- Diairesis
Diairesis (or dihairesis or diaeresis; Greek: διαίρεσις) is used as a technical term in Platonic and
Stoic philosophy .Plato's method of definition
Diairesis is a method of
definition based on division which occurs in the Platonic dialogues "Phaedrus", "Sophist", "Statesman" and "Philebus ". It is a means of reaching a definition by which a large group is continually divided into relatively equal parts until the definition has been found.A complementary term is "merismos" (cf. English
merism , Latin "partitio": parsing or the distinguishing of parts, as opposed to "diairesis", which is the division of a genus into its parts).Here is an example of the use of "diairesis" in the "Sophist". At 235b, the Eleatic Stranger is examining illusions, which consist of words and "visual objects." By using "diairesis", he divides visual objects, by which it becomes clear he means works of art, into two categories: "eikastikē
technē ", the art of making likenesses or "eikones"; and "phantastikē technē", the art of creating illusionary appearances. The Stranger is much more fond of the former; the latter are only created to produce an appearance of beauty.The method of "diairesis" was taken up and developed by Plato's nephew and successor
Speusippus . [See John Dillon (1998). "Speusippus." In E. Craig (Ed.), "Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy". London: Routledge. Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/A111SECT3]Notes
External links
* [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-sophstate/ Method and Metaphysics in Plato's Sophist and Statesman] , by Mary Louise Gill (
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy )
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