Il termine "ethos" negli scritti di Platone

Plato’s use of the term ethos is extremely interesting for several reasons. It designates a notion of crucial importance in the political conception of the philosopher and in his educational project. Furthermore, this concept allows to focus on the Platonic conception of the soul from an unusual perspective. Moreover, in the Platonic writings the term ethos assumes a variety of nuances that make it suitable to designate a border area between the internal dimension of the soul and the external world of interpersonal relationships. A central aim of the analysis is the identification of the different semantic values with which the term is used by Plato. For each of these values some major occurrences of ethos are taken into account. These considerations show that the fundamental semantic values ("custom" and "temperament") are placed on two fronts, apparently contradictory: community and individuality; culture and nature. Plato’s notion of ethos serves as a mediation (or: allows the osmosis) between these two fronts. A further result of the analysis is the possibility of tracing a developmental line of thought through Plato’s use of this term. Finally, the attention is drawn to the cases in which the word ethos is used by the philosopher in frequent association with other terms.