CriticaLink | Plato: Phaedrus | Terms

opinion

We tend to use the term opinion to mean an individual's or group's position on a particular issue (as in "public opinion"). In the Phaedrus, Socrates uses the word "opinion" (doxa in Greek) to designate knowledge of phenomena that is not informed by a true knowledge of their corresponding Forms. Socrates implies that the sophists are only able to impart opinion to their students, who could attain true knowledge only by means of philosophical inquiry Socrates calls dialectic.