WIP in Ancient Philosophy: Jessica Moss (NYU)

Works in Progress in Ancient Philosophy held by Cinzia Arruzza. The guest speaker for this session is Jessica Moss (NYU). Title: Jessica Moss (NYU) Nomima in the Republic: Plato on opinion, perception, and convention Abstract: Abstract: Republic V’s famous argument that only philosophers have knowledge turns on the claim that the objects of non-philosophers’ attention are ontologically deficient, by contrast with Forms. Throughout the argument Socrates refers to these lesser things as “the many Fs [beautiful, bigs, etc.].” At a crucial juncture, however, he calls them instead “the many nomima of the many” (479d). Some translate as ‘beliefs,’ others as ‘rules.’ I show problems for these interpretations and propose a new interpretation based on a study of Plato’s use of ‘nomimon' and ‘nomizein’ elsewhere. Nomima are conventionally-sanctioned things, or more broadly things conventionally deemed to have the properties attributed to them. This account fits well with, and illuminates, Plato’s characterization of opinion (doxa) and its objects throughout the Republic: all opinion, even that based on perception, is in an important sense deference to convention.