Many academics and researchers who publish scholarly articles on Plato’s philosophy of education claim that the ultimate educational goal for Plato is simply the acquisition of virtues. While such a claim may not be entirely incorrect, it is nevertheless substantially wanting; for although the acquisition of virtue is no doubt paramount, for Plato it primarily serves as a means to another end. In this paper, I aim to show that, for Plato, the final summit of all educational enterprise is not (...) really to become virtuous but rather to attain the state of becoming like God, and that is, homoiōsis theōi. -/- . (shrink)

Traditionally, scholars have taken homoiôsis theôi in the Theaetetus digression to require neglect of particulars, but they have noted that although Socrates advocates it, he does not live such a life. To explain the discrepancy, Mahoney and Rue both argue that we need to reinterpret godlikeness to require active engagement in the city. I reject their reinterpretations and I revise the traditional view, arguing that godlikeness is not a single ideal. Instead, I argue, Plato provides several different portraits of godlikeness (...) that together suggest interest in particulars makes the person neither better nor worse as a philosopher. (shrink)

It is often assumed that a single, diachronically persistent motif of imitating god can be identifijied in Ancient philosophy and early Christianity. The present article takes issue with this assumption and seeks to establish the conceptual framework for a more sophisticated discussion of homoiôsis. The article identifijies eight crucial junctures at which homoiôsis stories can diverge. For all the variance of homoiôsis narratives, the category of imitation of the divine remains a useful analytical tool. The article supports this claim by (...) a comparison of Platonic and Stoic narratives of homoiôsis. It established their distinctness and shows how the rhetoric of imitating the divine offfers important linguistic markers that allow us to trace the transgressive potential of (ancient) theologies. (shrink)

According to Plato's successors, assimilation to god (homoiosis theoi) was the end (telos) of the Platonic system. There is ample evidence to support this claim in dialogues ranging from the Symposium through the Timaeus. However, the Philebus poses a puzzle for this conception of the Platonic telos. On the one hand, Plato states that the gods are beings beyond pleasure while, on the other hand, he argues that the best human life necessarily involves pleasure. In this paper, I argue that (...) the solution to this puzzle lies in the fact that the processes by which we assimilate to god, learning and becoming virtuous, are restitutive and hence pleasant. Thus, the reason why the best human life necessarily involves pleasure is that we can never become fully divine and perfect, but must constantly strive to become like the divine, through pleasureful restitutive processes. In this paper, I also provide a close examination and taxonomy of the different models that Plato presents throughout his corpus of assimilation to god. -/- Note: "Fleeing the Divine" (Philebus: Selected Papers from the VIII Symposium Platonicum) is an earlier, shorter version of this paper. (shrink)

El punto central de análisis del trabajo es la katábasis o descenso del filósofo a la caverna como parte de la alegoría presentada en República VII. Frente a tres interpretaciones alternativas que serán mencionadas, se expondrá una interpretación que, sin entrar en conflicto con las anteriores, podría complementarlas por cuanto toma en cuenta el aspecto religioso inherente a la comprensión platónica de la filosofía: la homoíōsis theōi. Para ello, se analizarán pasajes del diálogo mencionado a la luz de otros (...) provenientes del Timeo y de Leyes X, lo que implicará un análisis intertextual de la obra platónica. (shrink)

Note: "Next to Godliness" (Apeiron) is an expanded version of this paper. -/- According to Plato's successors, assimilation to god (homoiosis theoi) was the end (telos) of the Platonic system. There is ample evidence to support this claim in dialogues ranging from the Symposium through the Timaeus. However, the Philebus poses a puzzle for this conception of the Platonic telos. On the one hand, Plato states that the gods are beings beyond pleasure while, on the other hand, he argues that (...) the best human life necessarily involves pleasure. In this paper, I argue that the solution to this puzzle lies in the fact that the processes by which we assimilate to god, learning and becoming virtuous, are restitutive and hence pleasant. Thus, the reason why the best human life necessarily involves pleasure is that we can never become fully divine and perfect, but must constantly strive to become like the divine, through pleasureful restitutive processes. In this paper, I also provide a close examination and taxonomy of the different models that Plato presents throughout his corpus of assimilation to god. (shrink)

Segundo Platão, o homem não é responsável pelo breve tempo de sua vida, mas por todo o tempo. As encarnações da alma imortal dependerão da conduta do indivíduo na vida. Essa responsabilidade “escatológica” exige o uso do tempo para a homoiósis theoi . Passagens relevantes de Platão serão estudadas para entendimento do conceito de verdadeira vida filosófica, caracterizado pela scholé, e pelo comportamento responsável. Especial atenção será dada à estrutura temporal do estudo da dialética.In Plato's view man is not only (...) responsible for the short time of his present life, but for all time. The successive incarnations of the immortal soul depend on the conduct of the individual in this life. This 'eschatological' responsibility makes it necessary to use one's time for achieving homoiósis theoi . Relevant passages in Plato are analysed to get a better understanding of his concept of a truly philosophical life as characterized by scholé and responsible behaviour. Special attention is given to what the dialogues say about the temporal structure of dialectical studies. (shrink)

Des grands autels que se partagent divinités et puissances héroïques aux autels doubles, les structures associées au sacrifice sont généralement analysées en fonction de leur forme. Les autels doubles sont principalement associés à des divinités honorées dans un même espace mais sur des structures différentes, ou encore à la double nature du rite, considérée par certains comme olympienne et chthonienne. En examinant de manière plus approfondie les regroupements de puissances mentionnés par les sources écrites et en les confrontant aux données (...) archéologiques disponibles, nous tenterons de nuancer les associations généralement établies entre les différents types de structures sacrificielles et la nature des rites qui y sont accomplis.Sacrificial structures, particularly altars shared by divine and heroic figures and the so-called double altars, are usually analysed on the basis of their form. The double altars are generally associated with divinities honoured in a single space though on separate structures, or with the double nature of the rites, considered by some scholars as being Olympian or chthonian. Through a thorough examination of the groups of divinities mentioned in the written sources and their comparison with the available archaeological data, we will attempt to qualify the established associations between the various types of sacrificial structures and the nature of the rituals that are performed there. (shrink)

This article offers a re-examination of the theoi (‘gods’) heading which appears regularly on inscriptions in the ancient Greek world. Long noted, the heading has also long been passed over, often considered so formulaic as to lack much significance. This paper explores the consequences of taking theoi seriously as a reference to the divine, by investigating the function and meaning of the heading in the classical period. It makes use of two case studies, the financial building inscriptions from the Athenian (...) Akropolis and the epigraphic corpus from Oropos, to set out the most important characteristics of the formula. By placing the theoi heading in a broader context of other types of divine formula found on inscriptions, and by paying particular attention to the crucial aspect of the heading’s non-specificity, this article contends that the theoi or theos formula should not be understood as a prayer or appeal to the gods. Instead, it is a statement of presence of the divine and a recognition of divine power. (shrink)

Plato is associated with the idea that the body holds us back from knowing ultimate reality and so we should try to distance ourselves from its influence. This sentiment appears is several of his dialogues including Theaetetus where the flight from the physical world is compared to becoming like God. In some major dialogues of Plato's later career such as Philebus and Laws, however, the idea of becoming like God takes a different turn. God is an intelligent force that tries (...) to create order in the physical world. I argue that likeness to God in these dialogues involves imitating God's effort by trying to order our bodies, souls, and societies as intelligence directs. Becoming like Plato's God is not to abandon the world. It is to improve it. (shrink)

The modern world was in part born as a reaction against Aristotelianism. However, the image of Aristotle to which modern philosophers reacted was partial, to say the least. Paradoxical though it may seem, today, more than twenty-three centuries on, we may now be in the most advantageous position for understanding the Stagirite's philosophy and applying it to contemporary problems. The present book contributes to the forming of an idea of Post-modern reason inspired by a constellation of Aristotelian concepts, such as (...) prudence (phronesis), practical truth (aletheia praktike), science in act (episteme en energeiai), metaphor (metaphora), similarity (homoiosis) and the imitation-creation pair (mimesis-poiesis). They all form an interconnected network and together they make up an idea of reason that may prove suitable for the present. These concepts offer the most promising basis for undertaking a series of urgent reconciliations: of facts and values, of means and ends, of theoretical and practical reason, of intelligence and emotion. Aristotle's notions could help solve many dualisms of modern times. He offers a third way between identity and difference in ontology and politics, between algorithm and anarchism in methodology, between naïve realism and plain relativism in epistemology, between equivocity and univocity in language, between Enlightenment and Romanticism in culture... On the way, this shift facilitates the relationships between science, arts and ethics - the three parts of the sphere of culture which Modernity had separated - as well as the integration of the sphere of culture itself with the world of life. (shrink)

L'auteur analyse d'abord la relation entre Theos et Daimôn dans le Poème Physique et dans les Purifications. Dans le premier, Empédocle appelle theoi le Sphairos et les éléments. Précisément, le philosophe d'Acragas appelle le Sphairos tout simplement theos. Pourtant, il appelle les éléments theoi dolichaiônes, alors qu'ils forment quatre masses séparées et avant qu'ils ne se mêlent pour constituer les « choses mortelles »; tandis que, lorsqu'ils se mêlent et abandonnent la condition de pureté pour créer un composé, il les (...) appelle daimones. D'autre part, dans les Purifications, les daimones sont les dieux tombés dans le monde : redevenir un dieu, c'est la destinée de l'homme, ou au moins l'objectif qu'Empédocle propose. Enfin, l'auteur soutient que les frgs. B131-134 pourraient provenir de l'Hymne à Apollon perdu. C'est ce que semble démontrer le fait qu'Empédocle suive dans ces fragments une ligne dogmatique à propos de la connaissance des dieux qui contraste avec la prudente gnoséologie suivie dans le Poème Physique et par la difference entre la théologie exposée dans ces fragments et le mythe eschatologique présenté dans les Purifications. The author starts by analyzing the relationship between Theos and Daimôn in the Physical Poem and in the Purifications. In the former poem it is the Sphairos and the elements which are called theoi. As a matter of fact, the Sphairos is called simply theos. The elements, instead, are called theoi dolichaiônes, when they are set in four separate masses and anyway before mingling up together in order to beget "mortal things"; whereas, when they mingle up, and pass from a pure condition into a compound, they are called daimones. On the other hand, in the Purifications it is the fallen gods who are called daimones: to become a god again is man's destiny, or at least the aim proposed by Empedocles. Lastly, the author maintains that frgs. B131-134 might belong to the lost Hymn to Apollo — this is shown by the dogmatic approach to the knowledge of the gods, which is here taken by Empedocles, contrary to the cautious gnoseology defended in the Physical Poem; and by the theology taught in those fragments, which is very different from the eschatological myth introduced in the Purifications. (shrink)

This paper explores the relation of Foucault’s notion of counter-conduct to the Stoic notion of oikeiosis. Initially, oikeisosis is set against Platonic homoiosis, specifically as discussed in the Alcibiades, which provides what Foucault calls the “Platonic model” of conduct. The paper examines what Foucault means by “care of the self” and points to its difference from the Delphic maxim “know yourself” that centered on a principle of homoiosis, or ethical transcendence. Noting how the problematic of care of the self leads (...) to what Foucault calls “the government of conduct,” the paper considers the possibility of “counter-conduct.” Given that Foucault has argued that the autonomy of conduct has been rendered invisible through its “juridification,” this paper proceeds with a genealogy of the codification of morals in natural law theory. This culminates with the sixteenth century return to Stoicism in the person of Grotius. Showing that a certain conception of counter-conduct present in Gerson is transformed in natural law theory into a juridical grounding of the government of conduct, this paper draws out the immanent relation of conduct and counter-conduct in the notion of appropriation. Arguing that Grotius has fundamentally misunderstood the concept of oikeiosis, which he takes from Cicero and which subtends his theory of appropriation, this paper suggests that a return to the early Stoic formulation of oikeiosis allows for a rethinking of the problem of the government of conduct. A certain moralization of action, irreducible to codification that is present in early Stoic thought provides a model of “counter-conduct.” Ultimately, “care of the self,” as it is given in Stoic philosophy, relates the subject of action to the principle of ethical immanence that grounds Foucault’s critique of the subject. (shrink)

Abstract:Since Homeric times, psychotherapy has been an essential part of the medical act. Initially, the word of physicians had a magical character. Plato rationalizes this in many of his dialogues. In "Charmides," he dives deeper into this matter and proposes to apply it to every disease. Analysing this dialogue has fundamental consequences for psychotherapy: 1) Remedy and epodé (charm) must be applied in every doctor–patient relationship. 2) The body can only be healed if the soul is cured first by a (...) charm. Patients must "offer" their souls to the physician, which implies the need for confidence and the unavoidable asymmetry which characterize doctor–patient relationships. 3) The openness of the patient's soul to the physician and the physician's "beautiful speech" to the patient will enable the latter to reach the state of sophrosyne (temperance), the condition of the possibility of true health. In the discussion of the meaning of sophrosyne, Socrates questions every one of the disciples' propositions and concludes that the only thing one can be sure of is that sophrosyne is a way of searching for virtue (areté). Later, in Theaetetus, Plato adds another element: temperance is a homoiosis theó, that is, the assimilation of patient with God. With this, Plato seals the ethical character of psychotherapy forever. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Texts and Icons in Heidegger’s Metaphysical TraditionMichael James Bennett (bio)[End Page 26]This essay is about texts that draw attention to themselves as texts, that is, as material, graphical figures, rather than as more or less efficiently pellucid semantic relays. In other words, it is about what happens when texts behave like images. In what follows I examine a series of philosophical contexts where this question appears to be at (...) issue. I claim that one way of understanding what’s going on in these contexts is that here the image-form of a text becomes a kind of icon. I begin by reflecting on a prejudice that belongs, according to Heidegger, to the “history of metaphysics”: the notion that it would be better, clearer, and less ambiguous to replace all reliance on images with self-effacing, transparent words. My goal here is to demonstrate the existence of an alternative historical trend that defends an opposite view. I compare a defense of iconography by Byzantine patriarch Nikephoros of Constantinople, as well as the Neoplatonist Porphyry’s commentary on Aristotle’s Categories, with works by two latter-day Heideggerians, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion, who respond to the inherited problematic of non-referential, iconic texts. These responses suggest that non-semantic image-creation, as much as non-semantic verbal play, is the pre-conceptual condition of conceptuality. This essay presents a new way of understanding the philosophical issues that connect ancient and medieval discussions about icons and images with twentieth-century concerns about language.In her study of medieval European manuscript illumination, Animating the Letter (1999), Laura Kendrick emphasizes the non-semantic character of illuminated texts. Kendrick argues that the basic distinction between text and image is fundamentally at stake in illumination, and that the distinction is inherited from the Christian church fathers who opposed text and image, privileging the former and denigrating the latter. According to this traditional view, texts are better suited than images to a consideration of the divine on account of writing’s ethereal quality, its “transparency,” which leads the reader beyond the material sign to the immaterial concept. The problem with images, on the other hand, is their materiality, which may lead viewers down a dark path toward an ultimately heretical veneration for the mere image instead of for its referent. It seems to me that we find in Kendrick’s argument an exact homology with the discourse on the icon in the Byzantine Christian church. Emperor Constantine V, for instance, at the time of the “first iconoclast crisis” (the mid-eighth century CE), expresses wariness about the potentially heterodox metaphysics underpinning iconophilia. He objects to icons on the basis that their veneration would be acceptable only if the icon were to share the essence of that of which it is an icon (God), but that this is impossible; infinite divine nature cannot be encompassed within the finite line of human composition. The Byzantine iconophile’s response to this objection is not to deny the infinite, uncircumscribable nature of God, but to affirm that the icon, bound though it is to the register of images, nevertheless does not function in the same manner as an ordinary image. That is, the icon does not refer to its model by means of resemblance alone. In the language of Nikephoros of Constantinople (758–828 CE), the character of the icon consists in consubstantiality (homoousia) prior to resemblance (homoiōsis).1 [End Page 27]The problem of the limits of reference unites the discourse on the icon and the flourishing of the illuminated text. Just as the icon does not refer in the normal way to its referent, so Kendrick contends that the “animated letter” is not reducible to its pure semantic quality, is not to be understood as if it were just a kind of significative relay through which a sublime quantity of something called “meaning” is obliged to pass. “Meaning,” conceived of in what I am inclined to call the narrowly economic sense as the cargo of material vehicles called “words,” meaning that is gambled in words and then “cashed out” again, is not always what is at stake when one writes. Something else is... (shrink)

Cette contribution revient sur un décret de Thasos déjà abondamment commenté, qui porte la ratification de la donation testamentaire opérée en faveur de la cité par un personnage du nom de M. Varinius Rebilus, également connu par un décret de Serrès. Un nouvel examen permet de dater le texte de 22 apr. J.-C., sous le consulat de C. Sulpicius Galba. Le décret peut ainsi être replacé dans le contexte régional, politique et religieux du règne de Tibère. Il apparaît notamment que (...) le culte des dieux Augustes (Theoi Sebastoi) était célébré dès cette époque dans la cité. (shrink)

Three distinct reasons that Plato calls the rational part of the soul “divine” are analyzed: its metaphysical kinship with the Forms, its epistemological ability to know the Forms, and its ethical capacity to live by them. Supposing these three divine aspects of the rational part are unified in the life of each person, they naturally suggest a process of divinization or “becoming like god” according to which a person, by living more virtuously, which requires increasingly better knowledge of the Forms, (...) gradually becomes united with them. This process of divinization is in fact found throughout the middle and late dialogues, including the Phaedo, Republic, Symposium, Phaedrus, Timaeus, and the Laws. This synoptic view of the Platonic idea of divinization provides a standard according to which misplaced emphasis, flaws, and tension created by other interpretations are criticized and corrected. (shrink)

01. Athènes, Attique, Mégaride (Joannis Mylonopoulos) 01.00 – Généralités – Une vue d’ensemble mise à jour des cultes impériaux de Trajan (Athènes), d’Hadrien (Athènes, Éleusis), d’Antonin le Pieux (Athènes) et de Marc Aurèle (Athènes) qui incorpore des informations épigraphiques ainsi que des témoignages archéologiques tels que statues, autels et bâtiments. L’étude traite également des fêtes et des prêtres associés au culte de l’empereur. F. Camia, Theoi Sebastoi. Il culto degli imperatori r...

Develops Heidegger’s understanding of the Greek gods in the summer 1943 lecture course on Heraclitus. Of particular note is Heidegger’s assertion at the beginning of the lecture course that “there is no Greek religion,” though Heraclitus is said to “have” gods. Heidegger holds that the essential activity of gods consists in "giving signs." An explanation of the connection between gods and their signs gains clarification by a study of how Heidegger understands the Greek concepts of theoi and daimones in the (...) earlier but related Parmenides course of winter 1942-43. (shrink)

L'histoire du sanctuaire de l'« Établissement des Poseidoniastes de Bérytos » à Délos continue de faire l'objet de discussions, notamment à propos du nombre et de la succession des phases, ainsi que de la fonction des quatre celhe. L'auteur, à la faveur d'un réexamen du bâtiment, propose une nouvelle lecture de l'histoire de la construction. Ainsi, lors de l'agrandissement du sanctuaire dans la deuxième phase, aucune des pièces de la première phase, à savoir deux cellae pour les theoi patrioi de (...) l'association et une pièce secondaire, n'est demeurée inchangée. Trois pièces du nouveau sanctuaire abritaient le culte de la déesse Rome et des theoi patrioi, la quatrième faisant office de pièce secondaire (« sacristie »). Les quatre pièces ont subi une deuxième transformation : renouvellement des pavements, des bases des statues et des images de culte. Il est désormais certain que la statue de Rome et sa base n'ont pas été dressées dans la cella originelle, mais seulement dans celle de la troi- sième phase. Contrairement à l'opinion en vigueur jusqu'à présent, on ne peut pas prouver que la statue et sa base — dont on propose ici une nouvelle reconstitution — furent détruites (en 88 av. J.-C. par les troupes de Mithridate hostiles à Rome), ni qu'elles furent réparées. (shrink)

Publication d'une base de statue animalière du IVe siècle portant une dédicace métrique à la triade apollinienne par un Kydoniate qui fut prêtre des Theoi Pantes. Caractère remarquable de la gravure stoichèdon. Identification de l'école de sculpture attique (Crésilas de Kydonia) à laquelle était dû le bronze disparu. Essai de restitution. Étude d'un second texte — inscription honorifique pour un noble kydoniate — gravé à la fin du Ier siècle avant J.-C. sous la base qui fut remployée dans un monument (...) romain inconnu. (shrink)