| dc.description.abstract | Though the exquisite literary works of Plato have survived to our time intact, our
knowledge about his life, his teachings and about the inspirations he drew for his writings
is very limited. In addition, we have to learn how to cope with numerous accusations of
plagiarism directed against Plato which came down to our time as a troubling legacy of antiquity.
Chronologically, the first of prose writers to criticize the work of Plato was the historian
Theopompus (before Theopompus Plato suffered from the scathing criticism by the writers of
comedy) while Athenaeus was the first author to gather opinions hostile to the founder of
the Academy and to present them to the public (X, 508c-<l). The main accusation of
Theopompus regarded the use of words by Plato. He reproached Plato that by presenting his
0Wn definition of certain words he made the impression as if he was the first person to give
them specific meaning (Epictetus II, 17). In this way Plato, allegedly, appeared to take the
credit for something which was not due him since these words were in use long before Plato.
Similar criticism came from the part of Alcimus (DL III, 9-17). In the papers dedicated to
Amyntas he accused Plato of copying from Epicharmus. Evidently, lexical similarities that
could be found in the writings of Epicharmus and dialogues of Plato led Alcimus to the
conclusion that Plato heavily borrowed from the mimes. However, most of Plato's critics
failed to notice that specific words and expressions (for example words: good and just), though
commonly used before Plato, assumed thoroughly new and distinctive metaphysical meanings
in his writings. It seems justifiable to venture the opinion that at the root of the criticism
directed against Plato lay the misunderstanding of his intentions, his ideas and his writings. | pl_PL |
