emotions, plays only an intermediate role. However, on several occasions throughout the dialogues, as in prominent case of the Gorgias, the appeal is shame is fundamental for the proper functioning of Socrates' arguments. This project's underlying hypothesis is that Plato sees and defends an ethical and philosophical role of shame as a psychological phenomenon that is expressed not only through the explicit doctrines asserted by Socrates but in the composition of the dialogues themselves. In order to investigate our hypothesis, we must develop three processes concomitantly: (i) analyzing the moments in which Plato uses shame as a philosophical device in the dialogues' discussions; (ii) precising its conceptual role in relation to the placement of thumos in Plato's moral psychology and (iii) taking into account possible changes throughout the corpus about i and ii.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

FREITAS, Luiz Eduardo Gonçalves Oliveira. Shame in Plato's Dialogues. 2023. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.