“The Calculating Mind and the Questioning Mind in Plato”.
Speaker: Ömer Aygün
Misologia: Plato’s Hatred of Reason
Are we cross with reason? Even if we are not, it might be said that we are perhaps experiencing frustration in reason. The Ancient Greek word misologia, which we first encounter in Plato’s texts, means hatred of reason, discussion or argument. In fact, in the dialogue Phaedo, Socrates’ final advice to Crito before his death is, as well as discharging the debt of a cock that they owed to Asclepius, that he should beware of the hatred of reason of the Pythagorean youths around him. According to Socrates, this hatred stems from placing undue expectations on reason and argument, and seeing that these expectations were of no avail.
In this presentation, we would like to pursue Socrates’ analysis of misology starting from where he left off: What would be the reason behind someone having such high expectations from reason in the first place? And to what extent are these engendered by that person, and how much by reason itself? In short, what does the phenomenon of ‘hatred of reason’ teach us about reason? Perhaps, what is greater than our frustration with reason, is our need for reason.
Ömer Aygün (PhD) is a faculty member of the Department of Philosophy at Galatasaray University. He specializes in the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. His book “The Middle Included – Logos in Aristotle” was published by Northwestern University Press in 2017. He is currently working on a Turkish translation of Plato’s dialogue, Republic. He is also the founder and director of the platform, “Ancient Philosophy Istanbul”.