Abstract

A close reading of what Plato writes about DOXA, misleadingly translated as ‘belief’, reveals that DOXA exhibits the logical form of what it is now referred to as “de re belief.” A DOXA makes a claim on the nature of reality, not a claim about the speaker’s thoughts about that reality. Consequently a doxastic claim is either true or meaningless when it fails of reference to the portion of reality it is naming. This insight has deep implications for Plato’s epistemology in general and his “Meno,” “Republic, ” and “Theaetetus” in particular.