Leyendo a Platón: entre comedia y tragedia en el Cratylus

Abstract

This article is a discussion on the Platonic concept of dialogue as comedy. Plato’s Cratylus: The Comedy of Language (Ewegen, 2014) was used as the central source for this article, which can provide the basis for positions on this issue in Latin America such as those exposed by Professor Buarque (2011) in our region and more generally by Gregorio Lury et al. (2018) in Ibero-America. In addition to the aforementioned work, a comparison with Plato’s writing was made using a hermeneutic methodology based on Plato’s writings and his multiples references to laughter throughout his work, in addition to Gadamer’s clear interpretations of the work as a whole. This manuscript aims to accurately establish the existence of a Platonic commitment that is much closer to tragedy than comedy as a genre of interpretation. Thus, although there are sections entirely devoted to laughter in which Plato’s humor can be appreciated, it cannot be the key to interpreting Plato’s work, at least from the perspective of Ewegen’s approach, which must be understood as an educational project, that is, a social transformation project.