Platonic Conception Research Articles

The Hypostasis of the Archons 1–18 Revisited: The Genesis Account of the Good Creation as a Trap by the Jealous Demiurge

The confrontation between Greek philosophy and the Biblical heritage has led to a wealth of different currents, varying from Christian and Jewish neo-Platonism to religious convictions that proclaim a complete rupture between creation and the highest hidden god. Although this rupture has its roots in a Platonic concept of a demiurge who as a lower divinity is supposed to be responsible for creation, in Gnosticism this chasm has been deepened to become no less than an abhorrence for embodied “material” existence, together with sheer contempt for the demiurge who is described as jealous, foolish and blind. Freeing the divine element/spark from the imprisonment in matter, an imprisonment concocted by this jealous demiurge, is the general aim of many Gnostic tracts. In the Hypostasis of the Archons, wisdom from above, surprisingly often gendered as female, but not as embodied, serves as a redeemer figure, named Sophia. This has led to an exegesis of revolt in which Eve becomes the source of this higher Wisdom, strengthened by the serpent of the Biblical story of Paradise, who likewise symbolizes this higher Wisdom.

Goethe’s Platonic Natural Philosophy: How Goethean Science Provides an Alternative Conception of the Cosmos

While popularly known for his works of literature and poetry, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe viewed his lesser-known scientific pieces as his most enduring achievement. I will argue that Goethe’s unique scientific methodology is informed by a metaphysical commitment to a form of Platonism and that Goethe provides an intriguing alternative paradigm that unifies science, philosophy, theology, and ethics. I begin by demonstrating how Goethe’s concept of the Urphänomen offers a Platonic conception of natural beings. I then briefly outline how this alternative scientific approach ultimately derives from his Platonic commitments. Next, I demonstrate the ethical and spiritual implications of Goethean science, establishing that Goethe’s approach bridges the divide between our scientific endeavors and spiritual formation. There is, then, a continued relevance for Goethe in conversations regarding ecological ethics and our perception of nature.

“educating children for wisdom”: reflecting on the philosophy for children community of inquiry approach through plato’s allegory of the cave

There is a widespread belief in Philosophy for Children that Plato, the famed Greek thinker who introduced philosophizing to the world as a form of dialogue, was averse to teaching philosophy to young children. Decades of the implementation of P4C program’s inquiry pedagogy have shown conclusively that children are not, in fact, incapable of receiving philosophical training and education. But was Plato wrong? Or has he been largely misunderstood? Does his theory of education show the value of cultivating virtues in the young? This paper attempts to answer these questions by reading the Republic, specifically Plato’s theory of education and the allegory of the cave, as an education manual that can strengthen one’s understanding of the pedagogical approach of P4C and the importance of educating children in wisdom and other intellectual virtues. It demonstrates that the Platonic conception of education is consistent with P4C’s theoretical position of education being transformative, facilitative, and virtue-based. By unpacking the symbolisms and meanings of the cave metaphor, it also discusses effective facilitation, teacher capacity building, and sharing of responsibility in education. Ultimately, drawing from Plato’s theory of education can recalibrate and improve the way one sees the role of education in building caring communities that empower learners and educators for democracy, higher learning, and achievement.

“Tomb of the Philosophers” in Pella, Macedonia Revisited: New Findings on Its Iconography


 
 
 This article discusses the new findings on the iconography of the two figural friezes painted in the interior of the “Tomb of the Philosophers”, an early Hellenistic, monumental, built cist grave, situated in the east cemetery of Pella, Macedonia. A new technical investigation of the tomb’s wall paintings has allowed the revision of older readings of the two friezes. In the lower, main figural frieze new observations pertain to figure characterization, through features, dress and attributes, as well as to the scene’s setting. The figures of the frieze offer the earliest preserved gathering of intellectuals whose professional insignia cannot be missed, while the celestial globe shown on the west wall appears to be one of the earliest extant representations of the device and the earliest preserved in a funerary environment. The new identification proposed for the monuments shown in the upper, secondary frieze, which represents a horse race, aligns the frieze’s composition with established iconographic schemes of agonistic events, adds multiple levels of symbolism, and ties the Pella wall-paintings more tightly than previously believed with the “Torre Annunziata philosopher mosaic”, Pompeii, and its twin from Sarsina, Umbria. The bonds of astronomy/cosmology with political theory and with aspects of Macedonian royal ideology, in particular, are set in relief. Finally, it is argued that the physical vicinity of the “Tomb of the Philosophers” with the palace of Pella and the royal court informed the mode of burial of a man of thought with favourable relations to his times’ monarchy, as well as his mode of portrayal as “the astronomer” on the west wall, a figure that presents us with a Macedonian iconographic hybrid of a philosopher, resonating the Platonic concept of the “philosopher king”.
 
 

Rethinking Truth and Method in Light of Gadamer’s Later Interpretation of Plato

As is well known, Plato was a significant influence on Gadamer’s thought. Nevertheless, Gadamer’s interpretation of Plato changed through the years, and he became increasing sympathetic towards Plato in his later works after 1960’s Truth and Method. This article will examine how Gadamer’s writings on Plato after Truth and Method may inform our interpretation of his magnum opus. I will present the case that this not only leads to rethinking Gadamer’s relation to Plato, but also has wider implications for his hermeneutics and for potential reconsiderations of key aspects of the text. I point to the possibility that if we do not sufficiently appreciate these changes in Gadamer’s interpretation of Plato, this may not only distort our understanding of Gadamer’s reading of Plato, but perhaps more importantly neglect how Platonic conceptions may inform his own hermeneutic project as it is outlined in Truth and Method.

Levinas on Separation

In this paper I argue that, to conceive transcendence, Levinas retrieves the Platonic concept of “separation” and deploys it in three ways: metaphysically, semantically, and affectively. Levinas finds in the interaction between being and the Good beyond being of Republic VI 509b a certain “formal structure of transcendence”—one in which a term is conditioned by another while remaining absolutely separated from it. This formal structure is subsequently deployed metaphysically, in the relation between creator and creature; semantically, in the relation between meaning and sense; and affectively, in the relation between the desiring self and its desired aim.

The Nature of War

The traditional definition of war given by classical authors is, that war is a violent conflict between sovereigns. This means that war cannot be outlawed by any higher authority, since the sovereign is the uppermost authority upon the lives of the persons that are subject to them. Only the sovereign has the right and the power to forbid the violent resolution of conflicts among their subjects, and as sovereign they are not subject to any higher worldly power, but only to the power of God. The obligations to God are for the most classical authors not of legal nature but constitute the realm of morality. Thus, the main question for the classical authors on war theory is the clarification of the moral conditions that justify a sovereign to wage war against another sovereign, the so-called theory of just war. Since the classical authors subordinate the concept of war under the concept of justice, the theory of just war includes reflections about the proper means of conducting a war from the point of view of justice. In other words, the theory of just war also formulates criteria for such acts that are considered as war crimes. In this essay I will not challenge the theory of just war itself, but the traditional definition of war in terms of exertion of legitimate violence. My alternative definition will be given in the third section of the essay, and relies on the Platonic concept of peace, and on the Aristotelian concepts of privation and analogy. I think that violence is not a constitutive characteristic of war, but the conceptual, i.e., logical consequence of its definition. In other words, the state of war can be declared and persist without any acts of violence. The use of violence is justified by the manifestation of the state of war.

Mutáció és eltűnés. A térbeliség kategóriájának útja a hartmanni rétegfelépítményben

The primary aim of my paper is to show how the category of spatiality appears at different levels of the strata structure outlined by Nicolai Hartmann. As a starting point, Hartmann’s connection to the Cartesian tradition leads directly to the misunderstanding that manifests itself in the accusation of hypostasis. In order to dispel this misunderstanding, I examine whether we can attach greater importance to the boundary marking the beginning of life than to the boundary between the organic and spiritual layers of existence, which is characterized, among other things, by the disappearance of the category of spatiality and the increased dominance of nova. In order to clarify this, the distinction between organic and inorganic layers of existence inevitably needs to be clarified. Next, I explain that the appearance of life on the second stage of Hartmann’s construction is devoid of any vital tendencies, and I attempt to prove that, although Hartmann draws a sharp line between the second and third layers of existence, this caesura does not result in psychophysical dualism in his system. Then I will show that the category of spatiality is already distorted shortly before its disappearance, while the living organism comes into contact with its own environment. Of course, the indirect assertion of spatiality can also be detected in non-spatial layers of existence, but its direct manifestation has interdisciplinary implications, and it can also be connected with the method of phenomenology, which I must discuss in detail. Finally, I point to the ontological consequences of the disappearance of the category in question, making it clear that the Platonic conception of existence associated with spatiality is inadequate for grasping intangible beings. After a brief description of Heidegger’s attempt, I will point out that the successful integration of intellectual entities into reality is carried out precisely by Hartmann through the real time’s ability to unite.

Plato’s legacy to education: addressing two misunderstandings

Abstract Building on Jonas and Nakazawa’s recent work (A Platonic Theory of Moral Education), my aim in this paper is to address two widespread misunderstandings of Plato’s ideas about education. The first is that the Platonic theory of education is nonegalitarian, promoting an educational system that justifies and perpetuates a caste-based society. The second is that the Platonic conception of the virtuous agent is primitive and far inferior to the Aristotelian conception, especially concerning the psychological make-up of the virtuous agent. By exploring some of the ways these misreadings can be countered, I defend the value of the Platonic educational theory for contemporary education and show the value of Jonas and Nakazawa’s project.

Promoting a New Kind of Education: Greek and Roman Philosophical Protreptic, by Daniel Markovich

Promoting a New Kind of Education: Greek and Roman Philosophical Protreptic, by Daniel Markovich

Анти-этика Сократа: Платон versus Аристотель

The purpose of this article is to compare the ethics that can be found in Plato’s Socrates with the ethics of Aristotle in the context of Plato’s and Aristotle’s understanding of the good. The first part analyzes Aristotle’s understanding of ethics. He proceeds from the fact that there is no good in itself, there are many of them. The highest good, according to Aristotle, is the good of polis; his ethics is determined by politics. The highest happiness is to live according to virtue; moral (ethical) virtue (ἀρετὴ ἠθικὴ) can be taught by suggestion and repetition of certain actions; the nature of virtue is connected with the middle, it is necessary to avoid both excess and lack of passions and actions in order to acquire the habit of sticking to the middle. The second part demonstrates the difference between Aristotelian and Platonic concepts of virtue. For Plato, the main thing is the good in itself, which is beyond being (ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας), but at the same time it is the cause of all things, the cognizable and cognition as such (R. 509b6–10). Accordingly, the good of polis for him is by no means the topmost good; in general, polis and politics are only one of the levels of the so-called visible realm of existence, where opinion rules. Since the good itself goes beyond the limits of existence, a person striving for it must go beyond the limits of existence, and his own self: such transcendence is described in the dialogues “Symposium”, “Phaedrus”, “Phaedo”; in the “Symposium”, it is emphasized that only this transcendence allows to give birth to a genuine virtue, and not merely a ghost of it. Thus, virtue according to Plato can in no way be the middle, and it is also impossible to teach it; it is in this sense that the views of Plato’s Socrates may be called anti-ethics (the word “ethics” in Plato does not exist at all).

Clement of Alexandria and His Sermon “Who Is a Rich Man That Is Saved”

The article is devoted to the analysis of the sermon of Clement of Alexandria “Who Is a Rich Man That Is Saved”. It was written at the end of the 2nd century in Alexandria and addressed to educated and wealthy young people who feared that they would not be able to save if they did not give up their earthly riches. Clement argued that Jesus did not exclude the rich from the Heavenly Kingdom, but gave instructions on how the rich should act in order to achieve salvation. Poverty in itself is not a virtue, and money can serve good purposes. The rich should practice detachment from wealth and simplicity of life, and in addition, give alms; the poor have special spiritual gifts, and their prayers protect a rich person from temptation in this world. Clement actively used Stoic and Middle Platonic concepts and terms, but attempts to combine the ancient philosophical tradition and the Old Testament doctrine of redemptive alms led to contradictions in his teaching.

Die verwantskap tussen khôra en die mistiek in M.M. Walters se gedig ‘Die groot stilte’

The relationship between khôra and mysticism in M.M Walter’s poem ‘Die groot stilte’. In view of M.M. Walters’ recent death (28 Julie 2020), it is timeous to pay homage to him by focusing on a lesser-known aspect of his poetry, namely mysticism. This article aims to demonstrate the relationship between the mysterious and enigmatic Platonic concept khôra and mysticism, and to subsequently indicate how this is expressed in the poem ‘Die groot stilte’ (in the volume Sprekende van God). Walters (1929–2020) was mainly a satirist, but also a poet of religious verse. However, he differentiated himself as an unconventional religious poet and alternative seeker of God. He opposed church dogma and believed that Christ should be sought in ways that go beyond simply accepting the church’s teachings. The article opens with a brief survey of the mystical tradition in Afrikaans poetry, after which the poetry of Walters is briefly described. Subsequently, the reception of his anthology Sprekende van God is discussed. After an introductory discussion of the khôra concept, his poem Die groot stilte is analysed in detail, and the relationship between khôra and mysticism explained. Pieter G.R. de Villiers (2020) maintains that Walters created striking poems with mystical content, and that he was often misunderstood by the clergy and orthodox believers as an enemy of religion and the church. Countering this, De Villiers observes that Walters was driven to seek a genuine, credible spirituality. De Villiers finds it unfortunate that this aspect of Walters’ poetry is not sufficiently recognised.Contribution: Based on the analysis and interpretation of ‘Die groot stilte’, the conclusion is reached that Walters can indeed be described as a mystical poet and that his mystical poetry can be regarded as part of the relatively small yield in mystical Afrikaans literature. This article adds to the equally small corpus of academic literature on mysticism in Afrikaans.

La critica sestana ai numeri pitagorici

Abstract This article proposes a reconstruction of the Sextan critique against the Pythagorean conception of number as principle of all existing things. Taking into consideration all the parallel passages concerning the presentation and the polemic about the Pythagorean doctrine, the present article proposes a division of the sceptical critique into two sections, the first one presenting the Pythagorean reasons to consider the numbers as principle existing apart from numbered things, and the second one presenting the arguments that Sextus himself built against them. This paper will show that this structure is consistent with the sceptical method, which consists in pointing out the ἰσοσθένεια among different positions which leads to suspension of judgment. Regarding the Pythagorean doctrine that emerges from these passages, the present article discusses the way in which Sextus testified a juxtaposition between Pythagorean and Platonic doctrines, probably due to a Middle-Platonic or Neopythagorean elaboration, against which Sextus used Platonic concepts, adopting in original way arguments taken from the Parmenides and the Phaedo. Despite the ἐποχή about the nature of the number, this article will argue that Sextus did not avoid to use the number in practical daily life, in a way that is consistent with the sceptical practical criterion.

Divine Eros in the Apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla

The present study treats one of the most well-known and discussed texts of the apocryphal Bible: the Acts of Paul and Thecla. By analysing the narrative structure of this apocryphal text and the behaviour of its protagonists, I shed light on its philosophical background, which has been largely ignored by contemporary scholarship. More specifically, my analysis focuses on the motif of divine eros, which is continuously present throughout the entire narrative. It goes without saying that the testimonies found in early Christian literature showing the influence of Platonic philosophy on the growing religion constitute the point of departure for a thorough examination of Thecla’s Acts and a systematic treatment of this aspect of their narration. From Ignatius’s epistle To the Romans up to Clement of Alexandria’s Stromata, a period of approximately 100 years passes, during which the Platonic conception of love makes it presence ever more prominent within the ecclesiastical scene, until it is finally identified with the highest expression of faith and reverence towards God in the writings of the Alexandrian theologians. It is no coincidence that it is precisely to this period of time that contemporary scholars date the composition of the Acts of Paul and Thecla.

Rethinking Rhythm through the Life of Images

Rethinking Rhythm through the Life of Images Valentina Rosales (bio) Domietta Torlasco. The Rhythm of Images: Cinema beyond Measure. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2021. 200 pages. $100 cloth. $25 paperback. What if we understood cinema as a viewing screen through which images flowed both inward and outward, unconstrained by a chronometrical rhythm, in other words, outside of the indelible ticktack of clocks, the schedule of trains, and the measurable units of a workday? Furthermore, what if we saw the relationship between rhythm and images through a lens that promises to challenge the abstract measure of forms as well as the mechanical and industrial power that is exercised through them? These questions arise from the philosophical terrain that Domietta Torlasco explores in her new book regarding cinema, opening a productive discussion about the ontology of images through examples that abide to neither a chronological nor a historical order and ultimately lead to a reconceptualization of the well-known and disputed relationship between subject and object. In the introduction, Torlasco interrogates the configuration of "Being as rhythm" in the Platonic sense, which poses rhythm as a chronometrical and ideal molding of forms, constructing from the very start a theoretical as well as experiential ground for seeing [End Page 380] rather that thinking time (7). This way of seeing is what opens the metaphysical door to the unpredictable flow (and overflow) of time and creates for images the possibility to resist the violence and exploitation that surge from culturally fixed forms. This is where Torlasco introduces the concept of rhuthmos (rhythm), which will bind together all the examples and arguments that are found in her study. Borrowed from Émile Benveniste's idea of "a passing, irregular form of configuration" (5) in the way that was understood in pre-Socratic philosophy, rhuthmos is the counterbalance of—and sometimes the rebellion against—a platonic conception of rhythm and therefore a way of understanding perception as "freed from perspective and chronology" or as a "flesh of time" that flows with its movement, leaps, and ambiguities (9). In chapter 1, titled "Life," filmmakers Harun Farocki and Jean Vigo become essential for the construction of such viewing/seeing experience, for they are builders of images that pertain to what one could call "the cinema of life" as opposed to a "cinema of constraint." Following Luce Irigaray, Torlasco describes these artists' fluid images to be that which "cannot be defined, enumerated and formalized," thus challenging "the economy that makes it possible to speak of a subject" (30). Vigo's L'Atalante, for example, works as a montage of images that show the force of the waves and thus the liquidity of forms but also the liaison that arises from two lovers dancing underwater at a distance: they are not inhabiting the same space, yet they are connected through the strings of a becoming that makes them less and more than subjects, lovers of an unbounded and ungrounded temporality. This "idiorrhythmy" (a term that Torlasco borrows from Roland Barthes) is revolutionary in the sense that it holds a "negative relationship to power" (27),1 for a romance that happens outside of a formal rhythm cannot be controlled by any kind of institution, and in this very movement it liberates the eccentric image from regulated time. It is also in this sense that Torlasco positions herself outside of a Western theory and practice of vision, following the traces of (eccentric) images that conjure up or set free a temporal fluidity that is aligned with Irigaray's feminist critique of science.2 Perhaps it is this very line of critique that lets her speak of a feminized temporality, or of a time that is always escaping the restraint of "solids" through a body that seems to be everchanging and fluid.3 Certainly, this body could also exist as an image that challenges a filmic aesthetic that relies mostly on the principles of formal logic, that is, on "negation, identity, and generality" (15), thus opening a space, where the multiple, the dissimilar, and the particular can for a moment displace (or flood) the solid ground of the thinking [End Page 381] subject. Here Torlasco borrows from Ewa Plonowska Ziarek the notion of...

Reading Plato: Between Tragedy and Comedy in Cratylus

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.

Античная метафизика и христианская теология в «Гимнах о Троице» Мария Викторина

The article deals with the reception of ancient metaphysics in the “Hymns of Trinity” of Marius Victorinus. In the first part, the author investigates a hypothetical time of writing and the literary, artistic, and compositional features of the hymns, which, in all likelihood, were written ca. 363, in the mature period of Victorinus’ literary activity, and represent a summary of his entire philosophical and theological system, which makes the hymns extremely important for understanding the evolution of his thought. In the second section of the article, the author analyzes the basic doctrinal issues where the links between ancient metaphysics and Christian theology are evident. First to be mentioned is the doctrine of the three Ones and three Beings, based on the dialectic of the One and many in Plato’s Parmenides and on the philosophical system of Plotinus. According to Victorinus, the first, or absolute, One, deprived of any multiplicity, corresponds to God the Father; the second One, born from the first One, is the One-Being, which corresponds to the Son-Logos; the third One, which is generated by the Logos, is the world as a whole, which includes all intelligible and material beings, forming a single “chain of being”. At the same time, it is noted that Victorinus also considers the third One and the “third Being” as the Holy Spirit, which is the “Power of the One”, binding all things together and making them one. Further, three metaphysical triads are considered: substance – form – cognition, being – life – intellect, and remaining – procession – reversion, by means of which Victorinus describes Christian Trinity. Finally, the author examines the doctrine of the Logos as the “Seed of Being” and the source of life for all beings, and of the Holy Spirit as the source of true knowledge and the way a human soul returns to God. It is pointed out that the concept of the Logos as the “Seed of Being” in Victorinus was influenced by the Stoic concept of pneuma as the seed of all things and a related doctrine of the “spermatic logoi”, as well as the Platonic concept of the world Soul. The return of souls to God as their prime cause is viewed as the result of a long process of their enlightenment and spiritualization, which is accomplished by the action of the Holy Spirit as the Wisdom of God and the “hidden Christ”. The first Russian translation of the first “Hymn on Trinity”, along with detailed historical and philosophical commentaries, is attached.

Une occasion manquée? La critique implicite de la chôra dans le livre III du De caelo d’Aristote

Book III of Aristotle’s De caelo does not feature the Platonic concept of χώρα as a main protagonist. Through mere scarce allusions, Aristotle tends to treat it as just another concept of matter, reminiscent in many respects of those of Presocratic philosophers. In this paper, I argue that this biased presentation should be interpreted as Aristotle’s implicit refusal to acknowledge the role of the χώρα in Plato’s reform of participation, which is expounded in the Timaeus. I refer this refusal to Aristotle’s complex epistemological and methodological criticisms of Platonic paradigmatism. Reconstructing this implicit dialogue between Plato and Aristotle also sheds a new light on the stakes and consistency of book III of De caelo, which had remained elusive in earlier approaches. I suggest that book III does not aim to propose a consistent account of the four elements or of generation, but to build a new Aristotelian framework as an answer to the aporiai of Plato’s Timaeus.

LA INFLUENCIA PLATÓNICA EN LA CONCEPCIÓN ARISTOTÉLICA DEL “SÍ MISMO” EN EL PROTRÉPTICO Y EN LA ÉTICA NICOMAQUEA

Despite the palpable differences in Platonic and Aristotelian anthropologies, both philosophers affirm the identity of the self with noûs . The purpose of this paper is to show the Platonic influence on the Aristotelian work on the notion of self, both in his Academic period and in his later thought. Broadly speaking, the master developed two different conceptions of the self: in the Alcibiades major he clearly identifies the self with the intellect, while in the Republic he identifies it with each part of the soul and with the totality of the soul governed by a specific part. The disciple partially reproduces the first Platonic conception of the "self" in the Protrepticus , while he adopts the central lines of the second in Nicomachean Ethics IX. 8-9. Although the Stagirite distances himself from his master in some nuances, he follows the Platonic ethical-anthropological ideal in maintaining that the realization of the contemplative life presupposes that the intellect governs human behavior.