The Subversion of Plato's Quasi-Phenomenology and Mytho-Poetics in the Symposium

Janus Head ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Bert Olivier ◽  

Is there a significant difference between Plato's texts and what is known as 'Platonism', that is, the philosophical tradition that claims Plato as its progenitor? Focusing on the Symposium, an attempt is made here to show that, far from merely fitting neatly into the categories of Platonism—with its neat distinction between the super-sensible and the sensible—Plato's own text is a complex, tension-filled terrain of countervailing forces. In the Symposium this tension obtains between the perceptive insights, on the one hand, into the nature of love and beauty, as well as the bond between them, and the metaphysical leap, on the other hand, from the experiential world to a supposedly accessible, but by definition super-sensible, experience-transcending realm. It is argued that, instead of being content with the philosophical illumination of the ambivalent human condition—something consummately achieved by mytho-poetic and quasi-phenomenohgical means—Plato turns to a putatively attainable, transcendent source of metaphysical reassurance which, moreover, displays all the trappings of an ideological construct. This is demonstrated by mapping Plato's lover's vision of 'absolute beauty' on to what Jacques Lacan has characterized as the unconscious structural quasi-condition of all religious and ideological illusion.

Problemos ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 46-59
Author(s):  
Rita Šerpytytė

Straipsnio tikslas yra atskleisti Vakarų filosofijos tradicijoje savitai įsitvirtinusios patyrimo struktūros, įvardijamos pakartojimu, nihilistinę prasmę. Šioje hermeneutinėje analizėje, viena vertus, re­miamasi tam tikra nihilizmo samprata, numatančia du nihilizmo teorinius modelius – nihilizmą, parem­tą Überwindung teorija, ir nihilizmą, paremtą différance idėja. Kita vertus, remiamasi tam tikru („onto-teologiniu“) pretekstu Vakarų mąstymo tradicijoje atpažįstant pakartojimo struktūrą – Pauliaus Laiško efeziečiams Ef. I, 10 teksto fragmentu, laikomu paradigmine pakartojimo struktūros išsklaida. Herme­neutinė analizė projektuojama į Kierkegaardo ir Agambeno filosofiją, atskirus jų mąstyme atpažįstamus pakartojimo invariantus atskleidžiant kaip minėto Pauliaus Laiško fragmento eksplozijos atvejus. Ke­liamas klausimas, kas yra pakartojimas, kur slypi jo negatyvumas ir kaip pasirodo jo nihilistinė prasmė? Kaip šioje negatyvumo ir nihilizmo atskleistyje „tarpininkauja“ différance? Straipsnyje parodoma, jog skirtis kaip neigimo judesys, atstovaujantis nihilistinei logikai, gali būti traktuojamas ir vien formaliai, ir realiai. Skirties kaip realaus neigimo traktavimas Kierkegaardo ir Agambeno mąstyme atitinka pačios patirties struktūros – pakartojimo – ontologinį (tikrovišką) įšaknytumą.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: pakartojimas, nihilizmas, différance, negatyvumas, laikasPakartojimas ir nihilizmasRita Šerpytytė   AbstractThe purpose of this article is to reveal the nihilistic sense of an experiential structure, which has been distinctively rooted in Western philosophical tradition. On the one hand, this hermeneutical analysis will be based on a certain conception of nihilism presupposing two theoretical models of nihilism – nihilism, which refers to the theory of Überwindung, and nihilism associated with the idea of différance. On the other hand, it builds upon a certain (the so-called “onto-theological”) pretext, which might be used for recognition of the structure of repetition in Western tradition of thinking, – i.e. the fragment of a text from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians Eph. I, 10 – the paradigmatic passage proposing this universal structure of repetition. Focused both on philosophy of Kierkegaard and Agamben, hermeneutical analysis will aim to disclose the separate invariants of such repetition as cases of explosion of the mentioned text fragment. The question is raised – what is repetition? Where does its negativity lie? How does its nihilistic sense appear? How does the différance mediate in this process of revealing of negativity and nihilism? The article argues that difference, as a motion of negation representing nihilistic logic, can be treated both in merely formal and in a realistic way. The treating of différance as real denying in Kierkegaard’s and Agamben’s thinking corresponds to the ontological rootedness of the very structure of experience – repetition.Keywords: repetition, nihilism, différance, negativity, time


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Faustino

AbstractThis paper examines Nietzsche’s relation to the therapeutic philosophical tradition paradigmatically represented by the Hellenistic schools. On the one hand, given his project of rehabilitating Western culture and his understanding of the philosopher as a “physician of culture”, Nietzsche seems also to hold a therapeutic understanding of philosophy; on the other hand, he is extremely critical of any (philosophical, moral or religious) attempt to heal mankind. This paper does not aim to solve this tension but rather characterizes Nietzsche’s endeavor in this respect as a therapy of therapy. Through analysis of a) the basic features of the Hellenistic conception of philosophy, b) Nietzsche’s development of the analogy of the “philosophical physician”, c) his diagnosis of culture, and d) his criticism of previous therapists, I show that Nietzsche can be formally included in this tradition of thought, even if this inclusion has implications for the tradition itself. As I suggest, given the self-referentiality of Nietzsche’s therapy, his inclusion in this tradition might in fact simultaneously entail its own self-suppression.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-342
Author(s):  
Caslav Koprivica

In this text, the work of Serbian writer Stanislav Krakov, between the two world wars, the famous, and later, due to ideological divisions, repressed and forgotten figure, is ovserverd through the lens of philosophy of existence and phenomenology. The ?philosophical? significance of Krakov?s autobiographical war prose, which in the aesthetic, especially formal-innovative aspect, represented the pinnacle of the genre of that time Serbian literature, is that it can be viewed as a first-class document of phenomenological introspection of a man in situation of mortal combat; and the ragne his prose of his prose is, in some respects, without exaggeration, comparable to war prose of Ernst J?nger. But besides his authentic documentality, Krakov?s writing is characterized by brilliant insights. So, on the one hand, Krakov can be viewed as a thinker of war and corporeality avant lettre, and, on the other hand, the interpretative contextualization of his prose within the aforementioned philosophical tradition helps us to better understand his literature.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (47) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stiegler Bernard

Stiegler argued in Cinematic Time and the Question of Malaise (the third volume of Technics and Time) that we must refer to archi-cinema just as Derrida spoke of archi-writing. In this article he proposes that in principle the dream is the primordial form of this archi-cinema. The archi-cinema of consciousness, of which dreams would be the matrix as archi-cinema of the unconscious, is the projection resulting from the play between what Husserl called, on the one hand, primary and secondary retentions, and what Stiegler, on the other hand, calls tertiary retentions, which are the hypomnesic traces (that is, the mnemo-technical traces) of conscious and unconscious life. There is archi-cinema to the extent that for any noetic act – for example, in an act of perception – consciousness projects its object. This projection is a montage, of which tertiary (hypomnesic) retentions form the fabric, as well as constituting both the supports and the cutting room. This indicates that archi-cinema has a history, a history conditioned by the history of tertiary retentions. It also means that there is an organology of dreams.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Belias ◽  
Athanasios Koustelios

The purpose of the present study was to reveal how demographic characteristics influence the perceptions of bank employees of organizational culture. The sample of the study consisted of 240 employees from Greek banking institutions, from different occupational positions. 60% of the employees were 31-40 years old followed by the categories 41-50 years old (20%), up to 30 years old (10%) and 51-60 years old (10%). Most of the employees (63.8%) had been working as bank employees for 6-15 years and the majority of them (63.8%) had been working in the same bank for 6-15 years. The majority of the employees (59.6%) were simple clerks, 29.2% were supervisors and 11.3% were Managers or Assistant Managers. The assessment of organizational culture was performed with the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) developed by Cameron and Quinn (2006). Results indicate that there is a significant difference in the perceptions of the subjects between the dominant current and the dominant preferred type of organizational culture. In addition, a statistically significant difference (p<0.01) was found between Managers and clerks on the one hand and Supervisors on the other hand in terms of both the dominant current and the dominant preferred type of organizational culture. Finally, employees’ perceptions of the dominant current and the dominant preferred type of organizational culture were found to be affected by other demographical characteristics, like age, total years of working in the same bank and total years of working in any bank. Future studies can extend the present work by examining additional parameters that affect employees’ perceptions of organizational culture.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 521-549
Author(s):  
Jana V. Schmidt ◽  

A near exclusive focus on Hannah Arendt’s concept of forgiveness from her major work The Human Condition has obscured the equally important model of reconciliation in her writings on aesthetics and in her Thought Notebook. By engaging Arendt in a dialogue with her contemporaries and friends Ingeborg Bachmann and Hermann Broch, on the one hand, and with the classic thinkers of tragedy, Aristotle and Goethe, on the other hand, I show how reconciliation responds to the situation of fatherlessness after 1945 and, as a “reconciliation with reality,” offers a new basis for intersubjectivity. Having, as Arendt writes, “enough of origin within” ourselves to do without pre-established categories cannot mean that we must begin to “father” ourselves but that, on the contrary, our inception as beings born to begin anew leaves us radically forlorn and yet equipped with everything we need to “make world” with one another. The essay contends that imagination, judgment, and understanding build a network of thought figures in Arendt that are tied to reality through the work of reconciliation.


Problemos ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Lujza Nagy

This paper is about death and about immortality. It explores the experience and philosophical implications of death from different perspectives. Firstly, in the light of Mamardashvili’s philosophy, it deals with the interconnection and interdependence of death and thinking. Secondly, through Jankélévitch’s philosophy, it changes the perspective on the interdependence of death and thinking from the general to the personal perspective, when death becomes an intimate part of life. Further, thanks to Aries’ research, the paper introduces historical details about what people brooded over death and how they expressed their thoughts in more explicit way. This makes it possible to look at the mediology of death as a philosophy that leads to reflection and critique of our contemporary attitude to death. On the one hand, the mediology of death motivates us to think about death – in this way it follows the philosophical tradition, on the other hand, it attempts to convince us for the first time of the immortality that can happen only in material form – and it is its novelty.


2017 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 701-709
Author(s):  
Dorota Gołek-Sepetliewa

The experience of passing and old agein the works of Victor Paskov and Stanislav StratievThe literary works of famous Bulgarian authors Stanislav Stratiev 1941–2000 and Victor Paskov 1949–2009 may be viewed in terms of athorough study of the human being and the multidimensionality of its existence. Their reflections about existential problems also involve the experience of passing and old age that have ontological, social, cultural, symbolic and metaphorical dimension. The novel A Ballad for George Henig 1987 by Paskov and the drama On the Other Side 1994 by Stratiev include clear and ambiguous images of the end of the human life. The experience of passing and old age affects aparticular person as apersonality and its relationship with the other people. This subject reveals, on the one hand, the crisis of human relations and values in contemporary Bulgarian society, on the other hand it emphasizes the fragility of the human condition, expressed in the experience of pain, illness, passing, old age and death.Опитът на преходност и старост в творчествотона Виктор Пасков и Станислав СтратиевТворчествотo на известнитe български автори Станислав Стратиев 1941–2000 и Виктор Пасков 1949–2009 можe да бъдe разгледанo кaто по-задълбочено изучаване на човешкото същество и на множествотo измерения на неговия живот. Интересът към екзистенциалните проблеми включва и описание на опита на преходност и старост, който притежава онтологично, социалнo, културнo, символично и метафорично измерение. Романът на Пасков Балада за Георг Хених 1987 и драмата на Стратиев От другатa страна 1994 представят изразителни и нееднозначни картини зa крайния етап от човешкия живот. Опитът на преходност и старост засяга човешкия индивид като личност и отношенията мy с близкитe и по-далечнaтa социална среда. Тeматa разкрива, от една страна, кризата на човешките отношения и на ценноститe в съвременното българското общество, от друга страна — подчертава крехкостта на човешкото съществуване, което се изразява в опита на страдание, заболяване, преходност, старост и смърт.


2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (111) ◽  
pp. 27-48
Author(s):  
Benjamin Jon Boysen

WHEN THE PSYCHIATRIST NEEDS A PSYCHIATRIST. ON JACQUES LACAN’S ‘MIRROR READING’ OF JAMES JOYCEIn continuation of Jung, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan advances the view (especially in the seminar from 1975-76 entitled ‘Le sinthome’) that Joyce’s writing is a particular individual symptom of Joyce’s latently psychotic mind, which the author uses in his own quasi-psychotic art that, reversely, secured him against an actual outbreak. In this reading of Joyce, Lacan is guilty of what I label a mirror-reading: On the one hand he unconsciously (being spellbound by the allurement of identification) iterates motifs and gesticulations of Joyce’s own text, whereby a hermeneutical intervention does not come off (he does not add anything to the text); on the other hand he grossly misreads Joyce’s biographyand work from an unformulated projection of his own life story, whereby a hermeneutical intervention, moreover, does not come off, since the text remains untouched (it does not add anything to him). The synthesis of text and reader does not occur, and Lacan’s erroneous misreading is striking, yet highly interesting as a symptom of the madness of the interpreter himself that lies dormant ready at any moment to break out in any interpretative situation as such. Lacan remains caught up in his own symptom, whose name rightfully is given and must be understood as ‘Joyce’ – or more generally put: The interpretation of a text always contains the danger that the interpreter unceasingly – and without knowing it – stages his own mad (self-contradictory) symptom. A symptom I have chosen to call the mirror-reading.


MELINTAS ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 346
Author(s):  
Fabianus Sebastian Heatubun

Comic dimension, on the one hand, is a human condition. It is a basic precondition for a human being called to be <em>humanum</em>, to be authentic, complete and true human being. ‘Comic’ (laughter) can be seen as a cultural product that has become nurtural. On the other hand, essentially comic or laughter is innate by origin. The nature of human can be conceived as a mammal that is able of distinguishing itself from other mammals. Thus human as <em>mangel wesen</em> (incomplete and weak being) by laughter has a capacity to transcend herself or himself, her or his body and whole life. It might even further to be said that that comic dimension has a capability to save humankind. In a mystical sense, when we laugh, we live through our most fundamental life. Laughter makes life more alive. Laughter becomes a sacred moment, for it is a blending event of the human with the divine, and in turn it brings back men and women to their original nature as a human being.<br /><br />


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