Soul, World, and Idea: An Interpretation of Plato’s Republic and Phaedo
Soul, World, and Idea begins and ends with a reading of the Republic. Daniel Sherman turns midway to the Phaedo for three chapters, for a further analysis of the nature of the soul and its relation to the nature of the Ideas, before returning to apply the conclusions to the rest of the Republic. Daniel Sherman’s focus is on the ontological and epistemological argument, including attention to the dramatic detail. The result is a thesis (or theses) concerning the realm of the Ideas, the immortality of the soul, and the lived in world of their interaction in the production of interpretive images. Sherman argues that the platonic soul is immortal and the Ideas eternal wholly and solely in human (dialogical) activity – the rest is muthologia – and that the world of our experience is a product of an ongoing act of interpretation or dianoetic dialegesthai.