Epistemic authority in late ancient commentaries on Plato.

The concept of authority is often used by historical scholars, but remains ill-defined. Its application in various case studies is not consistent. In order to remedy this situation we develop a model for the analysis of epistemic authority in textual traditions. This model facilitates the analysis, classification, and comparison of different varieties of epistemic authority. We test and refine this model by applying it to a large corpus of texts: the commentaries on dialogues of Plato in late Antiquity (5th-6th c.). We examine the attribution of authority to these texts and their alleged sources. We will analyse how, in order to secure the authority of these texts, the commentators emphasise the epistemic and communicative virtues of its author and his sources, and how they deal with issues of transmission, authorship and tradition. In addition we will examine how the syllogistic reconstruction of arguments from the dialogues is used to show the argumentative strength and hence the epistemic reliability of these texts.

Keywords:Epistemische autoriteit

Disciplines:Theory and methodology of philosophy