ENTWINE. The Cohesion between Being and Mind: Plato’s Metaphysical Realism

First year: 2023 - Last year: 2026

The Project (Scientific coordinator: dr. Lorenzo Giovannetti-ILIESI) is the first step of a philosophical investigation concerning the concept of metaphysical realism (MR) and its Greek, esp. Platonic, origin. In a nutshell, MR is the view that what is real is (i) absolutely independent of human mind as to what it is and whether it exists; (ii) so connected to thought and language as to be grasped and described. The research is a close analysis of the relevant Platonic works and of their theoretical consequences. The principal idea is that what is possibly perceived as a theoretical tension in MR, namely that reality is independent of human cognition and at the same time is essentially related to it, is precisely what lies at the core of Plato's metaphysics. Thus, the research addresses four points in Plato's works: I) the connection between reality and mind and the way this connection is expressed by the concept of truth; II) the relation between content and object of thought also including linguistic meaning; III) reality and linguistic reference; IV) the intersection between the former points and the conception of knowledge as justified true belief.