プラトン第七書簡の謎

Abstract

It seems now to be high time one should reconsider the problem hitherto often discussed : what is the main purport of the Seventh Epistle of Plato ? In this paper my aim was to go back to its historical circumstances, in order to let the work explain itself. I have attempted to regard it as being a letter actually written to the named recipients, although doubts have often been entertained as to its epistolary character. In analysing the letter, I have tried to follow strictly its construction as a letter, and paid a special attention to the explanatory comments inserted by its author here and there in order to clarify the intention of the letter. I did not necessarily seek for its philosophical precepts. Having traced what seemed to be the most consecutive of the lines of thought, I liked to propose to set it down as being the main purport of the whole work. Some internal evidences are suggested which seem to prove and confirm the practical nature of the letter. Thus reviewed from its epistolary angle, the real intention found throughout would be such as it would not be understood if one should make light of the tone of its strong dissuasion and prohibition. And though this point has not been duly stressed on by recent commentators, we may be allowed to decide that the work was actually a letter strongly political in nature, sent to dissuade his friends. As if to support such an intention we find a definite influence of Socratic negativism throughout the letter, as the assertions that it is better to suffer injuries than inflict them on others, that a law-abiding spirit should be urgently instilled, and so on. The latter assertion is further upheld by Plato's recognition of the fact that no existing laws can be effective unless they be mentally well supported. Thus the main purport of the letter, viewed from its practical angle, falls in with some philosophical tenets propounded by Plato in some other works of his. Incidentally, the observations I have set down may lead us to doubt the alleged resignation in Plato's later years.