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Plato’s Theaetetus:An Inquiry into Knowledge

Richard Polt

Every chapter in the course, with links to the moment it begins in the video and in the transcript. For topics across all courses, see the Topic Index.

Lecture 1 Is Knowledge Just Perception?

Welcome to the Course on Plato's Theaetetus
▶︎ 0:00 transcript ↗︎
How to Read Plato When He Never Speaks
▶︎ 1:47 transcript ↗︎
Why Plato Thought Writing Was Dangerous
▶︎ 3:52 transcript ↗︎
The Paradox of Writing About Writing's Futility
▶︎ 7:24 transcript ↗︎
The Prologue: Death and Character
▶︎ 10:15 transcript ↗︎
Knowledge in Everyday Life Before Philosophy
▶︎ 12:14 transcript ↗︎
Socrates Meets His Ugly Double
▶︎ 14:40 transcript ↗︎
Is Wisdom the Same as Knowledge?
▶︎ 16:37 transcript ↗︎
Examples Are Not Definitions
▶︎ 19:24 transcript ↗︎
The Clay Analogy and Circular Definitions
▶︎ 20:51 transcript ↗︎
Irrational Numbers and the Limits of Language
▶︎ 23:46 transcript ↗︎
Socrates the Intellectual Midwife
▶︎ 26:16 transcript ↗︎
Knowledge Is Perception: The First Answer
▶︎ 30:28 transcript ↗︎
Protagoras and the Measure of All Things
▶︎ 34:08 transcript ↗︎
Ancient Relativism Meets Quantum Mechanics
▶︎ 37:57 transcript ↗︎
Why Perception Destroys Absolute Reality
▶︎ 39:11 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 2 Can Every Perception Be True?

Recap: Characters and Knowledge as Perception
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Heraclitean Flux: Everything Is a River
▶︎ 4:08 transcript ↗︎
Does Real Perception Require Study and Motion?
▶︎ 10:11 transcript ↗︎
The Six Dice Paradox and the Nature of Being
▶︎ 13:16 transcript ↗︎
Color Theory and Secondary Qualities
▶︎ 17:04 transcript ↗︎
Secret Doctrine: Abolishing Being Itself
▶︎ 19:09 transcript ↗︎
Socratic Irony and the Midwife Metaphor
▶︎ 23:33 transcript ↗︎
Dreams, Insanity, and Misperception
▶︎ 29:20 transcript ↗︎
Are All Perceptions True for the Perceiver?
▶︎ 31:27 transcript ↗︎
Running Around the Hearth: Testing the Idea
▶︎ 35:27 transcript ↗︎
Are We No Wiser Than a Pig or Baboon?
▶︎ 36:38 transcript ↗︎
The Foreign Language Objection
▶︎ 39:23 transcript ↗︎
Cheap Shots: Closed Eyes and Fair Dialogue
▶︎ 41:10 transcript ↗︎
Wisdom as Improving Perceptions
▶︎ 44:11 transcript ↗︎
Medicine, Therapy, and the Placebo Effect
▶︎ 48:50 transcript ↗︎
The Problem of Ethical Relativism
▶︎ 50:33 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 3 Does Relativism Refute Itself?

Recap: Knowledge as Perception and the Theory of Becoming
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Can Protagoras Claim Special Wisdom?
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The Peritrope: Does Relativism Refute Itself?
▶︎ 5:37 transcript ↗︎
Experts, Emergencies, and the Power of Prediction
▶︎ 10:21 transcript ↗︎
Politics and the Fact-Value Distinction
▶︎ 12:09 transcript ↗︎
The Digression Begins: Philosopher vs. Lawyer
▶︎ 16:02 transcript ↗︎
What Makes a Philosopher? Freedom, Ignorance, Nobility
▶︎ 18:10 transcript ↗︎
Thales Falls into a Well: The Original Nerd
▶︎ 23:00 transcript ↗︎
Is Socrates Really Describing Himself?
▶︎ 24:30 transcript ↗︎
The Cave Allegory and Combining Two Wisdoms
▶︎ 30:55 transcript ↗︎
Injustice as Its Own Punishment
▶︎ 37:34 transcript ↗︎
After the Digression: Legislation and Usefulness
▶︎ 41:10 transcript ↗︎
The Slippery Heracliteans and Deconstruction
▶︎ 43:55 transcript ↗︎
Parmenides: Being Is and Nothing Changes
▶︎ 45:30 transcript ↗︎
Two Kinds of Change: Motion and Alteration
▶︎ 50:06 transcript ↗︎
Universal Flux Destroys Language Itself
▶︎ 53:23 transcript ↗︎
Preview: Can Perception Really Be Knowledge?
▶︎ 57:15 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 4 How Is False Judgment Possible?

Recap: Four Arguments Against Relativism
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The Final Argument Against Knowledge as Perception
▶︎ 2:14 transcript ↗︎
The Psyche as Unifying Consciousness
▶︎ 3:01 transcript ↗︎
Do the Senses Really Never Overlap?
▶︎ 5:23 transcript ↗︎
Common Concepts Beyond Perception
▶︎ 9:57 transcript ↗︎
Categories and the Empiricist vs Rationalist Debate
▶︎ 12:50 transcript ↗︎
Why Separating the Senses Matters
▶︎ 15:25 transcript ↗︎
Being: The Key Concept for Knowledge
▶︎ 18:41 transcript ↗︎
Does Perception Share in Truth at All?
▶︎ 21:21 transcript ↗︎
Knowledge as True Judgment
▶︎ 22:22 transcript ↗︎
Theaetetus Disproves His Own Definitions
▶︎ 25:01 transcript ↗︎
Anticipating True Judgment Plus Logos
▶︎ 26:31 transcript ↗︎
Three Sophistical Arguments Against False Judgment
▶︎ 28:11 transcript ↗︎
The Wax Block Model of Memory
▶︎ 31:33 transcript ↗︎
How the Wax Block Explains False Judgment
▶︎ 35:08 transcript ↗︎
Where the Wax Block Model Breaks Down
▶︎ 40:13 transcript ↗︎
The Nature of Truth and Being
▶︎ 42:42 transcript ↗︎
Preview: Can Knowledge Be Defined?
▶︎ 45:16 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 5 A Lucky Guess Isn't Knowledge

Recap: True Judgment and the Wax Block Problem
▶︎ 0:01 transcript ↗︎
The Aviary Model of Memory
▶︎ 1:03 transcript ↗︎
Philosophy as Recollection
▶︎ 2:56 transcript ↗︎
How False Judgment Works in the Aviary
▶︎ 4:21 transcript ↗︎
The Circularity Trap in Explaining Error
▶︎ 6:18 transcript ↗︎
The Jury Counter-Example
▶︎ 9:15 transcript ↗︎
Justified True Belief and the Gettier Problem
▶︎ 10:33 transcript ↗︎
Can Putting Judgment into Words Be Enough?
▶︎ 13:10 transcript ↗︎
Listing Elements as an Account
▶︎ 15:28 transcript ↗︎
The Dream Theory: Perceivable but Unknowable
▶︎ 18:16 transcript ↗︎
The Parts and Wholes Dilemma
▶︎ 22:18 transcript ↗︎
Self-Evidence and the Limits of Analysis
▶︎ 26:20 transcript ↗︎
Descartes and Self-Evident Truths
▶︎ 29:57 transcript ↗︎
Music, Memory, and Temporal Unity
▶︎ 31:39 transcript ↗︎
Account as Distinguishing Mark
▶︎ 33:56 transcript ↗︎
Wind Eggs and Socratic Wisdom
▶︎ 35:45 transcript ↗︎
Snatching Victory from Defeat
▶︎ 41:22 transcript ↗︎
Falsifiability, Learning, and AI
▶︎ 44:16 transcript ↗︎