The Ghost of Socrates: The Persistence of Ignorance in Plato’s Sophist

My original intention for this project was to write on the role that Ignorance plays in Love. Specifically, the question originally formulated was to ask whether or not it is the knowledge of someone/something that leads to love, or rather, if it was the other way around, i.e., that it is what we don’t know about the person, what remains to be discovered that serves as the driving force of our love for that person/object. And, given my background, it should have come as no surprise that this investigation would be performed through a Platonic lens. Yet, as the project progressed, it became obvious that before any discussion of ignorance’s connection to love in Plato could rightly be had, it would be benefi cial to fi rst establish precisely how we are to understand Ignorance in Plato’s work. As it turns out, pinning down a precise account of ignorance in Plato proved to be a bit more complicated, and interesting, than I had fi rst anticipated.