This book contains more than 20 texts plus suggested further readings.

_Life and Death_ brings together philosophical and literary works representing the many ways--metaphysical, scientific, analytic, phenomenological, literary--in which philosophers and others have reflected on questions about life and death.

_Reality_ brings together philosophical and literary works representing the many ways--metaphysical, scientific, analytic, phenomenological, literary--in which philosophers and others have reflected on questions about reality.

In Plato's dialogues, we find many references to Corybantic rites-rites of initiation performed in honor of the goddess Rhea. But in the dialogue titled Euthydemus, there is more than a mere reference to the rites to be found. Within the context of Socratic dialectic, the ancient rites of the Corybantes are acted out-although veiled and distorted. This is what Carl Levenson argues in his book. Since the Corybantic rites are of the Dionysian/Eleusinian type, Plato gives us a glimpse of the (...) reality of Dionysiac ecstacy. This interesting knowledge of these rites has usually been lost in the academic assertion that the Euthydemus was just a satire on philosophic arguing (in which it is), and hence it has been consigned to a marginal place in Plato's canon. But here Plato is rejecting his abstract theories in favor of intimacy with the reality of the world, of matter and being rather than form. Levenson states that complete immersion in the material substrate of the world is what Plato discovered at the heart of Dionysian ecstacy, and the aim of ecstacy, as Plato said, is to purify the soul of ancient guilt. (shrink)

Socrates’ daimonion, that numinous “presence” restraining him from error, is prominently featured in Plato’s Apology and plays an important role in several other dialogues.Socrates speaks of it often. It was, he reports, a constant feature of his life. It may also have caused his death because, as we read in the Euthyphro, he talked about the daimon so often that he aroused suspicion and resentment—and was finally indicted for impiety . It may seem a bit scandalous that the patron saint (...) of reason in the western tradition was a daimon-haunted personality. And many commentators tend to deemphasize the daimon, or at least not to fully investigate its role in Plato’s writing. But something essential is missed in this way. Accordingly, this essay focuses on the daimon in the Euthydemus, which is a macabre mystical comedy. Here we see that, while the daimon is a power that sets limits, it willingly associates itself with a mysticism of the limitless and we see how this association bears fruit in Plato’s other dialogues—especially in the notion of the Good. (shrink)

In this book, Robert Hahn proposes an idea deserving serious consideration. One would like to know why western philosophy began where and when it did; that is, on the island of Miletus, roughly 2600 years ago. Hahn proposes that developments in architecture had a decisive impact here. In particular, he argues that Anaximander—who wrote the oldest fragment of philosophy preserved in our tradition—was very much influenced by the architects of his time, who drew, for their part, on Egyptian predecessors.