Abstract: The starting point of this paper is a supposed kinship between the “man-measure” of Protagoras and Heidegger’s concept of “Dasein,” since, according to him, there is no other truth but that which is commensurate with the Dasein (“daseinsmassig”). Indeed, one finds, following Heidegger’s interpretation of the sophist, that Protagoras’s sentence is for him “the highest principle of any philosophy.” Many objections can be raised against this interpretation, but one must recognize that his way of reading the texts, as well as the doctrine about presence that it implies, cannot but escape any attempt of refutation in the proper dialectical meaning of this word. However, it is finally suggested that the “deconstruction” of Protagoras’ thesis in Plato’s Theaetetus—which is firmly denied and rejected by Heidegger’s own commentary upon it—could be used against him, in order to question his thought as a modern kind of sophistry.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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