Gift from the Gods” in Plato’s Dialogue “Filebus” (16c5-10)
I.V. OSCHEPKOV
Keywords:
Plato, Philebus, Gift of the Gods, henad, monad, one and many, limit and unlimited, Ancient Greek philosophy.Abstract
The so called “Gift of the Gods” in Plato’s “Philebus” [15a–19a] remains to be one of the
most enigmatic, perplexing and interesting texts in the ‘later’ dialogues. It was often considered
as being largely infl uenced by Pythagoreans or even as a direct adoption of some Pythagorean
way of inquiry. However, what might seem to be a good explanation of its origin and style, would
not always work as a good way of interpretation. In this paper an attempt is made to interpret
the “God’s Gift” as a part of Plato’s discussion of the dialectical method in the ‘later’ period.
The problem of the nature of ‘henads’ is the focal point of the analysis, since these become the
main subject of the ‘godly’ method. Also presented here are some thoughts concerning the role
of the two oppositions which have traditionally been viewed as ‘pythagorean’, namely one &
many and limit & unlimited.
