L’humilité est usuellement considérée comme une vertu morale, mais aussi épistémique. Une exception à cet égard dans la tradition philosophique est le Commentaire au Premier Alcibiade de Proclus. Celui-ci nous décrit le choix d’Alcibiade par Socrate, les premières étapes de leur relation pédagogique, mais aussi et surtout les principes théoriques qui les justifient, en faisant la part belle à ce qu’on pourrait appeler l’orgueil épistémique, pourvu de trois composantes : la fierté (φρόνημα), le mépris (καταφρονεῖν, etc.) et l’ambition (...) (φιλοτιμία). Après une étude terminologique des notions pertinentes pour l’argument de Proclus à ce sujet, cet article tente de le reconstituer par une analyse des trois composantes décrites par Proclus et de leurs relations, en se concentrant sur l’aspect particulièrement développé dans les pages du Commentaire préservées : l’orgueil comme marque du potentiel de l’élève. Il décrit ensuite comment cette reconnaissance s’inscrit dans la dynamique plus générale de purification de l’orgueil d’Alcibiade par la méthode socratique, et revient enfin à la question philosophique initiale de la valeur éducative de l’humilité et de l’orgueil épistémiques. (shrink)

Dans la littérature ascétique, orgueil et humilité sont considérés comme la matrice, respectivement, de tous les vices et de toutes les vertus. En outre, travailler sur les autres vertus ainsi que sur l’humilité elle-même risque de nourrir l’orgueil. Le présent article confronte ces perspectives avec des recherches récentes en psychologie du comportement moral et de la personnalité qui ont investigué sur le narcissisme, l’estime de soi, la modestie et l’humilité. Il poursuit un triple objectif. Primo, examiner la pertinence des conceptions (...) de la littérature ascétique sur le caractère pluridimensionnel de l’orgueil et de l’humilité: rapport à soi, aux autres, et à Dieu. Secundo, examiner si la valorisation religieuse de l’humilité se traduit effectivement dans les attitudes et comportements des croyants par une modestie et une humilité plus grande. Tertio, proposer des pistes qui permettent d’envisager sereinement le combat spirituel contre l’orgueil de manière à éviter les vicissitudes qui lui sont inhérentes ou associées: narcissisme caché, déresponsabilisation, culpabilisme excessif, fausse humilité et compensation par un altruisme égoïste. (shrink)

Cette article présente l'étude comparative des systèmes éducatifs grecs et chrétiens dans la mesure où tous les deux accordent une place centrale à l'obéissance dans la formation des individus. Il vise à mettre en évidence leur opposition absolue. Chez les grecs l'obéissance joue le rôle d'un outil éducatif destiné à faire de l'élève un être libre. Elle est pensée comme une méthode d'accès à la liberté inséparable d'un enjeu politique : la formation des citoyens libres. L'obéissance au maître, c'est-à-dire la (...) docilité, constitue ainsi la condition de possibilité de l'assujettissement de la partie irrationnelle de l'âme à la partie rationnelle. Or dans le projet éducatif monachique, la lecture de la Bible comme pratique ascétique joue le rôle d'un outil de lutte contre les tentations, non celui d'un moyen d'apprentissage qui vise l'acquisition d'un savoir. Cette pratique ascétique est donc inséparable d'une exigence : la purification de l'âme. Dès lors, l'obéissance devient une voie d'accès à la vertu et le lieu d'une attention exclusive inséparable d'un autre enjeu politique, diamétralement opposé à celui des systèmes grecs : la destruction de toute idée de liberté. Elle ne représente plus une méthode devant conduire à la liberté, mais le terme de la formation des individus. Elle n'est plus visée comme un moyen, mais comme une fin en soi. Elle ne vise plus le développement de la raison, mais la soumission de la volonté. (shrink)

Divers portraits de l’éducation socratique, quoique apparemment contradictoires sur certains points, témoignent d’une conception de la παιδεία qui ne consiste pas à proprement parler dans l’enseignement mais d’abord et avant tout dans la fréquentation de Socrate. Cette étude entend examiner la conception originale de l’éducation défendue par Socrate dans ses divers portraits, et en particulier en ce qui concerne les modes de transmission de la vertu et du savoir au sein du rapport enseignant-élève. À cette fin, j’analyserai la profonde révision (...) de la παιδεία opérée par l’enseignement socratique en me concentrant sur la notion de συνουσία et donc aussi sur la théorie de l’ἔρως que certaines sources, notamment Eschine et Platon, assignent à Socrate. Cette étude, divisée en quatre parties, se penche sur certains passages tirés de (1) l’Alcibiade d’Eschine, en rapport avec d’autres dialogues de l’auteur ; (2) le Banquet de Platon, en parallèle avec une section du Théétète ; (3) le Théagès et le Premier Alcibiade ; (4) les Mémorables de Xénophon. (shrink)

In this essay, I engage the foreseeable consequences for the future of humanity triggered by Emerging Technologies and their underpinning philosophy, transhumanism. The transhumanist stance is compared with the default view currently held in many academic institutions of higher education: posthumanism. It is maintained that the transhumanist view is less inimical to the fostering of human dignity than the posthuman one. After this is established, I suggest that the Catholic Church may find an ally in a transhumanist ethos in a (...) two-fold manner. On the one hand, by anchoring and promoting the defense of “the human” already present in transhumanism. On the other, rethinking the effectiveness of the delivery of sacraments in a humanity heavily altered by these technologies. (shrink)

In the Platonic work Alcibiades I, a divinely guided Socrates adopts the guise of a lover in order to divert Alcibiades from an unthinking political career. The contributors to this carefully focussed volume cover aspects of the background to the work; its arguments and the philosophical issues it raises; its relationship to other Platonic texts, and its subsequent history up to the time of the Neoplatonists. Despite its ancient prominence, the authorship of Alcibiades I is still unsettled; the essays and (...) two appendices, one historical and one stylometric, come together to suggest answers to this tantalising question. (shrink)

Socrates’ admirers and successors in the fourth century and beyond often felt the need to explain Socrates’ reputed relationship with Alcibiades, and to defend Socrates against the charge that he was a corrupting influence on Alcibiades. In this paper I examine Plato’s response to this problem and have two main aims. First, I will argue in Section 2 that (...) central points: that motivations associated with the spirited part of the soul play a decisive role in moral education, particularly in the case of exceptionally ambitious and talented individuals; and that the democratic Many themselves, not Socrates, are primarily responsible for the corruption of promising young men like Alcibiades. These points are connected, moreover: the Many exert a moral influence on the young by shaping and exploiting their spirited motivations. I aim to show that Plato develops and dramatizes this diagnosis of the problem of Alcibiades in three earlier dialogues—Protagoras, Gorgias, and Symposium—as well as in Book 6 of the Republic. My second main claim will be that the psychological and educational theories of the Republic are informed by Plato’s diagnosis of the problem of Alcibiades, and that they are conceived, at least in part, as a solution to that problem. (shrink)

The problem of the relationship between warmaking and the health of the city constitutes an important part of the Platonic corpus. In the Platonic dialogue Alcibiades I, considered in antiquity one of Plato's most important works, Socrates leads Alcibiades to agree that there ought to be a close link between justice and decisions about war. In light of this, Alcibiades’ actual advice to the city regarding the Peace of Nicias, as portrayed by Thucydides in History of the Peloponnesian War, is (...) put in stark relief within the dialogue. Plato's dialogue about Alcibiades can thus be seen as offering an alternative and morally critical account of how Alcibiades could have used his talents and rhetorical skills in addressing the city on the issue of war. More broadly, it reminds us of the difference between true statesmanship focused on the common good, and political or military rule engaged in for personal benefit or ambition. (shrink)

This article proposes an analysis of Plato’s Sophist that underlines the bond between the logical and the emotional components of the Socratic elenchus, with the aim of depicting the social valence of this philosophical practice. The use of emotions characterizing the ‘elenctic’ method described by Plato is crucial in influencing the audience and is introduced at the very moment in which the interlocutor attempts to protect his social image by concealing his shame at being refuted. The audience, thanks to Plato’s (...) literary strategy, realizes the failures of the interlocutor even as he refuses to accept them. As a result, his social image becomes tarnished. Purification through shame reveals how the medium is strictly related to the endorsement of specific ethical and political goals, making the Platonic dialogs the tools for the constitution of a new paideia. (shrink)

La neutralité axiologique est souvent présentée comme une vertu professorale, ou comme une composante essentielle d'une déontologie de l'enseignement. Nous mettons cette conception de la neutralité axiologique à l'épreuve, notamment parce qu'elle ne permet pas d'expliquer 1) l'importance d'un enseignement diversifié, 2) l'importance, pour les personnes subissant une influence illégitime, d'avoir des recours institutionnels, et 3) l'importance qui devrait être accordée par l'Université à l'autonomie des étudiant-e-s. Pour ces raisons, nous proposons plutôt d'interpréter la neutralité axiologique comme une exigence institutionnelle, (...) exigence compatible avec une certaine tradition de la liberté académique. (shrink)

In this article, we contribute to the ongoing investigation of the social significance of biomedicine by examining a very specific site: the activity of bio-containing in Nebraska during the recent Ebola outbreak. We do this by taking up key insights of Mary Douglas and Victor Turner concerning the essential meaning-making tasks of culture. We demonstrate how biocontaining as an activity contributed to the ongoing meaning-making work in U.S. society during the Ebola crisis in 2014. The analysis is based in significant (...) part on fieldwork done at the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit, study of NBU educational materials, and follow-up conversations with personnel staffing that unit.Biocontaining during the Ebola... (shrink)

12연기를 오온의 시간적, 계기적 인과로서 이해하는 입장과 그것을 무시간적 존재연관으로 이해하는 입장 중에서, 본 논문은 전자의 입장을 취하고 있다. 12연기는 인생고(人生苦)의 발생양상과 인생고의 소멸계기를 잘 드러낸다고 판단된다.『청정도론』은 무명, 행, 식, 명색, 육입, 촉, 수, 애, 취, 유, 생, 노사로 이어지는 12연기를 오온의 시간적, 계기적 인과로서 이해한다. 12연기에서 세 번째 고리인 식을 재생연결식으로 이해하고 있고, 열 번째 고리인 생을 다음 생으로의 태어남이라고 본다. 세 번째 고리 이전인, 무명과 행을 과거에 해당한다고 보면, 다음 생을 받기 이전인 식(재생연결식)부터 유(업의 생성)까지는 현재에 해당하고, 다음 (...) 생으로 태어남인 생부터 노사는 미래에 해당한다. 과거가 원인이 되어 현재를 낳고(1중), 현재가 원인이 되어 미래를 낳는(이중) 구조를 갖게 되어 과거, 현재, 미래에 걸친 삼세양중인과의 구조를 가진다. 현재에 해당하는 것들 즉 식에서 유까지는 오온을 가진 우리들의 현실 삶의 연기하는 모습을 보여주고 있다. 식, 명색, 육입, 촉, 수까지가 현실 삶의 원인이 되어 현실 삶의 결과로서의 애, 취, 유를 낳는다. 즉, 우리의 여섯 가지의 감각기관과 그에 해당하는 감각대상을 원인으로 여섯 가지의 의식이 일어나면, 그에 따른 느낌이 일어나고, 그 느낌은 갈애로 이어지게 된다. 갈애는 그 대상에 대한 강한 집착을 낳으며, 그 집착은 바로 그것을 얻기 위한 행동(업)을 낳기 마련이다. 현실 삶에서 느낌에 따라 좋아하고, 집착하고, 행동하는 것, 이것이 죽을 때까지 한 순간도 쉼 없이 계속 일어나는 것이 우리 삶의 전부라는 것이다. 즉 현실 삶은 느낌->갈애->집착->업의 구조를 갖는다는 것이다. 괴로운 현실이 다음 생에까지 지속되지 않으려면, 그리고 바로 현실의 삶 속에서 괴로움을 겪지 않으려면 어떻게 해야 하는가? 그 핵심은 바로 지금 이 순간에 오온의 흐름을 주시하는 것이다. 모곡 사야도에 의하면 특히 느낌을 주시하여 느낌이 갈애로 넘어가지 않도록 해야 연기의 고리가 중간에서 끊어진다. 고, 집, 멸, 도의 사성제의 구조를 갖추고 있는 12연기가 도덕교육에 던지는 메시지는 분명하고도 엄중하다: 괴로운 삶의 현실을 직시하게 하자. 괴로운 삶의 현실을 즐거운 삶의 현실로 만들어갈 수 있는 힘을 길러주자. (shrink)

The paper focuses on the concepts of virtue and self-knowledge in Alcibiades I and Aeschines’ Alcibiades, which are marked by striking similarities in the way they discuss these themes and their interconnection. First of all, in both dialogues the notions of ἀμαθία and ἀρετή seem to be connected and both are bound up with the issue of εὐδαιμονία: Socrates points out that ἀρετή is the only source of true εὐδαιμονία and encourages Alcibiades to acquire it, stressing the need for a (...) constant ἐπιμέλεια ἑαυτοῦ. Thus, another common feature is the Socratic exhortation to pursue and achieve moral virtue, which is identified as a form of knowledge. Ultimately, in both accounts the chief means by which to contrast ἀμαθία is found in the care and knowledge of the self. The above arguments are to be considered within the particular frame of the paideutic relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades, which is itself portrayed in similar terms in the two texts. In both dialogues, the relationship is characterized as a form of erotic education and, moreover, Socrates himself links his paideutic activity to divine will. Yet, only in Aeschines’ Alcibiades does this explicitly entail the idea that Socrates transmits virtue without resorting to any τέχνη or ἐπιστήμη. So while in both cases ἀρετή is understood as a kind of knowledge, in Aeschines’ Alcibiades there seems to be a greater tension between this concept of virtue and its modes of transmission, which are “anepistemic”. (shrink)

The aim of this dissertation is to situate our reading of the Platonic dialogue Alcibiades Major among both ancient and modern readings of the dialogue. Since the nineteenth century the issue of authenticity has preoccupied most modern commentators of the dialogue, but from all reasonable evidence, commentators from the ancient world had no such qualms about attributing the authorship of Alcibiades Major to Plato. Our reading of Alcibiades Major is in line with modern commentators who take both the dialogue's dramatic (...) features and educative value seriously, while not ignoring that in some quarters Alcibiades Major's authorship is still in dispute. ;Our treatment of Alcibiades Major differs from the attention given to it by past and present commentators, because it is our desire to see the ideas---expressed in the dialogue with such enthusiasm by Socrates and Alcibiades---entertained in a number of different contexts. For this reason we have titled the dissertation Socratic Encounters: Plato's Alcibiades, with each chapter designed to facilitate a kind of cross-fertilization of ideas from a variety of intellectual perspectives. Looking at the dialogue from various perspectives has allowed us to cast some new light on the dialogue from which other commentators may benefit. ;The objective of the dissertation to highlight Alcibiades Major's timeless insights and enduring relevance to contemporary issues, has led us on a course that revolves around pedagogy. The Platonic dialogues are gold-mines of insight, but knowing this to be the case does not answer the fundamental question: 'What did Plato intend to teach us by writing Alcibiades Major?' The dissertation goes to great lengths to provide answers to the question, and the answers it provides take unusual approaches. For example, Plato invites us to consider five issues in Alcibiades Major: appropriate listening, priorities, tradition, hypothetical questions, and women's role in male achievement. The dialogue is not limited to these five issues, but the dialogue cannot be seriously dealt with without considering them. (shrink)

Several key lines concerning the relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades, extracted from the Symposium and the Alcibiades 1, are discussed for the purpose of detecting the epistemic value that Plato attributed to eros in his new model of education. As result of this analysis, I argue for the philosophical significance of the relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades as a clear example – even when failed – of the epistemic role of eros in the dialogically extended knowledge.

Shelley Burtt,Jérémie Duhamel | : Quelles sont les sources psychologiques de la vertu civique dans la tradition républicaine? Cet article en identifie trois : l’éducation des passions, la manipulation des intérêts et la contrainte du devoir. L’auteure explore chacune de ces sources et conclut qu’une meilleure appréciation de ce qui les distingue est porteuse de nouvelles possibilités pour raviver la vertu républicaine dans le monde moderne. | : What are the psychological sources of civic virtue in the republican tradition? This (...) article identifies three: the education of the passions, the manipulation of interests, and the compulsion to duty. The author explores each and concludes that an appreciation of their distinctions suggests possibilities for reviving republican virtue in the modern world. (shrink)

The present article aims to examine whether this Platonic dialogue can be regarded as polemical and competing with the similar educational proposals put forward by Xenophon and Antisthenes for the young Alcibiades aspiring to power in the city of Athens. The present article has been divided into two major parts. In the first one, I propose to unify the two opposing points of view that are reflected in the interpretations of the motto: the one that takes it to be a (...) solitary dialogue of a soul talking to itself and the one that takes it to be an intersubjective dialogue. In the second part, I try to highlight a few points of contact and conflict between Plato, Xenophon and Antisthenes, arguing that it is the latter two that may be alluded to in the dialogue, albeit indirectly, as competing and polemical targets. (shrink)

Education is a phenomenon that has existed from the early times of human beings, but it has recently become a scientific discipline. Until recently, there were no separate fields such as education, religious education, moral and value education. Therefore, their separation from each other as scientific disciplines is also a new phenomenon. In fact, in the historical process, education has a religious and moral character in itself, and these two have not seen independent from each other. Here religion has provided (...) meaningful goals and objectives to education, while morality constitutes one of the important aims of this education. Besides, the religious and moral character of education has also been significant in order to accrue a positive and balanced personality. For this reason, it is of great importance to understand how the modern concepts of education, religious education, and moral education have been dealt with in traditional education or in historical processes. Hārith al-Muhāsibī (d. 243/857), among the founding names of Ahl as-Sunnah theology and Sufism, was one of the early scholars who emphasized that the heart, mind (‘akl) and soul (nafs), forming the dynamic structure and the source for human’s positive and negative actions, should be educated in a certain measure and equilibrium, and who presented various concepts and terms in this direction. It seems that Muhāsibī refers to different concepts concerning the humans’ change and transformation, his education and training. In this respect, our study aims to deal with the concepts Muhāsibī used within education, religion and moral education in today’s terms and to reveal in which meanings he used these terms. It is also hoped that considering the concepts of education in the traditional and classical concept will make it easier to understand the current content of education, the changes and specialism it has experienced. The concepts that Muhāsibī dealt with on education, especially on decency (adab/ta’dīb), have a religious and moral theme in accordance with the general understanding of the period. Among the main concepts that Muhasibi includes are educating/teaching (ta‘līm/ta‘allum), instruction/teaching (dars/tadrīs), decency, purification (tathīr, ıslāh and tasfiya), and mucāhada. It seems that he doesn’t deal with the concepts such as tarbiyah, tahzīb, tazkiya and riyāzat at all or very little. Among them, Muhāsibī was especially interested in decency/adab, as it was handled in the context of Sufism, with a religious/moral view and mostly in the way of educating the soul. In addition, it is observed that other concepts are handled with a similar perspective. (shrink)

It has become customary to begin any discussion of the Alcibiades with a review of its puzzling features. Any way you look at it, the Alcibiades is a strange dialogue. Stylistically it is peculiar, not only because it contains some unique terms,2 but also because it contains similarities to early, middle and even late dialogues. These similarities are distributed to different parts of the dialogue, prompting some scholars to maintain that the Alcibiades was written piecemeal, perhaps by different authors (cf. (...) Clark 1955). On most accounts of the Alcibiades, however, it resembles, or seems to have been written to resemble, an early Socratic dialogue. But this too is odd, since stylometric studies tend to place it at least among the middle dialogues, and in many cases after the Republic. A relatively late dating also fits with the conjectures of many scholars on the basis of anachronisms, allusions and other considerations. (shrink)

Résumé — Contrairement à la plupart des interprétations de type “ moral ”, je défends une interprétation morale du sens de la tragédie pour Aristote à partir d’une compréhension médicale de la catharsis. Cela, en défendant une autre interprétation des pathêmata dont il y a catharsis : c’est la purgation d’un vécu donné par les émotions de peur et de pitié, ce vécu étant fondamentalement la peur que le spectateur éprouve de se voir dans une situation analogue à celle qui (...) est représentée. Le théâtre tragique est ainsi vu par Aristote comme une mise à l’épreuve de la vertu morale du lecteur ou du spectateur et, par cette catharsis, comme un moyen de la renforcer. (shrink)

Peut-on enseigner la vertu (Protagoras)? Ou bien son apprentissage n'est-il rien d'autre que l'écoute patiente du savoir scientifique et la soumission à la vérité qui s'y dévoile (Socrate)? L'efficacité scientifique a imposé la recherche critique de la vérité comme critère ultime en matière de formation, avec l'espoir d'une rencontre harmonieuse entre vérité, liberté individuelle et justice sociale. Mais la subtilité des problèmes d'éthique et de société que posent les sciences et les techniques sans donner les moyens de les résoudre fait (...) éclater l'idéal socratique. C'est la revanche de Protagoras et de l'opinion, du poétique et de la rhétorique.Prenant la mesure de ses propres limites, la raison scientifique s'identifie ne peut plus fonder à elle seule un système d'éducation. Associée à la critique philosophique, elle doit partager son pouvoir? sans pourtant s'y dissoudre? avec le pouvoir politique et celui des médias.La recherche de concepts opérationnels a fait considérer la totalité, la négation et le possible comme de faux concepts, malgré leur rôle déterminant dans le développement des individus. Retrouver le tout, le non, le peut-être, au-delà du dénombrable, de la soustraction et du potentiel qui les ont remplacés, implique une relation nouvelle à la vérité et à la croyance, une recherche pragmatique du souverain Bien. (shrink)

Cette recherche propose d’étudier succinctement, à la suite de travaux de Foucault, deux textes de Platon dans deux contextes différents : au moment de l’apogée de la démocratie athénienne, celui sur Alcibiade, et au moment de la décadence des cités et démocraties grecques, sa Lettre VII. Dans les deux cas, il s’agit de l’éducation d’adultes, le premier, Alcibiade, prétendant à la gestion de la cité, le second, Denis II, nouvellement en exercice. Il est question ici d’identifier dans les (...) deux cas, les présupposés et les obstacles pour que les idées d’éducation et de formation participent à l’accroissement d’une conscience éthique et à la réalisation du politique. Le but étant de montrer, comment cette approche proposée par le jeune et le dernier Platon, peut encore revitaliser l’idée de la formation de l’adulte dans le contexte qui, comme le nôtre, a extirpé sous l’influence du modèle des sciences modernes, du champ de l’éducation et de la formation toutes questions métaphysiques comme celles qui donnent pourtant sens à nos actions, à notre existence et à celle du monde. (shrink)

A Volume in Cognition, Equity & Society: International Perspectives formally known as International Perspectives on Mathematics Education - Cognition, Equity & Society Series Editor Bharath Sriraman, The University of Montana and Lyn English, Queensland University of Technology The diversity of research in mathematics education has been addressed as both, a problem and a strength. When manifested through adherence to different intellectual roots and theoretical orientations, diversions constitute 'refractions' of mathematics education. The collection and analysis of empirical data in a study (...) are by necessity refracted through the specific analytical lens employed, as well as the aim of the study itself. Refractions can also refer to looking at old phenomena through new lenses. The chapters in this book are refracted through philosophical, political, mathematical and personal lenses by distinguished authors in the field, addressing issues about the elusive experience of doing mathematics, purification of texts, refractions, mathematics and ethnomathematics, political messages in textbook tasks, mathematics education policy debate, the political in mathematics education research, philosophy and mathematics, meanings and representations, identity of mathematical modeling, and dilemmas in the teaching of calculus. An ancient Sanskrit adage states that Knowledge is something that grows when shared, but shrinks when hoarded. Academics engaged in the generation of new Knowledge are blessed with both the time and the freedom to engage in pursuits that allow for intellectual pleasure. As a phenomenon of the Zeitgeist many have succumbed to the increased corporatization of academic work, engaging in activities for monetary and self advancement purposes. Are there any real intellectuals left in academia, a l Adorno, Bourdieu, Chomsky, Foucault, among others? This Festschrift is dedicated to academics that don't bother with self promotion or aggrandizement of themselves or their ideas in simplistic terms. (shrink)

With this new book the gap between Straussian and analytic approaches to Plato’s dialogues begins to look like it is unbridgeable. While the analytic side has been furiously fussing over the critical minutia regarding the dating and authenticity of the Platonic dialogues in order to determine what we can know of Socrates through Plato, Lutz without so much as a nod toward that project simply takes any Platonic dialogue to be a reliable guide to “Socrates” and his thought. This will (...) sit poorly with those who think that we can no more know about Socrates from reading Platonic dialogues than we can about Jesus from reading the Gospels. Further, in the drama-versus-doctrine debate that is the great divide among Anglo-American scholars today, Lutz, like many a Straussian, opts for drama in the dialogues, rather than arguments in them, as the “least arbitrary and most revealing way” to philosophy. Lutz’s thesis is that Plato uses drama to support substantive Socratic theses, one of which is, according to Lutz, that “by nature we are moved by an erotic need to know we are ‘noble and good’”. Also according to Lutz, the recognition of this need is Socrates’ meaningful insight into human motivation, that of philosopher and scientist alike. He warns, however, that Socrates never decisively refutes his interlocutors’ rival conceptions of nobility and goodness. This is especially evident in the ongoing dialectic among the interlocutors in Plato’s Republic, which Lutz believes is dedicated to an examination of civic virtue. In addition, the dramatic portrayal of Socrates’ inability to educate Alcibiades shows, according to Lutz, “a fundamental limit on the power of reason to reform political life”. The value of Socratic education therefore consists in the idea that the content of virtue and efficacy of rationality are open to interpretation and must necessarily remain so. This essentially searching education, Lutz believes, may thus help us in our fragmented postmodern world, especially in bringing together competing conceptions of virtue in literature, politics, law, and science, and perhaps even Straussian and analytic philosophy. (shrink)

Opponents of women's education assumed that women were less naturally gifted than men, that education was inappropriate for Christian women, or that it was irrational to educate women because they could not fulfil the civil and ecclesiastical offices for which education was the required preparation. Van Schurman argued against all three assumptions in her Dissertatio . She presented her arguments as syllogisms, which she based on the authority of the Bible, on the Christian churches' understanding of human nature, and on (...) the necessity of knowledge to acquire virtues and to avoid falling into heresy. Van Schurman concluded that education was appropriate for women, in general, for exactly the same reasons as it was appropriate for men. Les opposants à une éducation des femmes considéraient qu'elles étaient naturellement moins douées que les hommes, que l'éducation était quelque chose d'inapproprié pour les femmes chrétiennes, ou qu'il était irrationnel d'éduquer les femmes car elles ne remplissent aucune charges civile ou ecclé siastique, charges pour lesquelles l'éducation constituait une préparation requise. Van Schurman discute ces trois assertions dans sa Dissertatio . Elle présente ses arguments comme des syllogismes, qu'elle fonde sur l'autorité de la Bible, sur la compréhension de la nature humaine par les églises chrétiennes, et sur la nécessité de la connaissance pour acquérir de la vertu et pour éviter de tomber dans l'hérésie. Van Schurman conclut qu'il est approprié que les femmes en général soient éduquées, tout comme cela est approprié pour les hommes. (shrink)

Opponents of women's education assumed that women were less naturally gifted than men, that education was inappropriate for Christian women, or that it was irrational to educate women because they could not fulfil the civil and ecclesiastical offices for which education was the required preparation. Van Schurman argued against all three assumptions in her Dissertatio. She presented her arguments as syllogisms, which she based on the authority of the Bible, on the Christian churches' understanding of human nature, and on the (...) necessity of knowledge to acquire virtues and to avoid falling into heresy. Van Schurman concluded that education was appropriate for women, in general, for exactly the same reasons as it was appropriate for men. Les opposants à une éducation des femmes considéraient qu'elles étaient naturellement moins douées que les hommes, que l'éducation était quelque chose d'inapproprié pour les femmes chrétiennes, ou qu'il était irrationnel d'éduquer les femmes car elles ne remplissent aucune charges civile ou ecclé siastique, charges pour lesquelles l'éducation constituait une préparation requise. Van Schurman discute ces trois assertions dans sa Dissertatio. Elle présente ses arguments comme des syllogismes, qu'elle fonde sur l'autorité de la Bible, sur la compréhension de la nature humaine par les églises chrétiennes, et sur la nécessité de la connaissance pour acquérir de la vertu et pour éviter de tomber dans l'hérésie. Van Schurman conclut qu'il est approprié que les femmes en général soient éduquées, tout comme cela est approprié pour les hommes. (shrink)

How did Casanova learn the theory of sex? Why did male pornographers write in the characters of women? What happens when philosophers take sexuality seriously and the sex-writers present their outrageous fantasies as an educational, philosophical quest? Schooling Sex is the first full history of early modern libertine literature and its reception, from Aretino and Tullia d'Aragona in 16th century Italy to Pepys, Rochester, and Behn in late 17th century England. James Turner explores the idea of sexual education, from the (...) simple instructional dialogue to the advanced experiments of the philosophical libertine, analysing the hard-core curiculum that defined sexuality centuries before the Marquis de Sade. He shows how close, nuanced readings of neglected but compelling texts - like the searingly explicit Alcibiade fanciullo, L'escole des filles, and Aloisia Sigea - link them to larger issues of gender politics, aesthetics, literary criticism, sexual history, medical science, mind-body philosophy, and the educational revolution. (shrink)

The discussion on the nature of eros (love as sexual desire) in Plato’s Symposium offers us special insights concerning the potential role played by love in social and political life. While about eros, the dialogue also claims to offer a true image of Socrates, generating a complex puzzle. This article offers a solution to this puzzle by reconstructing and interpreting Plato’s theatrical presentation of his argument, making use of the structure of the plays of Aristophanes, a protagonist in the dialogue. (...) The new image of Socrates, it is argued, signals Plato’s move beyond the way he envisioned so far his master, best visible in his introducing Diotima, a prophetess who takes over the role of guide from Socrates; and by his presenting the truth about Socrates through Alcibiades, cast into the role of a boastful intruder, a central figure in Aristophanes’ comedies. Eros and Socrates are both ‘in-between’ or liminal figures, indicating that Socrates is still entrapped in the crisis of Athenian democracy. The way out, according to the new philosophy of Plato, lies in redirecting eros from the hunting of beautiful objects that are to be possessed, to elevating the soul to the essence of beauty as a primary means for further generating beauty, in particular through engendering and educating children, thus reasserting a harmonious coexistence with the order of the cosmos. (shrink)

During the Middle Platonic period, from the second-century CE on, and in a more elaborately structured way from the time of Iamblichus on, the Platonist Schools of later antiquity took their students through a fixed sequence of Platonic dialogues, beginning with the Alcibiades I, concerned as it was with the theme of self-knowledge, and ending—at least in the later period—with the Timaeus and Parmenides, representing the two ‘pinnacles’ of Platonic philosophy, concerned with the physical and intelligible realms, respectively. There seems (...) also have been a preliminary period of study, in which one mastered the techniques of logic, with the help of Aristotle’s Organon. It may be also that, at least in Iamblichus’ school and later, some attention was paid to the life and teachings of Pythagoras, including Pythagorean mathematics and numerology, and perhaps a degree of observance of the Pythagorean way of life, e.g. periods of silence, meditation, dietary restrictions. (shrink)

Despite his ceaseless efforts to purge his fellow citizens of their unfounded opinions and to bring them to care for what he believes to be the most important things, Plato's Socrates rarely succeeds in his pedagogical project with the characters he encounters. This is in striking contrast to the historical Socrates, who spawned the careers of Plato, Xenophon, and other authors of Socratic dialogues. Through an examination of Socratic pedagogy under its most propitious conditions, focusing on a narrow class of (...) dialogues featuring Lysis and Alcibiades, this book answers the question: "why does Plato portray his divinely appointed gadfly as such a dramatic failure?". (shrink)

This study examines the way in which the Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus treats an episode of the dialectic communication between Socrates and Alcibiades in the Platonic dialogue Alcibiades I. More specifically, it refers to how the characteristics and the choices of two different types of lovers – the divinely inspired one and the vulgar one – are displayed in the aforementioned text. The characterization ‘divinely inspired lover’ befits a person who communicates in a pure way with his beloved one and attempts (...) to teach the latter the objective values of the intellect. By contrast, the characterization of the ‘vulgar lover’ befits that individual that approaches another individual exclusively on the basis of his external beauty. The first type of lover is presented within the realms of the permanently qualitative, while the second as someone who satisfies solemnly his subjectivity and his instincts. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that Proclus argues that Socrates, whom he considers to represent the very definition of a divinely inspired lover, is inspired by divine powers and attempts to act towards to his fellows – in this instance to Alcibiades – in the way through which the divine providence is revealed. (shrink)

Résumé Le commentaire du pape cistercien d’Avignon, Benoît XII (Jacques Fournier), sur l’évangile de Matthieu a été partiellement édité au xvii e siècle par les dominicains qui l’attribuèrent à Benoît XI. Nous disposons ainsi d’une édition des traités 28 à 50 concernant le Discours sur la montagne (qui plus est, aujourd’hui disponible en ligne). À partir d’une lecture des deux premiers traités, cet article s’intéresse aux considérations exégétiques originales du pape cistercien, mais surtout à sa présentation de l’éthique du Christ. (...) Car c’est bien ainsi que sont abordées les béatitudes, et le moine donne, en particulier à propos de la première, un enseignement très original et approfondi sur l’humilité. Cette vertu clé du socratisme chrétien dont Bernard est le fleuron constitue le point de départ d’une philosophie pratique spécifiquement cistercienne. Le pape d’Avignon s’avère sur ce point un fidèle disciple de l’Abbé de Clairvaux. (shrink)

In this paper I investigate the understanding of eros expressed in the speeches of Phaedrus and Agathon in Plato’s Symposium, two speeches often neglected in the literature. I argue that they contain crucial insights about the nature of eros that reappear in Diotima’s speech. Finally, I consider the relation of Socrates and Alcibiades in light of these insights, arguing that the figure of Alcibiades should be seen as a negative illustration of the notion of erotic education described by Diotima.

1. Empirisme positivisme : deux philosophes anthropologiques des limites et du devenir -- L'homme des origines -- Fétichisme et dysharmonie avec le monde -- La tension instinctive au connaître -- Contrer la mort : action et réussite : l'homme chasseur et l'homme prévoyant -- Histoire : " probabilitaire " ou science de l'histoire -- Périodisation et quête de la causalité -- Promesse ou loi -- Les discontinuités de l'histoire -- La rupture du loyalisme : partialité et universalité -- Comte ou (...) la double rupture : épistémologique et Historique -- 2. Certitudes et pensée causale -- Un ordre causal déstabilisé et ses fondements -- Malebranche et la ruine de la causalité naturelle -- Attraction newtonienne et connexions causales -- Causalité : certitudes et fictions -- Similitude, succession, inférence et loi -- 3. Passions, morale et raison -- La dynamique des passions -- De l'orgueil et de l'humilité -- Physiologie, penchants et sentiments -- Raison, passion et obligation morale -- Affectivité, individualité, sociabilité et synthèse -- 4. Société, politique et religion -- Politique, lois et moeurs -- Politique est-elle une science ? -- Religion et politique -- Le positivisme n'est pas un emnirisme. (shrink)

In Plato’s Protagoras Alcibiades plays the role of Hermes, the ‘ambassador god,’ who helps lead Socrates’ conversation with Protagoras through a crisis of dialogue that threatens to destroy the community of education established by the dialogue itself. By tracing the moments when Alcibiades intervenes in the conversation, we are led to an understanding of Socratic politics as always concerned with the course of the life of an individual and the proper time in which it might be turned toward the question (...) of justice and the good. (shrink)

In Plato’s Protagoras Alcibiades plays the role of Hermes, the ‘ambassador god,’ who helps lead Socrates’ conversation with Protagoras through a crisis of dialogue that threatens to destroy the community of education established by the dialogue itself. By tracing the moments when Alcibiades intervenes in the conversation, we are led to an understanding of Socratic politics as always concerned with the course of the life of an individual and the proper time in which it might be turned toward the question (...) of justice and the good. (shrink)

Against the background of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the question of an effective cultural policy that would support national identity, contribute to the purification of consciousness from propaganda myths and preserve the heritage of Ukrainian culture is becoming more acute. Since cultural policy is related to both aesthetic-artistic and cultural-anthropological dimensions of social life, in order to identify the effective influence of cultural policy on dominant social practices, it is necessary to find out the universal principles of its functioning. (...) The purpose of this article is to identify the relevant philosophical and methodological basis of cultural policy for modern Ukrainian realities. Based on the fundamental ideas of Richard Rorty’s pragmatic philosophy and his analysis of cultural policies, the generally accepted nature of the inferential approach to social reality on the part of individual social groups was ascertained. The variability of cultural policy depending on the type of social organization community/society is demonstrated. In small social groups of the authoritarian type, social epistemological authority is mediated by the individual preferences of the leader of this group, so the tools of cultural policy are weak (patriarchal family, religious or political sect). An authoritarian or totalitarian mass society shows a high propensity for linguistic practices of propaganda, which can be seen as an extreme distorted form of cultural politics. In democratic societies, cultural policy is able to harmonize social life, improving its practices and building a value-symbolic world that constitutes culture in a broad sense. The social institute of education has all the tools, including digital ones, to shape the necessary social practices and educate a critical thinker who is able to generate conceptual knowledge, i.e. see relationships and be aware. Openness in decision-making, interaction of expert groups, public discussions are necessary elements for an effective cultural policy, which should be different from “cultural management”. Creative cultural industries play an important role in modern popular culture societies, and these industries significantly strengthen the economic component of social life. Public projects and initiatives effectively help to preserve Ukrainian culture, influence the level of awareness of Ukrainians and the economic well-being of our country. (shrink)

Dans la Politique, Aristote s’attache à distinguer, pour les articuler et les hiérarchiser, la sphère économique et la sphère politique. Tout en reconnaissant l’autonomie propre des activités économiques, il s’attache à exposer les motifs qui légitiment la limitation de celles-ci par le pouvoir politique. En consacrant l’éminence de la politique par rapport à la sphère marchande, Aristote manifeste l’impérieuse nécessité de subordonner la recherche et l’acquisition des biens et des richesses matérielles – légitimes dans leur ordre – aux activités les (...) plus hautes de l’homme qui, seules, sont susceptibles de lui procurer le bonheur véritable. Recherchées pour elles-mêmes, celles-ci sont l’expression d’une sortie par l’homme d’une logique de l’utilité et témoignent d’une forme authentique de liberté dans laquelle se déploient sa vertu et son excellence. C’est in fine uniquement une éducation à la vie de loisir qui fait advenir, dans la communauté, des individus susceptibles d’assumer la destination morale et politique à laquelle la cité est appelée. Classification JEL : B11. (shrink)

This article aims to analyze the discussion of justice in Book I of Plato's Republic. At first, it should be noted that the way Book I is built makes it very close to the Platonic dialogues of the youth, the controversy remaining in relation to its writing as an independent text or preface deliberately elaborated. In Book I Plato maps the common meanings of justice and deconstructs them in an intellectual path that responds to the traditional notions of morality and (...) to the already degenerated political perspective of the sophists. With this, it signals the need to transcend the domains of mere opinion, in the name of a superior foundation for justice, universal and with a rational seal. The process of conceptual purification and contextual delimitation perpetrated in the first Book helps to understand the complex ethical, metaphysical and political-educational reflections of the Republic, reason that leads us to infer the essentially propaedeutic character with which Book I it was elaborated. (shrink)

Nuestro ensayo La erótica platónica busca ampliar la comprensión del concepto de Eros en Platón a partir del diálogo del Banquete. Buscamos presentar una visión genealógica sobre el origen, la aparición e importancia del concepto y su emoción sentimental en el contexto de la cultura griega en general y del mundo socrático, en lo particular, que nos presenta la visión platónica de la filosofía. A partir de los distintos personajes que conforman la obra, su autor nos va presentando distintas significaciones (...) del eros o amor para cada uno de ellos. Podemos comprender la visión del significado del tema en cuestión desde las vertientes poética, pedagógica, médica, mítica, sexual y filosófica. Esta última desplegada en la postura de Sócrates al referir la importancia que tuvo una mujer, Diotima de Mantinea, en su formación y comprensión del hecho erótico, tanto para su vida como para su visión de la filosofía. Al final del diálogo notaremos una descripción algo desbordada que da el discípulo socrático, Alcibíades, de su maestro y llegamos a comprender que la filosofía es un ejercicio amoroso por el deseo (carencia) del saber en el hombre y que el filósofo, a diferencia del hombre sabio que no busca ningún saber porque ya lo posee, será un entusiasta y enamorado permanente de la filosofía por sentir que su ser requiere una permanente búsqueda del conocimiento de sí gracias al lema socrático del conócete a ti mismo . On Plato`s erotic. An interpretationOur Platonic Er otic essay seeks to broaden the understanding of the concept of Eros in Plato's dialogue Banquet . We seek to present a genealogy of the origin, occurrence and importance of the concept and its sentimental emotion in the context of Greek culture in general and the Socratic world, in particular, that presents the Platonic view of philosophy. From the various characters that make up the work its author presents different meanings of Eros or love for each of them. We can understand the vision of the meaning of the subject matter from different perspectives: poetic, educational, medical, mythical, sexual and philosophical. The latter displayed in the position of Socrates in reference to the importance that a woman, Diotima of Mantinea, had in his training and understanding of the erotic fact, both for her life and her vision of philosophy. At the end of the dialogue there is a description -somewhat overwhelmed- of his teacher given by Alcibiades, the Socratic disciple. We then understand that philosophy is a loving exercise by desire of knowledge in man (lack of); thus the philosopher, unlike the wise man, who seeks no further knowledge because it already has it, will be an enthusiastic and permanent lover of philosophy since he feels that his being requires an ongoing search of self-knowledge by means of following the Socratic motto know thyself. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to examine how the Greek motto γνῶθι σεαυτόν plays a central role in Plato’s philosophy in order to show how ethics and knowledge go hand in hand in his model of παιδεία. The question of self-knowledge is a practical and theoretical task in life which is developed implicitly in his dialogues, it is for this reason that i examine some passages of the Charmides, Alcibiades I, Phaedo and Republic in order to show how Plato (...) discovers the human interiority and how self-knowledge is refined and articulated with the tripartition of the soul in the Republic. (shrink)

Seneca expounds a theory of therapy and teaching with the ultimate goal of self knowledge and wisdom. Some of his techniques are based on Pythagorean principles or derive ideas from them, among them the focused and constant ascesis of self control. Iamblichus in De Vita Pythagorica exhibits great interest on the fact that man’s inherent abilities along with the aid of proper education suffice for his attainment of wisdom. For both thinkers, knowledge through practice is considered to be one of (...) the major philosophical demands in the perspective of an “ars vitae”. The human being has to canalize himself into the modeling of a new way of living, an “art of living” which will contribute decisively to the fulfillment of his teleology, to his perpetual eudaimonia. The admittance of individual differences in people’s ability to reform themselves only signifies the more intense effort of the teacher towards a purification of their intellect and greater engagement of the individuals’ volition but not their inability for correction. (shrink)

Pour Jean-Jacques Rousseau, on apprend à être citoyen dans les temps modernes en apprenant à être sociable. Si l’éducation doit renoncer à être publique, elle reste politique, tournée vers le développement des passions qui disposent à la reconnaissance.According to Rousseau, we learn to be citizens in modern times by learning to be sociable. Education can not be public one any more, as it was in the ancient cities. But it can be still a politic one : it aims to spread (...) out passions which incline to be grateful. (shrink)

Par rapport à la conception réflexive du retour à soi propre à la philosophie du sujet telle qu’elle se développe de Hegel à Ricœur et qui cherche à surmonter la dispersion de la vie temporelle par une formation de soi dans l’unité d’une histoire, saint Augustin nous donne à penser une autre figure de l’ipséité qui permet d’échapper aux apories de la centration égologique comme à l’antihumanisme de ses contestations. L’histoire personnelle dans sa finitude et sa facticité ne peut trouver (...) son unité et son sens qu’en dehors d’elle, dans un retour à la vérité qui illumine. Le soi, selon saint Augustin, ne se laisse pas comprendre par rapport au projet néoplatonicien de purification, car il ne s’agit pas de trouver une place dans le cosmos, mais de se libérer de toute forme venant du monde dans un combat intérieur entre le poids de la concupiscence et l’attente patiente des biens véritables. L’humilité, la patience et l’amour sont les actes du soi véritable. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Higher Yearning 101 Lesson 1: Socrates and Alcibiades on Stalking, Seduction, and Giving Birth Lesson 2: Peter Abelard and Heloise on Fondling and Losing “Tenure” Lesson 3: Heidegger and Arendt on Concealed Unconcealment “So I'll see you after class …”.

La politesse n’est pas seulement chez Hume une dissimulation sociale de l’orgueil et une vertu artificielle exigée par la vie en société, elle permet une intensification de la sympathie entre les hommes. Bien qu’elle repose sur une convention, comme la vertu de justice, son exercice est si manifestement désirable que l’artifice prend ici le caractère de la spontanéité et de l’agrément. Ainsi, même si la pensée de Hume échappe à l’idéalisation humaniste d’une sociabilité à la fois vertueuse et naturelle, elle (...) se démarque également de la tradition augustinienne et mandevillienne par le rôle donné à la sympathie et par la valeur éthique accordée à l’orgueil justifié, à la pratique de la conversation, et à la facilité dans l’exercice de la sociabilité. (shrink)