Platone, il mare e lo straniero

The paper aims to reflect on the multiple meanings that the link between the foreigner, the sea and the harbour assumes in Plato’s thought. The study is based on two argumentative scenarios. The first, focusing on certain passages in the Laws, considers the port as a place of “trade” and the foreigner in his social role as a trader. The point is to show that the port can be a symbol both of moral corruption and of a trade necessary for the city’s sustenance, provided it is politically regulated. The second, which examines the introductory pages of the Republic, understands the port as a place of “cultural exchange” made possible by the dialectical encounter between the civic identity and other foreign worlds. It also seeks to show that this sphere, as a “crossroads of ideas”, is a space where philosophy itself can find fertile ground.