On the Origins of the Theory of Ideas. A historical-philosophical Path

This paper starts from a question of whether it is possible to think there was a theory of Ideas before Plato. To answer this question one must move with great caution by resorting to a web of passages, taken from the writings not only of Plato and Aristotle, but also by Aristotelian commentators, such as Alexander of Aphrodisias and Simplicius, which constitute a network of fairly solid clues in this sense. The analysis path outlined here is therefore divided into two parts: 1. in the first part we will analyze some Aristotelian and Platonic passages that seem to attest to the circulation of a theory of Ideas that is different and anterior to the Platonic one; 2. in the second part we will focus on the argument of the Third Man, which seems to bear solid witness in favor of the fact that we can talk about a debate around the Ideas that existed prior to the Platonic elaboration, so much so that we have developed a critical argument known in several elaborations.