Autorità e Paideia

Abstract

the legitimation of power in Plato's political project starts from the conviction that there must be an essential link between theoretical knowledge and authority. The universal knowledge that characterizes philosophical knowledge is superior to other forms of knowledge and other alleged pedagogies, as the sophistic one, which aspires to knowledge and power. The ridge that separates philosophy from other forms of knowledge is given by the particular role that the concept of telos plays within Plato's political project. This political and pedagogical program establishes a special closeness between theory and moral action and at the same time marks the distinction between them and the techne. The issue is developed starting from a few observations of Dewey on the relationship between social organization and knowledge of telos in Plato's reflections.