Abstract

In the two last chapters of Platos Ideenlehre, Paul Natorp compares his interpretation of Plato’s theory of Ideas to Aristotle’s, whom he considers as the origin of the historical distortions which it underwent. According to him, these distortions stem from the deep dogmatism of Aristotle’s thought, unable to gain access to Plato’s criticist viewpoint. The debate between Plato and Aristotle is therefore an opportunity for Natorp to make the signification of the opposition between criticism and dogmatism as he understands them clearer. For him, criticism and dogmatism are mainly distinguished on two counts : their relation to object and their relation to infinite. The study of these characters thus makes it possible to deepen the meaning of the critical idealism that Natorp tries to reactivate in the Marburgian version of Neokantianism.