P lato's banishment of the poets and certain kinds of music from his ideal city-state is notoriou... more P lato's banishment of the poets and certain kinds of music from his ideal city-state is notorious. Less well known is his attack on poikilia, which is also developed in the Republic. Poikilia means "variegated" or "multicoloured" but extends to all kinds of "variety," "diversity" or "variedness." 1 It is both an important and an elusive term in Ancient Greek philosophy and aesthetics. It has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. On the one hand, poikilia has not been carefully studied simply because it is difficult to translate. Since the term does not lend itself to one-to-one rendering into modern languages, it lurks behinds the surfaces of translations. Poikilia can in various contexts be translated by a broad range of modern language terms such as "embroidery," "embellishment," "ornamentation," "manifold," "subtlety," "complexity," "deceit," "intricacy" and so on. Even an experienced classicist will only spot the avatars of poikilia in modern language translations with difficulty. On the other hand, the concept of poikilia has also resisted commentary because of its complex and dubious status in questions of both moral and aesthetic value. In certain periods and contexts, it had positive value. It was associated with order, craft, complexity, wonderous variety and dazzling beauty. In other contexts, however, it was associated with superficiality, vulgarity, dishonesty and trickery. In Plato poikilia has overwhelmingly negative connotations. Indeed, poikilia has for Plato the status of, as it were, a demi-concept referring to something that does not belong to the realm of form. Plato construes poikilia in the psychology of desire of the Republic. Poikilia appeals to the lower parts of the soul while reason strives for what is simple. Plato associates poikilia, the "variegated," with bad souls and, it turns out, with bad music. Yet poikilia shows up-rather inconspicuously-in a later Platonic context, namely, in the work of Plotinus (204-270CE). Although he never explicitly criticizes Plato on any question, Plotinus silently breaks with him on the question of the value of poikilia. Plotinus generally has a positive view of the world of sense, including the value of sense-perception and the beauty of the sense world. Pressed to distinguish his thought from Gnostic Platonists who rejected the sense world as evil, Plotinus draws on Aristotle and the Stoics in his account of the sense world as well-ordered, good, and beautiful. Although Plotinus adopts the basic structures behind Plato's theory of art, he interprets them such as to arrive at certain conclusions that are contrary to Plato's. This is most obvious in his understanding of poikilia which takes on an overwhelmingly positive role in Plotinus' metaphysics and, if we extrapolate, in his theory of art. Where Plato advocates for an aesthetic of austerity and simplicity in the Republic, Plotinus develops an aesthetic that praises variety, diversity and colour. Although poikilia lacks an exact equivalent in modern languages, it has much to contribute to themes that become important in the context of 19 th and 20 th century music and music theory, namely: colour, unity and variation. In this paper I attempt to show how the notion of poikilia might contribute to 20 th century discussions in music aesthetics. I do so by bringing the notion of poikilia into conversation with early twentieth century German theories of music aesthetics developed by
Plotinus’ understanding of self is formulated largely in dialogue with the Stoics. In early works... more Plotinus’ understanding of self is formulated largely in dialogue with the Stoics. In early works he categorically rejects the Stoic notion of the hēgemonikon (‘leading part’ or ‘commanding faculty’) of the soul. In this paper, I show how, in light of a general dissatisfaction with the Stoic account of self articulated in his early work, Plotinus deals with the Stoic notion of oikeiōsis (‘appropriation’). I argue that Plotinus’ understanding of oikeiōsis develops across the period during which he uses it. In his middle writings, Plotinus engages with Stoic oikeiōsis by exploring how it functions in contexts related to selfhood. In his later writings, he shows, on the one hand, how the concept of oikeiōsis can be Platonized, such as to account for the relation of the self to the Good, and, on the other, how the Stoic understanding of oikeiōsis is untenable for many of the same reasons that he rejects the Stoic notion of the hēgemonikon. Ultimately, Plotinus thinks that Stoic understa...
Preface Koechlin's symphonic poem Meditation of Purun Baghat is part of a loose cycle of works ba... more Preface Koechlin's symphonic poem Meditation of Purun Baghat is part of a loose cycle of works based on stories from Kipling's Jungle Book (1894) and written under five opus numbers (Three Poems Op. 18, The Spring Running Op. 95 (in four parts), The Meditation of Purun Bhagat, Op.159, The Law of the Jungle, Op.175, Les Bandar-Log, Op.176). The nature of Koechlin's engagement with Kipling's Jungle Book is unparalleled in the history of western music. No other composer wrote this type of music while engaging with this kind of literary work over such a long period of time. The composition of symphonic works based on Kipling's Jungle Book occupied Koechlin on and off for a period of over 40 years, that is, from 1899, when he first discovered the work in French translation, until 1940 when he completed the cycle. This project was fruitful bringing forth what is arguably Koechlin's magnum opus. The premier of the work finally took place in 1946, having been postponed from the original date in 1940 on account of the second world war. It was thus heard for the first time only a few years before the composer's death in 1950. Koechlin was attracted to Kipling's Jungle Book because, as he explained, "There is in it a sense of nature, youthfulness, health, an astonishing form of life which illuminates the soul of one who reads (and understands) this book" (Commentaires sur mes compositions, 1916). Koechlin, a great lover of film (and film stars), was no doubt drawn to the Jungle Book for the same reasons that generations of filmmakers have been charmed by its delightful and often didactic stories (films based on the book have been released at an everincreasing tempo since 1942). Mowgli's friendships with animals and the liberty of his life in the jungle efface human alienation from nature and explore possibilities of life beyond the mores of decadent society. Moreover, the vital curiosity of youth engaged in adventure is inherently dramatic. It is as if Koechlin's dramatic sensibilities inspired him to pre-emptively write scores for films not yet made. But Koechlin's music inspired by the Jungle Book is not mere incidental music. Rather, Koechlin-one of the greatest orchestrators of the 20th century (and author of the most thorough manual on orchestration ever written)-discovered in Kipling's book inspiration and even the form for the music that was his true vocation. Having debuted at the end of the 19th century as a talented composer of chanson, Koechlin turned later to chamber music and then finally found his true calling in writing orchestral works. In 1913 Debussy himself, recognizing Koechlin's mastery of the orchestra, hired the young composer to orchestrate his ballet Khamma. Koechlin discovered in the Jungle Book drama, action and colours which nourished and exploited his own compositional gifts. Although, he did not write ballet music for Kipling's text, the dynamism in much of his Jungle Book music is akin to dance music. There is also an insolence in Kipling that Koechlin exploited to formulate a humorful critique of contemporary composers and perhaps even of society more generally in Les Bandar-Log (1940) where monkeys represent the aping of trendy musical styles.
Submissions are invited in every area of the studies on the trasmission of philosophical and scie... more Submissions are invited in every area of the studies on the trasmission of philosophical and scientific texts from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and early modern times. Papers in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish are published.
Merab Mamardashvili's writings are difficult to understand. This is partly due to the complexity ... more Merab Mamardashvili's writings are difficult to understand. This is partly due to the complexity of his philosophical context. Mamardashvili broke with and was excluded from the main currents of Soviet philosophy of his day. Yet, although Mamardashvili was not a member of any identifiable philosophical school, his thought is clearly connected to various movements in twentieth-century European thought. This chapter aims to locate Mamardashvili's work in relation to one such movement: phenomenology. Mamardashvili was certainly not a phenomenologist in any strict sense. He does not explicitly identify himself as a phenomenologist. Nor can we trace his thought directly back to any specific phenomenological school. However, Mamardashvili was no doubt exposed to phenomenology both as a historical reality and-while living in Prague, as well as in the context of his communications with contemporary French intellectuals-as a living movement. Mamardashvili's work is characterized by sustained engagement with phenomenology. He often employs approaches that can be appropriately characterized as phenomenological. But he is also explicitly critical of phenomenology. This chapter examines Mamardashvili's nuanced relationship with phenomenology by way of close readings of key passages from Symbol and Consciousness and Classical and Non-Classical Ideals of Rationality.
Dostoyevsky's underground man did not inhabit a bomb shelter, but his notes might have been of in... more Dostoyevsky's underground man did not inhabit a bomb shelter, but his notes might have been of interest to the Kim family. In fact, Parasite owes much of its success to brilliant exploration and development of themes and symbols that it shares with nineteenth century Russian literature, in particular, the 'superfluous man' and the house. 1 Like nineteenth Russian Literature Parasite deals with deep questions of psychology and politics simultaneously and with penetrating insight. One of the twentieth century's greatest political thinkers, Hannah Arendt, picked up and developed the notion of the superfluity in her work The Origins of Totalitarianism. A central thesis in this works asserts that modern society generates superfluous people and that these superfluous people play a key role in the emergence of totalitarian political structures. But elsewhere Arendt also addresses the notion of the parasite. Arendt suggests that the reality of labor in modern society is such that anyone who is not part of the labor structure becomes a parasite. Arendt does not explain what the relationship between the superfluous man and the parasite is. But in some sense Bong Joon-ho answers this question raised by Arendt's work. More generally, it is striking how Bong's Parasite resonates with these and other themes central in Hannah Arendt's thought: work, totalitarianism, and bare life. In this chapter, I interpret Bong's Parasite by asking what it has to say about the difference between the superfluous person and the parasite. I use elements of Arendt's thought on superfluity, parasitism, work, and bare life. I also take into account certain 1 See Chances 2001 and Van Baak 2009. But, at another level, it is the father of the Kim family Ki-taek, a sort of failed Confucian patriarch, who is the real subject of the action, because it is he who suffers a shift in perspective both internally and externally. Ki-taek is at first a passive figure who simply follows his son's initiative. In some sense, however, he is the only character who changes in the story. In the end, he is the one who recognizes his humiliation and revolts. 4 To be sure, one other character also revolts. It is Ki-taek's 'double' Geun-sae. Indeed, Geun-sae causes the eruption of violence at the climax of the film. In both cases, a man deprived of power, humiliated and frustrated explodes in violence. Kim-taek ultimately replaces Geun-sae in the bunker. He goes from living in a ghetto of sorts to living in a kind of tomb, becoming a 'zombie,' a phantom possessed only of 'bare life.' He is ultimately placeless. The bomb shelter is the last refuge. The dramatic arc of Ki-taek's character undergirds the entire film. To be sure, the Kim son Ki-woo is also superfluous. Yet, he does not realize it. At no point in the film does he become humiliated anti-hero outsider like his father. Rather, he has some characteristics of a rogue figure. 5 We admire him for his audaciousness and ingenuity. To be sure, Ki-woo has none of the roughness of the Renaissance rogue figure. Ki-woo does not break with society and recklessly violate its fundamental norms. Rather, he cleverly and elegantly twists social norms with a view to maintaining a more fundamental truth. Thus, he resembles in some respects Robin Hood. His break with the superficial reigning order seems to serve a higher justice.
Plotinus’ philosophical project includes an important Socratic element. Plotinus is namely intere... more Plotinus’ philosophical project includes an important Socratic element. Plotinus is namely interested in both self-knowledge and care of soul and self. In this study I examine how through his interpretation of three passages from Plato (Timaeus 35a, Phaedrus 246b and Theatetus 176a-b), Plotinus develops an account of the role of care in his ethics. Care in Plotinus’ ethical thought takes three forms. First of all, care is involved in maintaining the unity of the embodied self. Secondly, situated in a providential universe, our souls – as sisters to the world soul take part in the providential order by caring for ‘lower’ realities. Finally, Plotinus develops an ethics of going beyond virtue, a process which involves care for the higher, potentially divine, self.
abstract:The principal part of the Arabic Plotinus that circulated under the name of the The Theo... more abstract:The principal part of the Arabic Plotinus that circulated under the name of the The Theology of Aristotle consists largely in the translation and extensive adaptation of parts of Plotinus's works on psychology. Much of the adaptation of the Plotinian source material that we find in the Theology of Aristotle represents original philosophical work in a Neoplatonic paradigm. In this article, I investigate the contributions that the Theology of Aristotle makes to theory of the imagination. I argue that we can understand these contributions to be of three main kinds: the role of the imagination as mediator between the intelligible and sensible realms is enhanced; the activity of the imagination is represented as close to that of the intellect; and the imagination is associated with artistic creativity.
A promising but neglected precedent for Thomas More’s Utopia is to be found in Ibn Ṭufayl’s Ibn Ḥ... more A promising but neglected precedent for Thomas More’s Utopia is to be found in Ibn Ṭufayl’s Ibn Ḥayy Yaqẓān. This twelfth-century Andalusian philosophical novel describing the self-education and enlightenment of a feral child on an island, while certainly a precedent for the European Bildungsroman, also arguably qualifies as a utopian text. It is possible that More had access to Pico de la Mirandola’s Latin translation of Ibn Ḥayy Yaqẓān. This study consists of a review of historical and philological evidence that More may have read Ibn Ḥayy Yaqẓān and a comparative reading of More’s and Ṭufayl’s two famous works. I argue that there are good reasons to see in Ibn Ḥayy Yaqẓān a source for More’s Utopia and that in certain respects we can read More’s Utopia as a response to Ṭufayl’s novel. L’Ibn Ḥayy Yaqẓān d’Ibn Ṭufayl consiste en un précédent incontournable mais négligé à l’Utopie de More. Ce récit philosophique andalou du douzième siècle décrivant l’auto-formation et l’éveil d’un e...
For here below, too, we can know many things by the look in peoples' eyes when they are silent; b... more For here below, too, we can know many things by the look in peoples' eyes when they are silent; but there all their body is clear and pure and each is like an eye, and nothing is hidden or feigned, but before one speaks to another that other has seen and understood. plotinus, Ennead iv 3, 27, 18, 19-22 … It seems to me that the purpose of art is to prepare the human soul for the perception of good. tarkovsky in Gianvito 2006: 68 ∵
In this commentary I suggest that a comparative investigation of Ancient psychological notions ma... more In this commentary I suggest that a comparative investigation of Ancient psychological notions may contribute to Professor Lloyd's project of understanding the role that analogy plays in human reasoning. In particular, I propose that the Greek notion of imagination (phantasia) may serve as a starting point. I argue that, because in Platonic and Aristotelian thought the ultimate object of knowledge is form (eidos), thinkers working in this paradigm were obliged to introduce a faculty mediating between the senses and the intellect. This is the imagination. Some of the problems associated with Greek conceptions of imagination carry over to the use of analogy. I suggest that because Chinese thought had a very different approach to images (in part based on a long history of reception of the Yijing) and a different approach to the object of knowledge, they did not need to forge a conception of a specific faculty of imagination and were thus in a position to exploit analogies in a way which was rather different from Greeks.
Abstract: This comparative study examines arguments developed by Plotinus and by Rāmānuja concern... more Abstract: This comparative study examines arguments developed by Plotinus and by Rāmānuja concerning the possibility of multiplicity in relation to the nature of the One and ultimately nondual Brahman, respectively. It is hoped that some insight is given into both Plotinus’ and Rāmānuja’s thought on ultimate unity or nonduality, and more generally into the philosophical possibilities of understanding ultimate unity or nonduality.
Plotinus's debt to the Stoic thought is well documented. Not only was this debt a function of the... more Plotinus's debt to the Stoic thought is well documented. Not only was this debt a function of the general intellectual atmosphere in which Plotinus worked, but the philosopher frequently adopted and modified Stoic positions consciously and carefully. The concept of oikeiôsis / οἰκείωσις (and its cognates) plays an important role in Stoic thought. Indeed, some scholars assert that it provides the very foundations for Stoic ethics and political philosophy. In the present study, we will exam Plotinus' use of this important concept. It shall become clear that, on account of the great differences between Neoplatonic and Stoic metaphysics, Plotinus employs the notion of oikeiôsis in manners that are very distinct from the ways in which it was deployed by various Stoic thinkers. Nevertheless, it shall also become evident that Plotinus' appropriation of the concept of oikeiôsis accorded him a conceptual tool by which to better think problems concerning the nature of the self.
P lato's banishment of the poets and certain kinds of music from his ideal city-state is notoriou... more P lato's banishment of the poets and certain kinds of music from his ideal city-state is notorious. Less well known is his attack on poikilia, which is also developed in the Republic. Poikilia means "variegated" or "multicoloured" but extends to all kinds of "variety," "diversity" or "variedness." 1 It is both an important and an elusive term in Ancient Greek philosophy and aesthetics. It has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. On the one hand, poikilia has not been carefully studied simply because it is difficult to translate. Since the term does not lend itself to one-to-one rendering into modern languages, it lurks behinds the surfaces of translations. Poikilia can in various contexts be translated by a broad range of modern language terms such as "embroidery," "embellishment," "ornamentation," "manifold," "subtlety," "complexity," "deceit," "intricacy" and so on. Even an experienced classicist will only spot the avatars of poikilia in modern language translations with difficulty. On the other hand, the concept of poikilia has also resisted commentary because of its complex and dubious status in questions of both moral and aesthetic value. In certain periods and contexts, it had positive value. It was associated with order, craft, complexity, wonderous variety and dazzling beauty. In other contexts, however, it was associated with superficiality, vulgarity, dishonesty and trickery. In Plato poikilia has overwhelmingly negative connotations. Indeed, poikilia has for Plato the status of, as it were, a demi-concept referring to something that does not belong to the realm of form. Plato construes poikilia in the psychology of desire of the Republic. Poikilia appeals to the lower parts of the soul while reason strives for what is simple. Plato associates poikilia, the "variegated," with bad souls and, it turns out, with bad music. Yet poikilia shows up-rather inconspicuously-in a later Platonic context, namely, in the work of Plotinus (204-270CE). Although he never explicitly criticizes Plato on any question, Plotinus silently breaks with him on the question of the value of poikilia. Plotinus generally has a positive view of the world of sense, including the value of sense-perception and the beauty of the sense world. Pressed to distinguish his thought from Gnostic Platonists who rejected the sense world as evil, Plotinus draws on Aristotle and the Stoics in his account of the sense world as well-ordered, good, and beautiful. Although Plotinus adopts the basic structures behind Plato's theory of art, he interprets them such as to arrive at certain conclusions that are contrary to Plato's. This is most obvious in his understanding of poikilia which takes on an overwhelmingly positive role in Plotinus' metaphysics and, if we extrapolate, in his theory of art. Where Plato advocates for an aesthetic of austerity and simplicity in the Republic, Plotinus develops an aesthetic that praises variety, diversity and colour. Although poikilia lacks an exact equivalent in modern languages, it has much to contribute to themes that become important in the context of 19 th and 20 th century music and music theory, namely: colour, unity and variation. In this paper I attempt to show how the notion of poikilia might contribute to 20 th century discussions in music aesthetics. I do so by bringing the notion of poikilia into conversation with early twentieth century German theories of music aesthetics developed by
Plotinus’ understanding of self is formulated largely in dialogue with the Stoics. In early works... more Plotinus’ understanding of self is formulated largely in dialogue with the Stoics. In early works he categorically rejects the Stoic notion of the hēgemonikon (‘leading part’ or ‘commanding faculty’) of the soul. In this paper, I show how, in light of a general dissatisfaction with the Stoic account of self articulated in his early work, Plotinus deals with the Stoic notion of oikeiōsis (‘appropriation’). I argue that Plotinus’ understanding of oikeiōsis develops across the period during which he uses it. In his middle writings, Plotinus engages with Stoic oikeiōsis by exploring how it functions in contexts related to selfhood. In his later writings, he shows, on the one hand, how the concept of oikeiōsis can be Platonized, such as to account for the relation of the self to the Good, and, on the other, how the Stoic understanding of oikeiōsis is untenable for many of the same reasons that he rejects the Stoic notion of the hēgemonikon. Ultimately, Plotinus thinks that Stoic understa...
Preface Koechlin's symphonic poem Meditation of Purun Baghat is part of a loose cycle of works ba... more Preface Koechlin's symphonic poem Meditation of Purun Baghat is part of a loose cycle of works based on stories from Kipling's Jungle Book (1894) and written under five opus numbers (Three Poems Op. 18, The Spring Running Op. 95 (in four parts), The Meditation of Purun Bhagat, Op.159, The Law of the Jungle, Op.175, Les Bandar-Log, Op.176). The nature of Koechlin's engagement with Kipling's Jungle Book is unparalleled in the history of western music. No other composer wrote this type of music while engaging with this kind of literary work over such a long period of time. The composition of symphonic works based on Kipling's Jungle Book occupied Koechlin on and off for a period of over 40 years, that is, from 1899, when he first discovered the work in French translation, until 1940 when he completed the cycle. This project was fruitful bringing forth what is arguably Koechlin's magnum opus. The premier of the work finally took place in 1946, having been postponed from the original date in 1940 on account of the second world war. It was thus heard for the first time only a few years before the composer's death in 1950. Koechlin was attracted to Kipling's Jungle Book because, as he explained, "There is in it a sense of nature, youthfulness, health, an astonishing form of life which illuminates the soul of one who reads (and understands) this book" (Commentaires sur mes compositions, 1916). Koechlin, a great lover of film (and film stars), was no doubt drawn to the Jungle Book for the same reasons that generations of filmmakers have been charmed by its delightful and often didactic stories (films based on the book have been released at an everincreasing tempo since 1942). Mowgli's friendships with animals and the liberty of his life in the jungle efface human alienation from nature and explore possibilities of life beyond the mores of decadent society. Moreover, the vital curiosity of youth engaged in adventure is inherently dramatic. It is as if Koechlin's dramatic sensibilities inspired him to pre-emptively write scores for films not yet made. But Koechlin's music inspired by the Jungle Book is not mere incidental music. Rather, Koechlin-one of the greatest orchestrators of the 20th century (and author of the most thorough manual on orchestration ever written)-discovered in Kipling's book inspiration and even the form for the music that was his true vocation. Having debuted at the end of the 19th century as a talented composer of chanson, Koechlin turned later to chamber music and then finally found his true calling in writing orchestral works. In 1913 Debussy himself, recognizing Koechlin's mastery of the orchestra, hired the young composer to orchestrate his ballet Khamma. Koechlin discovered in the Jungle Book drama, action and colours which nourished and exploited his own compositional gifts. Although, he did not write ballet music for Kipling's text, the dynamism in much of his Jungle Book music is akin to dance music. There is also an insolence in Kipling that Koechlin exploited to formulate a humorful critique of contemporary composers and perhaps even of society more generally in Les Bandar-Log (1940) where monkeys represent the aping of trendy musical styles.
Submissions are invited in every area of the studies on the trasmission of philosophical and scie... more Submissions are invited in every area of the studies on the trasmission of philosophical and scientific texts from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and early modern times. Papers in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish are published.
Merab Mamardashvili's writings are difficult to understand. This is partly due to the complexity ... more Merab Mamardashvili's writings are difficult to understand. This is partly due to the complexity of his philosophical context. Mamardashvili broke with and was excluded from the main currents of Soviet philosophy of his day. Yet, although Mamardashvili was not a member of any identifiable philosophical school, his thought is clearly connected to various movements in twentieth-century European thought. This chapter aims to locate Mamardashvili's work in relation to one such movement: phenomenology. Mamardashvili was certainly not a phenomenologist in any strict sense. He does not explicitly identify himself as a phenomenologist. Nor can we trace his thought directly back to any specific phenomenological school. However, Mamardashvili was no doubt exposed to phenomenology both as a historical reality and-while living in Prague, as well as in the context of his communications with contemporary French intellectuals-as a living movement. Mamardashvili's work is characterized by sustained engagement with phenomenology. He often employs approaches that can be appropriately characterized as phenomenological. But he is also explicitly critical of phenomenology. This chapter examines Mamardashvili's nuanced relationship with phenomenology by way of close readings of key passages from Symbol and Consciousness and Classical and Non-Classical Ideals of Rationality.
Dostoyevsky's underground man did not inhabit a bomb shelter, but his notes might have been of in... more Dostoyevsky's underground man did not inhabit a bomb shelter, but his notes might have been of interest to the Kim family. In fact, Parasite owes much of its success to brilliant exploration and development of themes and symbols that it shares with nineteenth century Russian literature, in particular, the 'superfluous man' and the house. 1 Like nineteenth Russian Literature Parasite deals with deep questions of psychology and politics simultaneously and with penetrating insight. One of the twentieth century's greatest political thinkers, Hannah Arendt, picked up and developed the notion of the superfluity in her work The Origins of Totalitarianism. A central thesis in this works asserts that modern society generates superfluous people and that these superfluous people play a key role in the emergence of totalitarian political structures. But elsewhere Arendt also addresses the notion of the parasite. Arendt suggests that the reality of labor in modern society is such that anyone who is not part of the labor structure becomes a parasite. Arendt does not explain what the relationship between the superfluous man and the parasite is. But in some sense Bong Joon-ho answers this question raised by Arendt's work. More generally, it is striking how Bong's Parasite resonates with these and other themes central in Hannah Arendt's thought: work, totalitarianism, and bare life. In this chapter, I interpret Bong's Parasite by asking what it has to say about the difference between the superfluous person and the parasite. I use elements of Arendt's thought on superfluity, parasitism, work, and bare life. I also take into account certain 1 See Chances 2001 and Van Baak 2009. But, at another level, it is the father of the Kim family Ki-taek, a sort of failed Confucian patriarch, who is the real subject of the action, because it is he who suffers a shift in perspective both internally and externally. Ki-taek is at first a passive figure who simply follows his son's initiative. In some sense, however, he is the only character who changes in the story. In the end, he is the one who recognizes his humiliation and revolts. 4 To be sure, one other character also revolts. It is Ki-taek's 'double' Geun-sae. Indeed, Geun-sae causes the eruption of violence at the climax of the film. In both cases, a man deprived of power, humiliated and frustrated explodes in violence. Kim-taek ultimately replaces Geun-sae in the bunker. He goes from living in a ghetto of sorts to living in a kind of tomb, becoming a 'zombie,' a phantom possessed only of 'bare life.' He is ultimately placeless. The bomb shelter is the last refuge. The dramatic arc of Ki-taek's character undergirds the entire film. To be sure, the Kim son Ki-woo is also superfluous. Yet, he does not realize it. At no point in the film does he become humiliated anti-hero outsider like his father. Rather, he has some characteristics of a rogue figure. 5 We admire him for his audaciousness and ingenuity. To be sure, Ki-woo has none of the roughness of the Renaissance rogue figure. Ki-woo does not break with society and recklessly violate its fundamental norms. Rather, he cleverly and elegantly twists social norms with a view to maintaining a more fundamental truth. Thus, he resembles in some respects Robin Hood. His break with the superficial reigning order seems to serve a higher justice.
Plotinus’ philosophical project includes an important Socratic element. Plotinus is namely intere... more Plotinus’ philosophical project includes an important Socratic element. Plotinus is namely interested in both self-knowledge and care of soul and self. In this study I examine how through his interpretation of three passages from Plato (Timaeus 35a, Phaedrus 246b and Theatetus 176a-b), Plotinus develops an account of the role of care in his ethics. Care in Plotinus’ ethical thought takes three forms. First of all, care is involved in maintaining the unity of the embodied self. Secondly, situated in a providential universe, our souls – as sisters to the world soul take part in the providential order by caring for ‘lower’ realities. Finally, Plotinus develops an ethics of going beyond virtue, a process which involves care for the higher, potentially divine, self.
abstract:The principal part of the Arabic Plotinus that circulated under the name of the The Theo... more abstract:The principal part of the Arabic Plotinus that circulated under the name of the The Theology of Aristotle consists largely in the translation and extensive adaptation of parts of Plotinus's works on psychology. Much of the adaptation of the Plotinian source material that we find in the Theology of Aristotle represents original philosophical work in a Neoplatonic paradigm. In this article, I investigate the contributions that the Theology of Aristotle makes to theory of the imagination. I argue that we can understand these contributions to be of three main kinds: the role of the imagination as mediator between the intelligible and sensible realms is enhanced; the activity of the imagination is represented as close to that of the intellect; and the imagination is associated with artistic creativity.
A promising but neglected precedent for Thomas More’s Utopia is to be found in Ibn Ṭufayl’s Ibn Ḥ... more A promising but neglected precedent for Thomas More’s Utopia is to be found in Ibn Ṭufayl’s Ibn Ḥayy Yaqẓān. This twelfth-century Andalusian philosophical novel describing the self-education and enlightenment of a feral child on an island, while certainly a precedent for the European Bildungsroman, also arguably qualifies as a utopian text. It is possible that More had access to Pico de la Mirandola’s Latin translation of Ibn Ḥayy Yaqẓān. This study consists of a review of historical and philological evidence that More may have read Ibn Ḥayy Yaqẓān and a comparative reading of More’s and Ṭufayl’s two famous works. I argue that there are good reasons to see in Ibn Ḥayy Yaqẓān a source for More’s Utopia and that in certain respects we can read More’s Utopia as a response to Ṭufayl’s novel. L’Ibn Ḥayy Yaqẓān d’Ibn Ṭufayl consiste en un précédent incontournable mais négligé à l’Utopie de More. Ce récit philosophique andalou du douzième siècle décrivant l’auto-formation et l’éveil d’un e...
For here below, too, we can know many things by the look in peoples' eyes when they are silent; b... more For here below, too, we can know many things by the look in peoples' eyes when they are silent; but there all their body is clear and pure and each is like an eye, and nothing is hidden or feigned, but before one speaks to another that other has seen and understood. plotinus, Ennead iv 3, 27, 18, 19-22 … It seems to me that the purpose of art is to prepare the human soul for the perception of good. tarkovsky in Gianvito 2006: 68 ∵
In this commentary I suggest that a comparative investigation of Ancient psychological notions ma... more In this commentary I suggest that a comparative investigation of Ancient psychological notions may contribute to Professor Lloyd's project of understanding the role that analogy plays in human reasoning. In particular, I propose that the Greek notion of imagination (phantasia) may serve as a starting point. I argue that, because in Platonic and Aristotelian thought the ultimate object of knowledge is form (eidos), thinkers working in this paradigm were obliged to introduce a faculty mediating between the senses and the intellect. This is the imagination. Some of the problems associated with Greek conceptions of imagination carry over to the use of analogy. I suggest that because Chinese thought had a very different approach to images (in part based on a long history of reception of the Yijing) and a different approach to the object of knowledge, they did not need to forge a conception of a specific faculty of imagination and were thus in a position to exploit analogies in a way which was rather different from Greeks.
Abstract: This comparative study examines arguments developed by Plotinus and by Rāmānuja concern... more Abstract: This comparative study examines arguments developed by Plotinus and by Rāmānuja concerning the possibility of multiplicity in relation to the nature of the One and ultimately nondual Brahman, respectively. It is hoped that some insight is given into both Plotinus’ and Rāmānuja’s thought on ultimate unity or nonduality, and more generally into the philosophical possibilities of understanding ultimate unity or nonduality.
Plotinus's debt to the Stoic thought is well documented. Not only was this debt a function of the... more Plotinus's debt to the Stoic thought is well documented. Not only was this debt a function of the general intellectual atmosphere in which Plotinus worked, but the philosopher frequently adopted and modified Stoic positions consciously and carefully. The concept of oikeiôsis / οἰκείωσις (and its cognates) plays an important role in Stoic thought. Indeed, some scholars assert that it provides the very foundations for Stoic ethics and political philosophy. In the present study, we will exam Plotinus' use of this important concept. It shall become clear that, on account of the great differences between Neoplatonic and Stoic metaphysics, Plotinus employs the notion of oikeiôsis in manners that are very distinct from the ways in which it was deployed by various Stoic thinkers. Nevertheless, it shall also become evident that Plotinus' appropriation of the concept of oikeiôsis accorded him a conceptual tool by which to better think problems concerning the nature of the self.
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