Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy

Volume 2, Issue 2, 2018

Ancient Greek Philosophy: Classical Greek Philosophy

Plato’s Use of Shadow-painting as a Metaphor for Deceptive Speech

Contrary to the traditional viewpoint which interpreted Plato’s stance towards poetry as derogatory, more recently scholars have rightly argued that Plato’s treatment of painting is too complicated to be dismissed as negative only. Painting is for Plato a well-adapted analogy which allows him to discuss highly intricate philosophical issues, as, for example, the relationship of the forms with our earthly realm of sense-perception. It also provides him with useful vocabulary to conduct his philosophical investigations. In this paper, I focus on Plato’s employment of one particular pictorial technique, that of shadow-painting (skiagraphia). I argue that this innovative 5th century technique served Plato as a metaphor for discussing the intricate philosophical issue of opposition and antithesis (ta enantia). In specific terms, Plato associates the technique of skiagraphia with the poets, sophists and the unsophisticated non-philosophical majority.