Epistemology in the Theaetetus
This chapter offers a brief treatment of the epistemology of the Theaetetus, arguing that in this dialogue—despite obvious and radical differences from the Two Worlds dialogues—we can see the Basic Conceptions very much at work. Socrates’ development and refutation of the first hypothesis, that epistêmê is perception, presupposes an objects-based epistemology on which epistêmê is of Being, and doxa of what seems. His treatment of doxa in the dialogue’s second hypothesis shows that he is here introducing a new notion generic belief, which is nonetheless explicable as an extension of the idea that doxa is of what seems, and the refutation of the second hypothesis, along with the development of the third, arguably involve the idea that epistêmê has its own special object, Being.