Approach to Plato’s question: „What is mimesis willing to be?“

Abstract

The text seeks to explore the significance of the repeated questioning of mimesis in the tenth book of Plato?s Republic. Initially, the question appears to follow the typical Socratic form of inquiry, asking what something is. However, the question is more complex than it appears because Socrates states that he does not know ?What is mimesis trying to be??, before calling for the questioning in his usual form in the following sentence. The text attempts to elucidate the particularity of the repeated questioning about mimesis by examining the relationship between the following elements: not knowing, the question of what something is, will, and being. The author argues that highlighting the interplay of these concepts in Socrates? new question about mimesis is crucial to comprehending the subsequent critique of mimesis presented in the Republic, which is far from self-evident.