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Normativity in Plato’s Philebus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2020

Jeffrey J. Fisher
Jeffrey J. Fisher*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
*
Email: jeffreyjamesfisher@gmail.com
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Abstract

This paper extracts and articulates the account of normativity in Plato’s Philebus. Central to this account is the concept of measure, which plays both an ontological and a normative role. With regard to the former, measure is what makes particular things to be the specific kind of thing they are; with regard to the latter, measure supplies the appropriate standard for determining whether or not those things are good or bad instances of their kind. As a result of measure playing these two roles, normative evaluation is grounded in the ontological structure of the thing being evaluated.

Keywords

PlatoPhilebusmeasurenormativityontology
Type
Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 50 , Issue 8 , November 2020 , pp. 966 - 980
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Canadian Journal of Philosophy

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