12 - What Is Dead in Plato

Summary

“The Objectivity of Values” assesses Plato’s contributions to Western philosophy and culture. It posits that among the most lasting of those contributions are the idea of the world of absolute truth beyond time and chance, and the idea that unless such a world exists there is no way to answer Socrates’s questions. But then it posits that these ideas should be abandoned. Recognizing that there are no knock-down philosophical arguments against them, it resorts to the historical argument that they have done more harm than good. Finally, the paper proposes that a good alternative to those ideas may be found in John Dewey’s view that the point of Socratic questioning is not to arrive at absolute truths but to keep the conversation of humanity going.