P.h.D. by Andre da Paz
This is the introduction of the thesis presented along with the first half of the research to the... more This is the introduction of the thesis presented along with the first half of the research to the members of the doctoral qualifying examination (29-2-2024)
Unpublished (Seminário Archai 2022), 2022
ABSTRACT: On this paper we formulate a few preliminary questions on initiation in both the Eleusi... more ABSTRACT: On this paper we formulate a few preliminary questions on initiation in both the Eleusinian Mysteries and on Plato's Symposium, with the idea of transposition as the groundwork for our work, in an attempt to identify a few elements of the Eleusinian Mysteries supposedly transposed in the dialogue between the 'young' Socrates and Diotima. Thus, our paper is divided in two central parts: the first one, the longest one, in which we analyze what initiation could have been in the Eleusinian Mysteries, having as our goal a better understanding of the Eleusinian initiation and what transposition this initiation might carry on to the case of the 'young Socrates'; the second one, the short one, we'll focus on Plato's Symposium, trying to identify signs and hints of elements from the Eleusinian Mysteries, centrally focused on the transposition of 'vision', with the goal of formulating our hypothesis that there are transpositions made by Plato from the Eleusinian Mysteries. In other words, here on this paper we will focus mainly on the element of vision and, hopefully, expand this scope of view to envelop all of the transpositions supposedly made by Plato from the Eleusinian Mysteries during the dialogue between young Socrates and Diotima on our PhD thesis.
Comunicação: Seminários de Metafísica, Cátedra UNESCO Archai, 2020
RESUMO: Realizaremos neste texto um primeiro esboço de considerações preliminares sobre em que me... more RESUMO: Realizaremos neste texto um primeiro esboço de considerações preliminares sobre em que medida o imaginário da tríade Diotima-Sócrates-Alcibíades poderia ser interpretado como uma representação e uma ressignificação do imaginário mistérico realizadas no Banquete de Platão. Para tal, precisaremos recorrer a algumas imagens presentes neste diálogo que parecem refletir elementos da religiosidade grega marginal. Faremos neste texto uma discussão bastante pontual com a historiografia da religião antiga e deter-nos-emos brevemente em alguns dos elementos que constituem o imaginário dos Mistérios no período de Platão, bem como comentaremos brevemente algumas das idiossincrasias da figura histórica de Alcibíades, sobretudo o que diz respeito às controvérsias em relação aos Mistérios de Elêusis, de modo a apontar possíveis ecos do imaginário histórico dos Mistérios no imaginário dramático do que chamamos de ‘Mistérios dialéticos’ . Nosso objetivo é refletir sobre as consequências de levarmos em consideração tais representações e ressignificações dos Mistérios neste diálogo na interpretação de Erōs, da atividade dialética e da experiência da verdade. Nossa ‘proto-tese’ diz respeito à dialética, à Erōs e à busca pela verdade: elas seriam representadas neste diálogo como experiências inefáveis que não se apreendem pelo discurso, impossíveis de serem ensinadas ou reveladas justamente por serem experiências e, por isso, pressuporiam ser experienciadas pelos ‘iniciados’ nos ‘Mistérios dialéticos’. Com essa leitura, a dramaticidade do diálogo poderia ser levada em consideração para uma interpretação globalizante do Banquete, isto é, os distintos momentos na relação de teses antagônicas sobre Erōs refletiriam o caráter dinâmico, processual e gradual, fundamentalmente prático e sempre constante da experiência dos Mistérios Dialéticos.
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, Mistérios, dialética
ABSTRACT: In this paper we draw the first lines concerning the preliminary views on how the imagery of the Diotima-Socrates-Alcibiades triad could be read as a representation and a re-signification of the imagery of the Mysteries carried out in Plato's Symposium. For that, we will need to resort to some images present in this dialogue that seem to reflect elements of marginal Greek religiosity. We intend to make a very brief discussion with the historiography of Ancient religion and we will briefly dwell on some of the elements that constitute the imagery of the Mysteries in Plato's time, as well as we will briefly comment on some of the idiosyncrasies of the historical Alcibiades, especially with regard to the controversies concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries, in order to point out possible echoes of the historical imagery of the Mysteries in the dramatic imagery of what we call ‘Dialectical Mysteries’. Our aim is to reflect on the consequences of taking into account such representations and re-significations of the Mysteries in this dialogue in the interpretation of Erōs, of dialectics and of the experience of truth. Our 'proto-thesis' concerns dialectics, Erōs and the search for truth: they would be represented in this dialogue as ineffable experiences that are not apprehended by discourse, impossible to be taught or revealed precisely because they are experiences and, therefore, they would presuppose to be experienced by the 'initiates' in the 'Dialectical Mysteries'. In this reading, the drama of the dialogue could be taken into account for a globalizing interpretation of Plato's Symposium, that is, the different moments in the relation of antagonistic theses about Erōs would reflect the dynamic, procedural, gradual, fundamentally practical, and always constant character of the experience of the Dialectical Mysteries.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, Mysteries, dialectics
Conference Presentations by Andre da Paz
Paper: I Seminário Internacional Direito e Hermenêutica - "Filosofia, Democracia e Lei: ontem e hoje", 2023
The Athenian Decree of Council and Assembly titled 'Regulations concerning the Eleusinian Mysteri... more The Athenian Decree of Council and Assembly titled 'Regulations concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries' (IE 13 = IG I³ 6) displays on FACE C of the pillar-stone a prescription regarding participation in both the Lesser and Greater Mysteries in the fifth century BCE. This regulation, along with further requirements for participation, has been argued in scholarship to considerably limit participation in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Admittedly, this decree mentions an exception established by the Council and approved by the Assembly, which is attested on the opisthographic stele's A Side (AI 6974), titled 'Law Concerning the Mysteries of the Eleusinian Goddesses' (IE 138) in the fourth-century BCE. Furthermore, in the fifth-century BCE's 'Decree of the First-Fruits' (IE 28a = IG I³ 78a) the Council made it imperative that all Athenians were to participate in the sacrifices at Eleusis approved by the Assembly. The exception in the Eleusis 13's regulation paired with the Eleusis 138's law has been proposed in scholarship as indicative of the Eleusinian Mysteries being a civic and open-to-all cult in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Moreover, the obligatory character in Eleusis 28a has been said to attest to the participation of the whole community in the prescribed sacrifices. However, Eleusis 13 has also been argued to point to the personal character of the Eleusinian Mysteries, particularly considering the distinction between individual levels of participation on FACE B of the inscription IG I³ 6. Considering this state of affairs, the discussion we propose to explore starts with the following question: How to conciliate these two seemingly conflicting readings regarding participation in the Eleusinian Mysteries in the fourth and fifth centuries BCE? Namely, on the one hand, prescriptions regarding the obligatory, civic participation in the Eleusinian Mysteries and, on the other hand, requirements that considerably restrict the individual's personal participation in the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Paper: 5th Research Group Delphos International Seminar, 2023
The eccentricity of the philosopher is parallel with his potential for creation –– of problems: ... more The eccentricity of the philosopher is parallel with his potential for creation –– of problems: the wielders of the fabled ‘Philosopher’s Stone’. To use writing, or the discourse –– the ambivalent mercury, the children of chaos –– through the philosopher’s stones to point to uncomfortable and subtle cracks on reasoning that for the philosopher are strikingly obvious, which he must constantly transmute into sound arguments. And what happens when he doubts? What happens when something gargantuan like the divine Tiamat is questioned? Puzzling problems emerge. Inevitably, on this text we wield our philosopher’s stone in the face of a hoarding dragon, on an uncomfortable and subtle crack, to question a Platonic ‘primordial deity’: the interpretation of his writings, and propose a 'prismatic' perspective.
Comunicação: II Summer School Archai, 2018
RESUMO: No presente texto buscaremos analisar a hipótese de Platão utilizar o método dialético na... more RESUMO: No presente texto buscaremos analisar a hipótese de Platão utilizar o método dialético na estrutura do diálogo Banquete para dar vazão ao movimento lógico-dramático com o qual a noção de Erōs e sua posição na busca por saber são desenvolvidos neste diálogo. Tal movimento lógico-dramático desenvolveria e apresentaria Erōs ao longo do Banquete por meio de um processo gradual construído estruturalmente ao longo das falas dos simposiastas que compõem o plano dramático do texto. Em outras palavras, o método dialético desenvolveria o corpo e a alma deste diálogo, ou seja, ele seria o meio pelo qual esse elemento metafísico é construído progressivamente do primeiro ao último logos e nos apresentaria seu desenvolvimento vivo por meio de um processo gradual de enunciação – e, como esperamos evidenciar, também um processo gradual de busca pela verdade.
Palavras-chave: Platão; Banquete; método dialético; Erōs.
ABSTRACT: In this paper we seek to analyse the hypothesis that Plato employs the dialectical method within the Symposium structure to give life to the logical-dramatical movement with which the notion of Erōs and its position in the search for knowledge are developed in this dialogue. Such logical-dialectical movement would develop and present Erōs along the Symposium by means of a gradual process structurally built along the symposiasts’ speeches within the dramatic frame of the text. In other words, the dialectical method would build the body and soul of this dialogue, i.e., it is the medium that progressively builds up this metaphysical element from the very first logos to the last one, presenting us their development through a gradual process of exposition – and, as we hope to highlight, also the gradual process of seeking the truth.
Keywords: Plato; Plato's Symposium; dialectical method; Erōs.
Comunicação: IV Simpósio do grupo de pesquisa DELPHOS, Filosofia, arte e literatura na Grécia Antiga, 2018
RESUMO: Erixímaco, desde o início de sua fala no Banquete de Platão (Smp. 186a3), deixa claro que... more RESUMO: Erixímaco, desde o início de sua fala no Banquete de Platão (Smp. 186a3), deixa claro que a alma não será protagonista em seu discurso sobre Erōs. Ele desenvolve um discurso materialista, cujas bases são sua própria technē, a medicina. Com isso, parte da historiografia Banquete no século XX enxerga em Erixímaco uma caricatura dos tratados hipocráticos. No entanto, a partir de Edelstein há tentativas de ressignificar o lugar do discurso de Erixímaco na estrutura do Banquete de Platão. Nesta comunicação, estabeleceremos uma discussão entre as leituras que, de um lado, descaracterizam o discurso de Erixímaco para a compreensão do diálogo e outras que, por outro lado, consideram-no relevante para o desenvolvimento dialético do Banquete, com o objetivo de estabelecer um panorama mais abrangente dos possíveis caminhos a serem trilhados na interpretação do discurso de Erixímaco neste diálogo platônico.
Palavras-Chave: Platão, Banquete, Erixímaco, dialética
ABSTRACT: Eryximachus, from the beginning of his speech in Plato's Symposium (Smp. 186a3), makes it clear that the soul will not be a protagonist in his speech about Erōs. He develops a materialistic discourse, whose basis is his own technē, medicine. Thus, part of the historiography of the Symposium in the twentieth century sees Eryximachus as a caricature of the hippocratic corpus. However, since Edelstein there are attempts to resignify the place of Eryximachus' speech within the structure of Plato's Symposium. In this paper we will establish a discussion with readings that, on the one hand, plays down the speech of Eryximachus to the interpretation of the dialogue and others that, on the other hand, consider him relevant to the dialectical development of the Symposium, aiming to achieve a broader overview of the possible paths to read the speech of Eryximachus in this platonic dialogue.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, Eryximachus, dialectics
Comunicação: GT Platão e Platonismo, ANPOF, 2018
RESUMO: Dentre as possíveis leituras para interpretarmos a relação entre os discursos no Banquete... more RESUMO: Dentre as possíveis leituras para interpretarmos a relação entre os discursos no Banquete de Platão, há uma que, por um lado, considera Sócrates exclusivamente como porta-voz de Platão e desconsidera todas as demais personagens como relevantes para a interpretação do diálogo; enquanto outra que, por outro, apesar de reconhecer na fala de Sócrates uma forma de discursivo metodologicamente distinta das demais personagens, leva em conta o complexo de formulações sobre erōs desenvolvido ao longo da estrutura do diálogo pelas distintas personagens para interpretar o texto, de modo a postular uma relação dialética entre os distintos momentos do texto. Tendo em vista uma melhor compreensão das discussões historiográficas acerca do problema da relação entre os distintos discursos sobre Erōs no Banquete de Platão, esta comunicação visa pôr em discussão algumas leituras do século XX sobre a posição do método dialético na interpretação do Banquete, especificamente sobre sua posição em relação aos discursos no simpósio platônico.
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, discursos, método dialético.
ABSTRACT: Among the possible readings to interpret the relation between the discourses in Plato's Symposium, there is one that, on the one hand, considers Socrates exclusively as Plato's spokesman and plays down all of the remaining characters as irrelevant to the interpretation of the dialogue; while there is another that, on the other hand, although recognising in Socrates' speech a discourse methodologically different from the other characters, takes into account to the dialogue's interpretation the framework of formulations about erōs developed along the dialogue's structure by the many characters. In order to better understand the historiographic discussions about the problem of the relationship between the many discourses on Erōs in Plato's Symposium, this paper aims to discuss some of the readings during the twentieth century on the position of the dialectical method to the interpretation of the Symposium, specially on its position in relation to the speeches at the platonic symposium.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, speeches, dialectical method.
Comunicação: XVIII Semana de Filosofia, Universidade Mackenzie, 2017
RESUMO: Nos Ensaios, Montaigne apresenta-nos ‘opiniões’ com um caráter epistemológico muito modes... more RESUMO: Nos Ensaios, Montaigne apresenta-nos ‘opiniões’ com um caráter epistemológico muito modesto. Essa postura cética possui uma peculiaridade que precisa ser levada em consideração na leitura de seus textos, para que seja possível compreender o sentido de muitas passagens presentes nos Ensaios, como, no caso da presente comunicação, as reflexões sobre a morte no ensaio I.20 e suas implicações metafísicas. Por essa razão, o objetivo desta comunicação é analisar como Montaigne lida com o conhecimento e com a verdade, evidenciando sua proximidade e seu distanciamento com a Antiguidade, a fim de compreendermos como este filósofo entende a morte e se tal concepção é fundada numa metafísica com influências órficas-pitagóricas-platônicas ou se possui um caráter fundamentalmente cético.
Palavras-chave: Montaigne, morte, ceticismo, metafísica
ABSTRACT: In his Essays, Montaigne presents us his 'opinions' with a very modest epistemological character. This skeptical stance has a peculiarity that needs to be taken into account when reading his texts, so that it is possible to understand the meaning of many passages within the Essays, such as, in the case of this paper, the reflections on death in essay I.20 and their metaphysical implications. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to analyse how Montaigne deals with knowledge and with truth, highlighting his proximity and his detachment from Antiquity, in order to understand how this philosopher views death and if whether such a concept is based on a metaphysics with orphic-pythagoric-platonic influences or if it has a fundamentally skeptical character.
Keywords: Montaigne, death, skepticism, metaphysics
Comunicação: III Simpósio do grupo de pesquisa DELPHOS, Filosofia e religião na Grécia Antiga, 2017
RESUMO: Platão ressignifica a finalidade e os métodos da astronomia antiga, cuja finalidade diz r... more RESUMO: Platão ressignifica a finalidade e os métodos da astronomia antiga, cuja finalidade diz respeito à instrumentalização de artes como a navegação e a agricultura e cujos métodos fundam-se na observação. Em Platão a busca pela verdade no inteligível e suprassensível das Formas não é realizada pela observação dos astros e corpos celestes característica da astronomia antiga. Para compreender a astronomia desenvolvida nos Diálogos, é necessário dissociá-la da astronomia antiga e do uso dos sentidos para compreender os céus. Isto posto, o objetivo desta comunicação é compreender o lugar da astronomia na filosofia de Platão, tendo por base os diálogos República e Timeu.
Palavras-chave: Platão, astronomia, República, Timeu
ABSTRACT: Plato reframes the purpose and methods of ancient astronomy, whose purpose concerns the instrumentalization of arts such as navigation and agriculture, and whose methods are based on observation. In Plato the search for knowledge in the intelligible and supersensible of the Forms is not accomplished by observing the stars and celestial bodies characteristic of ancient astronomy. To understand the astronomy developed in the dialogues, it is necessary to dissociate it from ancient astronomy and from the use of the senses to comprehend the heavens. That said, the aim of this paper is to understand the place of astronomy in Plato's philosophy, through the dialogues Republic and Timeaus.
Keywords: Plato, astronomy, Republic, Timeaus
Comunicação: minicurso Bioetica, Filosofia y Biotecnología, Universidad de Concepción, 2016
RESUMO: o surgimento de novas tecnologias é acompanhado pela promessa da melhora de nossas vidas.... more RESUMO: o surgimento de novas tecnologias é acompanhado pela promessa da melhora de nossas vidas. No entanto, a velocidade com que são desenvolvidas e imediatamente introduzidas em nossas vidas dificulta a percepção de suas consequências e seus riscos à vida humana. Com efeito, não podemos mais esperar novas tecnologias tornarem-se atuais e concretas no nosso cotidiano para refletirmos sobre suas implicações, seus efeitos, seus perigos e seus benefícios. É necessário refletir filosoficamente sobre o que ainda não aconteceu e especular sobre possíveis implicações daquilo que pode, ou não, acontecer. Nesse sentido, o objetivo dessa comunicação é refletir sobre algumas implicações do uso de neurotecnologias, as substâncias psicoativas nootrópicas, para a melhora do desempenho de estudantes e pesquisadores no ambiente acadêmico.
Palavras-chave: biotecnologia, bioética, nootrópicos, academia
ABSTRACT: the emergence of new technologies comes along with the promise of improving our lives. However, the speed with which they are developed and immediately introduced in our lives makes it difficult to realize their consequences and risks to human life. Indeed, we can no longer wait for new technologies to become usual in our daily life to think about their implication, their effects, their danger and their benefits. It is necessary to reflect philosophically on what has not yet happened and speculate on possible implications of what may or may not happen. In this sense, the goal of this paper is to reflect on some implications of the use of neurotechnologies, the nootropic psychoactive substances, to improve the performance of students and scholars in the academic environment.
Keywords: biotechnology, bioethics, nootropics, academy
Comunicação: I Congresso Internacional de Ciências da Religião, Religião: Artes e Vozes, 2016
RESUMO: No Diálogo Banquete, Platão apresenta uma ascensão em direção da espiritualização: por me... more RESUMO: No Diálogo Banquete, Platão apresenta uma ascensão em direção da espiritualização: por meio de um método adequado, é possível afastar-se do corpóreo e aproximar-se do espiritual. Tanto a estrutura do diálogo quanto a fala de Sócrates e Diotima parecem refletir essa subida em direção do divino. Por meio de uma análise tanto da estrutura dialética do Banquete quanto da fala de Sócrates-Diotima, esta comunicação tem por objetivo compreender a função do exercício erótico em conjunto com o dialético na articulação do filósofo à dimensão divina das Formas.
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, dialética, divino
ABSTRACT: In Plato's Symposium, this philosopher features an ascension towards human spiritualisation: by means of a suitable method, it's possible to distance oneself from the corporeal and reach the spiritual. The structure of the dialogue as well as Socrates' speech seem to reflect the rise toward the divine. Taking into account both the dialectical structure of Plato's Symposium and Socrates' speech, this paper seeks to comprehend the function of the erotics together with the dialectics to the articulation of the philosopher with the divine dimension of the Forms.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, dialectics, divine
Comunicação: II Simpósio Internacional do grupo de pesquisa DELPHOS, Filosofia e religião na Grécia Antiga, 2016
RESUMO: Nos diálogos Fédon, Fedro, República e Banquete, aquilo que se chama de 'platonismo cláss... more RESUMO: Nos diálogos Fédon, Fedro, República e Banquete, aquilo que se chama de 'platonismo clássico', há o desenvolvimento de concepções centrais de Ser e Saber. Formas, fenômenos, alma e corpo estabelecem uma relação estreita no processo de conhecimento do filósofo. Em meio a tantas noções que figuram nestes diálogos, como Formas, imortalidade, alma, reminiscência e dialética, parece haver um abismo entre o homem que esquece e a realidade a ser conhecida. Essa comunicação tem por objetivo estabelecer uma leitura em conjunto destes quatro diálogos. Numa aproximação pela temática ontoepistemológica, Erōs é identificado com o elemento unificador no processo de conhecimento, capaz de estreitar a distância entre alma-corpo e Formas-fenômenos.
Palavras-chave: Ser, Saber, Erōs, ontoepistemologia.
Abstract: Being and Knowledge, key concepts in Plato's thought, are developed in the Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic and Symposium, dialogues part of the so-called 'classic platonism'. Forms, sensible particulars, soul and body establish a close relation in the philosopher's acquisition of knowledge. Amongst so many concepts that feature in those dialogues, such as Forms, immortality, soul, reminiscence and dialectics, a gap seems to emerge between the man that forgets and the reality to be conceived. This paper aims to establish a reading that takes into account all of those dialogues together. Based on the onto-epistemology proximity of the four dialogues, Erōs is identified as the unifying element within the process of acquisition of knowledge, able to close the gap between body-soul and Forms-sensibles.
Keywords: Being, Knowledge, Erōs, onto-epistemology.
Comunicação: XVI Semana de Filosofia, Universidade Mackenzie, 2015
RESUMO: na República de Platão há reflexões acerca da vida na cidade e sobre o papel de cada indi... more RESUMO: na República de Platão há reflexões acerca da vida na cidade e sobre o papel de cada indivíduo para a busca do bem estar coletivo. Embora alguns intérpretes considerem o papel do filósofo estritamente contemplativo e dissociado da vida prática, há referentes textuais para interpretar a preocupação última do filósofo como representado neste diálogo como a unidade na cidade. Tal unidade pressupõe um conhecimento adequado, capaz de proporcionar ao governante os meios necessários para assegurar o bem estar do todo. E este conhecimento, por sua vez, pressupõe uma unidade na própria constituição anímica do governante, para que este seja capaz de obtê-lo adequadamente. Isto posto, o objetivo desta comunicação é, por meio dos livros centrais da República, traçar um percurso capaz de sustentar a interpretação de que, por um lado, o governo da cidade pelo filósofo é necessário e possui uma justificação metafísica e, por outro, a finalidade de tal empreendimento não é meramente contemplativa, mas sobretudo prática.
Palavras chave: Platão, República, cidade, unidade.
ABSTRACT: In Plato's Republic there are thoughts regarding the life in the city as well as about the role that each individual has to play to assegure the welfare of the group. Although some interpreters consider the role of the philosopher as strictly contemplative and not concerned with the practical life, there are evidences in the text that allow us to read the unity in the city as the main goal of the philosopher. Such unity presupposes a suitable knowledge, able to provide to the governor the means to achieve the welfare of the city. And this knowledge, on the other hand, presupposes a unity within the very nature of his soul, so that he is able to grasp it. That said, the purpose of this communication is to trace a path through the central books of the Republic, in order to find in the very text arguments capable of sustaining the reading that, on the one hand, considers the philosopher must govern the city because of a metaphysical cause and, on the other hand, the goal of such undertaking is not merely contemplative, but above all else a practical endeavour.
Keywords: Plato, Republic, city, unity.
Papers by Andre da Paz
O que nos faz pensar 30, No. 51, ISSN 0104-6675, 2023
The purpose of this paper is to formulate a few preliminary questions on the issue of initiation ... more The purpose of this paper is to formulate a few preliminary questions on the issue of initiation in both the Eleusinian Mysteries and Plato's Symposium, with the notion of transposition as a basis for our work. We attempt to identify a few elements of the Eleusinian Mysteries that have supposedly been transposed to the dialogue between the 'young Socrates' and Diotima. The paper is divided into two central parts: the first, and the longest, analyses what initiation may have been in the Eleusinian Mysteries to gain a better understanding of the Eleusinian initiation and what transposition this initiation may have carried on to the case of the 'young Socrates'. The second focuses on Plato's Symposium, trying to identify signs and hints of elements from the Eleusinian Mysteries. The central focus is on the transposition of 'vision', to formulate our hypothesis that there are transpositions made by Plato from the Eleusinian Mysteries. In other words, the focus of this paper is mainly on the transposition of the motif of vision supposedly made by Plato from the Eleusinian Mysteries in the dialogue between the 'young Socrates' and Diotima.
Hypnos, v. 46, ISSN 1413-9138, 2021
RESUMO: Defendemos neste artigo que o imaginário da tríade Diotima-Sócrates-Alcibíades pode ser i... more RESUMO: Defendemos neste artigo que o imaginário da tríade Diotima-Sócrates-Alcibíades pode ser interpretado como uma representação e uma ressignificação do imaginário mistérico realizadas no Banquete de Platão. Para tal, recorremos a algumas imagens presentes neste diálogo que parecem refletir elementos da religiosidade grega marginal, detendo-nos em alguns dos elementos que constituem o imaginário dos Mistérios no período de Platão, bem como algumas das idiossincrasias da figura histórica de Alcibíades, sobretudo o que diz respeito às controvérsias em relação aos Mistérios de Elêusis. Apontamos, assim, possíveis ecos do imaginário histórico dos Mistérios no imaginário dramático do que chamamos de ‘Mistérios dialéticos’. Nosso objetivo é refletir sobre as consequências de levarmos em consideração tais representações e ressignificações dos Mistérios neste diálogo na interpretação de Eros, da atividade dialética e da experiência da verdade: a dialética, Eros e a busca pela verdade seriam representadas neste diálogo como experiências inefáveis que não se apreendem pelo discurso, impossíveis de serem ensinadas ou reveladas justamente por serem experiências e, por isso, pressuporiam ser experienciadas pelos ‘iniciados’ nos ‘Mistérios dialéticos’. A própria dramaticidade do diálogo parece apontar para esta experiência: os distintos momentos na relação de teses antagônicas sobre Eros refletiriam o caráter dinâmico, processual e gradual, fundamentalmente prático e sempre constante da experiência dos Mistérios Dialéticos.
Palavras-chave: Platão; Banquete; Mistérios; dialética.
ABSTRACT: In this paper we argue that the imagery of the Diotima-Socrates-Alcibiades triad could be read as a representation and a re-signification of the imagery of the Mysteries carried out in Plato's Symposium. For that, we will need to resort to some images present in this dialogue that seem to reflect elements of marginal Greek religiosity, briefly dwelling on some of the elements that constitute the imagery of the Mysteries in Plato's time, as well as on some of the idiosyncrasies of the historical Alcibiades, especially with regard to the controversies concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries. Thus, we point out possible echoes of the historical imagery of the Mysteries in the dramatic imagery of what we call ‘Dialectical Mysteries’. Our aim is to reflect on the consequences of taking into account such representations and re-significations of the Mysteries in this dialogue in the interpretation of Eros, of dialectics and of the experience of truth: dialectics, Eros and the search for truth are represented in this dialogue as ineffable experiences that are not apprehended by discourse, impossible to be taught or revealed precisely because they are experiences and, therefore, they would presuppose to be experienced by the 'initiates' in the 'Dialectical Mysteries'. The dialogue’s own drama seems to point towards such experience: the different moments in the relation of antagonistic theses about Eros reflect the dynamic, procedural, gradual, fundamentally practical, and always constant character of the experience of the Dialectical Mysteries.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, Mysteries, dialectics
Prometheus, n. 35 - E-ISSN 2176-5960, 2021
RESUMO: Neste artigo analisaremos a analogia do uso dos nomes erōs-poiēsis realizada pela persona... more RESUMO: Neste artigo analisaremos a analogia do uso dos nomes erōs-poiēsis realizada pela personagem Diotima em seu diálogo com a personagem do jovem Sócrates (205a-206a) no Banquete de Platão. Nesta analogia, Diotima analisa o uso do nome erōs tanto enquanto uma espécie particular de ‘desejo’ quanto enquanto o gênero geral que envolve todas as espécies particulares de ‘desejo’. Nosso estudo tem por objetivo compreender as consequências de lermos essa passagem em relação aos discursos dos cinco primeiro simposiastas, de modo a considerá-los como ao mesmo tempo discursos sobre aquilo que é e não é, ou seja, discursos simultaneamente verdadeiros, por falarem sobre características de Erōs no âmbito da espécie particular, e falsos, por tomarem tal parte (espécie) pelo todo (gênero). Neste momento do diálogo (205a-206a) haveria uma guinada no nível discursivo levada a efeito pela personagem Diotima, cuja preocupação metodológica em visar o mais geral leva-a a conduzir o jovem Sócrates em direção de formulações cada vez mais gerais no discurso, em detrimento às formulações particulares realizadas até então pelos demais simposiastas. Esses discursos levaram a efeito opiniões contraditórias não fundamentadas por um discurso adequado, sendo, portanto, aspectos particulares e insuficientes à apreensão do objeto buscado pela atividade dialética. Para ilustrar essa possibilidade de leitura, buscaremos evidenciar como os momentos na fala de Diotima posteriores à analogia erōs-poiēsis poderiam ser lidos como a identificação das insuficiências dos discursos precedentes, de modo a negá-los por meio de subsunções, nomeadamente, negações que metodologicamente mantêm elementos a serem ressignificados num discurso mais generalizante, cuja finalidade seria a verdade.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Diotima. Discursos. Dialética. Banquete.
ABSTRACT: In this article we will analyze the analogy of use of the names erōs-poiēsis developed by Diotima in her dialogue with the young Socrates (205a-206a) in Plato’s Symposium. In this analogy, Diotima analyzes the use of the name erōs as both a particular kind of ‘desire’, as well as the general genre that involves all the particular species of ‘desire’. This study aims to understand the consequences of reading this passage in relation to the speeches of the first five symposiasts, considering them as at the same time speeches about what is and about what is not, that is, simultaneously true speeches, as they speak about Erōs features within a particular genre, and false, for taking the part (species) for the whole (genus). At this moment in the dialogue (205a-206a) there would be a discursive level shift made by the character Diotima, whose methodological goal with aiming at the more general leads her to guide the young Socrates towards ever more general formulations in the discourse, instead of the particularizations carried out so far in the dialogue by the other symposiasts. These speeches led to contradictory opinions not supported by an adequate discourse, thus being particular and insufficient aspects to the apprehension of the object sought by the dialectical activity. To illustrate this interpretation, we will seek to highlight how the moments in Diotima’s speech after the erōs-poiēsis analogy could be read as the identification of the insufficiencies of the preceding speeches, so as to deny them by means of subsumptions, namely, negations that methodologically maintain elements to be re-signified in a more generalizing discourse whose purpose is seeking the truth.
KEYWORDS: Diotima. Speeches. Dialectics. Symposium.
Book Chapter by Andre da Paz
Filosofía y Religión en la Grecia Antigua, 2024
This chapter suggests that the initial setting permeating Thrasymachus’ confrontation with Socrat... more This chapter suggests that the initial setting permeating Thrasymachus’ confrontation with Socrates can provide compelling elements for the interpretation of the Republic. What is called the ‘initial setting’ is here proposed as Plato’s reception and transposition of the Athenian politics portrayed at the beginning of Book I, particularly the conflicting interests embedded in the historical passage from the fifth to the fourth centuries BCE. This chapter will indicate a possible embodiment of this initial setting in the narrative and the characters’ features. Moreover, these elements may have played a role in the Athenian audience in the fourth century BCE, the ones that could recognise in the first book of the Republic much of what had befallen Athens. Then, the analysis turns to Thrasymachus’ portrayal as a possible metaphor for an untamed wolf. It will be argued that such elements can contribute to interpreting this encounter as the introduction to the taming of a wolf, which may reflect a step on the Platonic journey in the Republic. This image of taming may point to the restraint of dangerous motivations, which are appropriately reoriented through philosophy, even the vicious motivations towards tyranny. Furthermore, this chapter does not examine the characters’ arguments.2 Instead, its focus is centred on discussing the portrayal of the taming of a wolf during an initial journey of descent undertaken by Socrates into what resembles the underworld of the Athenian dead politics
Capítulo: "Ética no tempo dos gregos: a arte do bem viver", Jan 2018
Neste capítulo de livro, cujo objetivo é desenvolver um percurso introdutório nas linhas mestras ... more Neste capítulo de livro, cujo objetivo é desenvolver um percurso introdutório nas linhas mestras da reflexão ética grega, pontuamos algumas reflexões presentes nos Diálogos de Platão, bem como nos primeiros livros da Ética a Nicômaco de Aristóteles. Consideramos estes dois momentos como fundamentais ao desenvolvimento da reflexão sobre a felicidade e sobre a vida bem vivida no Período Clássico, pilares do pensamento ético grego, a partir dos quais o leitor poderá ser introduzido em algumas questões deste campo da filosofia.
M.D. by Andre da Paz
Dissertação de Mestrado, Universidade de Brasília, 2019
RESUMO: objeto de leitura e interpretação desde o Período Clássico, o Banquete em nosso tempo pos... more RESUMO: objeto de leitura e interpretação desde o Período Clássico, o Banquete em nosso tempo possui alguns modelos interpretativos no que diz respeito à relação entre os discursos dos simposiastas Fedro, Pausânias, Erixímaco, Aristófanes, Agatão e Sócrates, bem como da personagem convidada a participar dos discursos, Diotima, e aquele que invade a reunião, Alcibíades. Escolhemos para tomar corpo em nossa análise algumas leituras que, por um lado, desvalorizam para a interpretação e compreensão do texto os discursos anteriores ao de Sócrates, de modo que sua relação com restante do texto seria de excludência, e outras que, por outro, valorizam a forma e o conteúdo destes discursos, de modo a considerá-los necessários à compreensão do diálogo como um todo. Essa discussão historiográfica tem por objetivo possibilitar uma análise mais abrangente das relações metodológicas entre todos os discursos, levando em consideração suas permanências, suas rupturas, suas aproximações e seus distanciamentos, tanto no que diz respeito à relação dos cinco primeiros discursos entre si quanto em relação ao restante do diálogo
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, discursos, método dialético
ABSTRACT: being read and studied since the Classical Period, Plato’s Symposium currently holds a few readings concerning the relation between the speeches made by the symposiasts Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon and Socrates, as well Diotima, invited by Socrates to partake in the speeches, and Alcibiades, the one that invades the meeting. We have chosen a few readings that, on the one hand, devalue all the speeches but Socrates’ to the understanding of the dialogue, insofar as their relation would be of exclusiveness, and others that, on the other hand, value both the content and form of said speeches, taking them as fundamental to the proper understanding of the dialogue. This historiographic debate seeks to ground an analysis of the methodological relations between all of the discourses, taking into account their continuities and ruptures, similarities and differences, both among themselves as well as with the remainder of this dialogue.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, speeches, dialectical method.
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P.h.D. by Andre da Paz
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, Mistérios, dialética
ABSTRACT: In this paper we draw the first lines concerning the preliminary views on how the imagery of the Diotima-Socrates-Alcibiades triad could be read as a representation and a re-signification of the imagery of the Mysteries carried out in Plato's Symposium. For that, we will need to resort to some images present in this dialogue that seem to reflect elements of marginal Greek religiosity. We intend to make a very brief discussion with the historiography of Ancient religion and we will briefly dwell on some of the elements that constitute the imagery of the Mysteries in Plato's time, as well as we will briefly comment on some of the idiosyncrasies of the historical Alcibiades, especially with regard to the controversies concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries, in order to point out possible echoes of the historical imagery of the Mysteries in the dramatic imagery of what we call ‘Dialectical Mysteries’. Our aim is to reflect on the consequences of taking into account such representations and re-significations of the Mysteries in this dialogue in the interpretation of Erōs, of dialectics and of the experience of truth. Our 'proto-thesis' concerns dialectics, Erōs and the search for truth: they would be represented in this dialogue as ineffable experiences that are not apprehended by discourse, impossible to be taught or revealed precisely because they are experiences and, therefore, they would presuppose to be experienced by the 'initiates' in the 'Dialectical Mysteries'. In this reading, the drama of the dialogue could be taken into account for a globalizing interpretation of Plato's Symposium, that is, the different moments in the relation of antagonistic theses about Erōs would reflect the dynamic, procedural, gradual, fundamentally practical, and always constant character of the experience of the Dialectical Mysteries.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, Mysteries, dialectics
Conference Presentations by Andre da Paz
Palavras-chave: Platão; Banquete; método dialético; Erōs.
ABSTRACT: In this paper we seek to analyse the hypothesis that Plato employs the dialectical method within the Symposium structure to give life to the logical-dramatical movement with which the notion of Erōs and its position in the search for knowledge are developed in this dialogue. Such logical-dialectical movement would develop and present Erōs along the Symposium by means of a gradual process structurally built along the symposiasts’ speeches within the dramatic frame of the text. In other words, the dialectical method would build the body and soul of this dialogue, i.e., it is the medium that progressively builds up this metaphysical element from the very first logos to the last one, presenting us their development through a gradual process of exposition – and, as we hope to highlight, also the gradual process of seeking the truth.
Keywords: Plato; Plato's Symposium; dialectical method; Erōs.
Palavras-Chave: Platão, Banquete, Erixímaco, dialética
ABSTRACT: Eryximachus, from the beginning of his speech in Plato's Symposium (Smp. 186a3), makes it clear that the soul will not be a protagonist in his speech about Erōs. He develops a materialistic discourse, whose basis is his own technē, medicine. Thus, part of the historiography of the Symposium in the twentieth century sees Eryximachus as a caricature of the hippocratic corpus. However, since Edelstein there are attempts to resignify the place of Eryximachus' speech within the structure of Plato's Symposium. In this paper we will establish a discussion with readings that, on the one hand, plays down the speech of Eryximachus to the interpretation of the dialogue and others that, on the other hand, consider him relevant to the dialectical development of the Symposium, aiming to achieve a broader overview of the possible paths to read the speech of Eryximachus in this platonic dialogue.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, Eryximachus, dialectics
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, discursos, método dialético.
ABSTRACT: Among the possible readings to interpret the relation between the discourses in Plato's Symposium, there is one that, on the one hand, considers Socrates exclusively as Plato's spokesman and plays down all of the remaining characters as irrelevant to the interpretation of the dialogue; while there is another that, on the other hand, although recognising in Socrates' speech a discourse methodologically different from the other characters, takes into account to the dialogue's interpretation the framework of formulations about erōs developed along the dialogue's structure by the many characters. In order to better understand the historiographic discussions about the problem of the relationship between the many discourses on Erōs in Plato's Symposium, this paper aims to discuss some of the readings during the twentieth century on the position of the dialectical method to the interpretation of the Symposium, specially on its position in relation to the speeches at the platonic symposium.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, speeches, dialectical method.
Palavras-chave: Montaigne, morte, ceticismo, metafísica
ABSTRACT: In his Essays, Montaigne presents us his 'opinions' with a very modest epistemological character. This skeptical stance has a peculiarity that needs to be taken into account when reading his texts, so that it is possible to understand the meaning of many passages within the Essays, such as, in the case of this paper, the reflections on death in essay I.20 and their metaphysical implications. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to analyse how Montaigne deals with knowledge and with truth, highlighting his proximity and his detachment from Antiquity, in order to understand how this philosopher views death and if whether such a concept is based on a metaphysics with orphic-pythagoric-platonic influences or if it has a fundamentally skeptical character.
Keywords: Montaigne, death, skepticism, metaphysics
Palavras-chave: Platão, astronomia, República, Timeu
ABSTRACT: Plato reframes the purpose and methods of ancient astronomy, whose purpose concerns the instrumentalization of arts such as navigation and agriculture, and whose methods are based on observation. In Plato the search for knowledge in the intelligible and supersensible of the Forms is not accomplished by observing the stars and celestial bodies characteristic of ancient astronomy. To understand the astronomy developed in the dialogues, it is necessary to dissociate it from ancient astronomy and from the use of the senses to comprehend the heavens. That said, the aim of this paper is to understand the place of astronomy in Plato's philosophy, through the dialogues Republic and Timeaus.
Keywords: Plato, astronomy, Republic, Timeaus
Palavras-chave: biotecnologia, bioética, nootrópicos, academia
ABSTRACT: the emergence of new technologies comes along with the promise of improving our lives. However, the speed with which they are developed and immediately introduced in our lives makes it difficult to realize their consequences and risks to human life. Indeed, we can no longer wait for new technologies to become usual in our daily life to think about their implication, their effects, their danger and their benefits. It is necessary to reflect philosophically on what has not yet happened and speculate on possible implications of what may or may not happen. In this sense, the goal of this paper is to reflect on some implications of the use of neurotechnologies, the nootropic psychoactive substances, to improve the performance of students and scholars in the academic environment.
Keywords: biotechnology, bioethics, nootropics, academy
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, dialética, divino
ABSTRACT: In Plato's Symposium, this philosopher features an ascension towards human spiritualisation: by means of a suitable method, it's possible to distance oneself from the corporeal and reach the spiritual. The structure of the dialogue as well as Socrates' speech seem to reflect the rise toward the divine. Taking into account both the dialectical structure of Plato's Symposium and Socrates' speech, this paper seeks to comprehend the function of the erotics together with the dialectics to the articulation of the philosopher with the divine dimension of the Forms.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, dialectics, divine
Palavras-chave: Ser, Saber, Erōs, ontoepistemologia.
Abstract: Being and Knowledge, key concepts in Plato's thought, are developed in the Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic and Symposium, dialogues part of the so-called 'classic platonism'. Forms, sensible particulars, soul and body establish a close relation in the philosopher's acquisition of knowledge. Amongst so many concepts that feature in those dialogues, such as Forms, immortality, soul, reminiscence and dialectics, a gap seems to emerge between the man that forgets and the reality to be conceived. This paper aims to establish a reading that takes into account all of those dialogues together. Based on the onto-epistemology proximity of the four dialogues, Erōs is identified as the unifying element within the process of acquisition of knowledge, able to close the gap between body-soul and Forms-sensibles.
Keywords: Being, Knowledge, Erōs, onto-epistemology.
Palavras chave: Platão, República, cidade, unidade.
ABSTRACT: In Plato's Republic there are thoughts regarding the life in the city as well as about the role that each individual has to play to assegure the welfare of the group. Although some interpreters consider the role of the philosopher as strictly contemplative and not concerned with the practical life, there are evidences in the text that allow us to read the unity in the city as the main goal of the philosopher. Such unity presupposes a suitable knowledge, able to provide to the governor the means to achieve the welfare of the city. And this knowledge, on the other hand, presupposes a unity within the very nature of his soul, so that he is able to grasp it. That said, the purpose of this communication is to trace a path through the central books of the Republic, in order to find in the very text arguments capable of sustaining the reading that, on the one hand, considers the philosopher must govern the city because of a metaphysical cause and, on the other hand, the goal of such undertaking is not merely contemplative, but above all else a practical endeavour.
Keywords: Plato, Republic, city, unity.
Papers by Andre da Paz
Palavras-chave: Platão; Banquete; Mistérios; dialética.
ABSTRACT: In this paper we argue that the imagery of the Diotima-Socrates-Alcibiades triad could be read as a representation and a re-signification of the imagery of the Mysteries carried out in Plato's Symposium. For that, we will need to resort to some images present in this dialogue that seem to reflect elements of marginal Greek religiosity, briefly dwelling on some of the elements that constitute the imagery of the Mysteries in Plato's time, as well as on some of the idiosyncrasies of the historical Alcibiades, especially with regard to the controversies concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries. Thus, we point out possible echoes of the historical imagery of the Mysteries in the dramatic imagery of what we call ‘Dialectical Mysteries’. Our aim is to reflect on the consequences of taking into account such representations and re-significations of the Mysteries in this dialogue in the interpretation of Eros, of dialectics and of the experience of truth: dialectics, Eros and the search for truth are represented in this dialogue as ineffable experiences that are not apprehended by discourse, impossible to be taught or revealed precisely because they are experiences and, therefore, they would presuppose to be experienced by the 'initiates' in the 'Dialectical Mysteries'. The dialogue’s own drama seems to point towards such experience: the different moments in the relation of antagonistic theses about Eros reflect the dynamic, procedural, gradual, fundamentally practical, and always constant character of the experience of the Dialectical Mysteries.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, Mysteries, dialectics
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Diotima. Discursos. Dialética. Banquete.
ABSTRACT: In this article we will analyze the analogy of use of the names erōs-poiēsis developed by Diotima in her dialogue with the young Socrates (205a-206a) in Plato’s Symposium. In this analogy, Diotima analyzes the use of the name erōs as both a particular kind of ‘desire’, as well as the general genre that involves all the particular species of ‘desire’. This study aims to understand the consequences of reading this passage in relation to the speeches of the first five symposiasts, considering them as at the same time speeches about what is and about what is not, that is, simultaneously true speeches, as they speak about Erōs features within a particular genre, and false, for taking the part (species) for the whole (genus). At this moment in the dialogue (205a-206a) there would be a discursive level shift made by the character Diotima, whose methodological goal with aiming at the more general leads her to guide the young Socrates towards ever more general formulations in the discourse, instead of the particularizations carried out so far in the dialogue by the other symposiasts. These speeches led to contradictory opinions not supported by an adequate discourse, thus being particular and insufficient aspects to the apprehension of the object sought by the dialectical activity. To illustrate this interpretation, we will seek to highlight how the moments in Diotima’s speech after the erōs-poiēsis analogy could be read as the identification of the insufficiencies of the preceding speeches, so as to deny them by means of subsumptions, namely, negations that methodologically maintain elements to be re-signified in a more generalizing discourse whose purpose is seeking the truth.
KEYWORDS: Diotima. Speeches. Dialectics. Symposium.
Book Chapter by Andre da Paz
M.D. by Andre da Paz
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, discursos, método dialético
ABSTRACT: being read and studied since the Classical Period, Plato’s Symposium currently holds a few readings concerning the relation between the speeches made by the symposiasts Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon and Socrates, as well Diotima, invited by Socrates to partake in the speeches, and Alcibiades, the one that invades the meeting. We have chosen a few readings that, on the one hand, devalue all the speeches but Socrates’ to the understanding of the dialogue, insofar as their relation would be of exclusiveness, and others that, on the other hand, value both the content and form of said speeches, taking them as fundamental to the proper understanding of the dialogue. This historiographic debate seeks to ground an analysis of the methodological relations between all of the discourses, taking into account their continuities and ruptures, similarities and differences, both among themselves as well as with the remainder of this dialogue.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, speeches, dialectical method.
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, Mistérios, dialética
ABSTRACT: In this paper we draw the first lines concerning the preliminary views on how the imagery of the Diotima-Socrates-Alcibiades triad could be read as a representation and a re-signification of the imagery of the Mysteries carried out in Plato's Symposium. For that, we will need to resort to some images present in this dialogue that seem to reflect elements of marginal Greek religiosity. We intend to make a very brief discussion with the historiography of Ancient religion and we will briefly dwell on some of the elements that constitute the imagery of the Mysteries in Plato's time, as well as we will briefly comment on some of the idiosyncrasies of the historical Alcibiades, especially with regard to the controversies concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries, in order to point out possible echoes of the historical imagery of the Mysteries in the dramatic imagery of what we call ‘Dialectical Mysteries’. Our aim is to reflect on the consequences of taking into account such representations and re-significations of the Mysteries in this dialogue in the interpretation of Erōs, of dialectics and of the experience of truth. Our 'proto-thesis' concerns dialectics, Erōs and the search for truth: they would be represented in this dialogue as ineffable experiences that are not apprehended by discourse, impossible to be taught or revealed precisely because they are experiences and, therefore, they would presuppose to be experienced by the 'initiates' in the 'Dialectical Mysteries'. In this reading, the drama of the dialogue could be taken into account for a globalizing interpretation of Plato's Symposium, that is, the different moments in the relation of antagonistic theses about Erōs would reflect the dynamic, procedural, gradual, fundamentally practical, and always constant character of the experience of the Dialectical Mysteries.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, Mysteries, dialectics
Palavras-chave: Platão; Banquete; método dialético; Erōs.
ABSTRACT: In this paper we seek to analyse the hypothesis that Plato employs the dialectical method within the Symposium structure to give life to the logical-dramatical movement with which the notion of Erōs and its position in the search for knowledge are developed in this dialogue. Such logical-dialectical movement would develop and present Erōs along the Symposium by means of a gradual process structurally built along the symposiasts’ speeches within the dramatic frame of the text. In other words, the dialectical method would build the body and soul of this dialogue, i.e., it is the medium that progressively builds up this metaphysical element from the very first logos to the last one, presenting us their development through a gradual process of exposition – and, as we hope to highlight, also the gradual process of seeking the truth.
Keywords: Plato; Plato's Symposium; dialectical method; Erōs.
Palavras-Chave: Platão, Banquete, Erixímaco, dialética
ABSTRACT: Eryximachus, from the beginning of his speech in Plato's Symposium (Smp. 186a3), makes it clear that the soul will not be a protagonist in his speech about Erōs. He develops a materialistic discourse, whose basis is his own technē, medicine. Thus, part of the historiography of the Symposium in the twentieth century sees Eryximachus as a caricature of the hippocratic corpus. However, since Edelstein there are attempts to resignify the place of Eryximachus' speech within the structure of Plato's Symposium. In this paper we will establish a discussion with readings that, on the one hand, plays down the speech of Eryximachus to the interpretation of the dialogue and others that, on the other hand, consider him relevant to the dialectical development of the Symposium, aiming to achieve a broader overview of the possible paths to read the speech of Eryximachus in this platonic dialogue.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, Eryximachus, dialectics
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, discursos, método dialético.
ABSTRACT: Among the possible readings to interpret the relation between the discourses in Plato's Symposium, there is one that, on the one hand, considers Socrates exclusively as Plato's spokesman and plays down all of the remaining characters as irrelevant to the interpretation of the dialogue; while there is another that, on the other hand, although recognising in Socrates' speech a discourse methodologically different from the other characters, takes into account to the dialogue's interpretation the framework of formulations about erōs developed along the dialogue's structure by the many characters. In order to better understand the historiographic discussions about the problem of the relationship between the many discourses on Erōs in Plato's Symposium, this paper aims to discuss some of the readings during the twentieth century on the position of the dialectical method to the interpretation of the Symposium, specially on its position in relation to the speeches at the platonic symposium.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, speeches, dialectical method.
Palavras-chave: Montaigne, morte, ceticismo, metafísica
ABSTRACT: In his Essays, Montaigne presents us his 'opinions' with a very modest epistemological character. This skeptical stance has a peculiarity that needs to be taken into account when reading his texts, so that it is possible to understand the meaning of many passages within the Essays, such as, in the case of this paper, the reflections on death in essay I.20 and their metaphysical implications. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to analyse how Montaigne deals with knowledge and with truth, highlighting his proximity and his detachment from Antiquity, in order to understand how this philosopher views death and if whether such a concept is based on a metaphysics with orphic-pythagoric-platonic influences or if it has a fundamentally skeptical character.
Keywords: Montaigne, death, skepticism, metaphysics
Palavras-chave: Platão, astronomia, República, Timeu
ABSTRACT: Plato reframes the purpose and methods of ancient astronomy, whose purpose concerns the instrumentalization of arts such as navigation and agriculture, and whose methods are based on observation. In Plato the search for knowledge in the intelligible and supersensible of the Forms is not accomplished by observing the stars and celestial bodies characteristic of ancient astronomy. To understand the astronomy developed in the dialogues, it is necessary to dissociate it from ancient astronomy and from the use of the senses to comprehend the heavens. That said, the aim of this paper is to understand the place of astronomy in Plato's philosophy, through the dialogues Republic and Timeaus.
Keywords: Plato, astronomy, Republic, Timeaus
Palavras-chave: biotecnologia, bioética, nootrópicos, academia
ABSTRACT: the emergence of new technologies comes along with the promise of improving our lives. However, the speed with which they are developed and immediately introduced in our lives makes it difficult to realize their consequences and risks to human life. Indeed, we can no longer wait for new technologies to become usual in our daily life to think about their implication, their effects, their danger and their benefits. It is necessary to reflect philosophically on what has not yet happened and speculate on possible implications of what may or may not happen. In this sense, the goal of this paper is to reflect on some implications of the use of neurotechnologies, the nootropic psychoactive substances, to improve the performance of students and scholars in the academic environment.
Keywords: biotechnology, bioethics, nootropics, academy
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, dialética, divino
ABSTRACT: In Plato's Symposium, this philosopher features an ascension towards human spiritualisation: by means of a suitable method, it's possible to distance oneself from the corporeal and reach the spiritual. The structure of the dialogue as well as Socrates' speech seem to reflect the rise toward the divine. Taking into account both the dialectical structure of Plato's Symposium and Socrates' speech, this paper seeks to comprehend the function of the erotics together with the dialectics to the articulation of the philosopher with the divine dimension of the Forms.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, dialectics, divine
Palavras-chave: Ser, Saber, Erōs, ontoepistemologia.
Abstract: Being and Knowledge, key concepts in Plato's thought, are developed in the Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic and Symposium, dialogues part of the so-called 'classic platonism'. Forms, sensible particulars, soul and body establish a close relation in the philosopher's acquisition of knowledge. Amongst so many concepts that feature in those dialogues, such as Forms, immortality, soul, reminiscence and dialectics, a gap seems to emerge between the man that forgets and the reality to be conceived. This paper aims to establish a reading that takes into account all of those dialogues together. Based on the onto-epistemology proximity of the four dialogues, Erōs is identified as the unifying element within the process of acquisition of knowledge, able to close the gap between body-soul and Forms-sensibles.
Keywords: Being, Knowledge, Erōs, onto-epistemology.
Palavras chave: Platão, República, cidade, unidade.
ABSTRACT: In Plato's Republic there are thoughts regarding the life in the city as well as about the role that each individual has to play to assegure the welfare of the group. Although some interpreters consider the role of the philosopher as strictly contemplative and not concerned with the practical life, there are evidences in the text that allow us to read the unity in the city as the main goal of the philosopher. Such unity presupposes a suitable knowledge, able to provide to the governor the means to achieve the welfare of the city. And this knowledge, on the other hand, presupposes a unity within the very nature of his soul, so that he is able to grasp it. That said, the purpose of this communication is to trace a path through the central books of the Republic, in order to find in the very text arguments capable of sustaining the reading that, on the one hand, considers the philosopher must govern the city because of a metaphysical cause and, on the other hand, the goal of such undertaking is not merely contemplative, but above all else a practical endeavour.
Keywords: Plato, Republic, city, unity.
Palavras-chave: Platão; Banquete; Mistérios; dialética.
ABSTRACT: In this paper we argue that the imagery of the Diotima-Socrates-Alcibiades triad could be read as a representation and a re-signification of the imagery of the Mysteries carried out in Plato's Symposium. For that, we will need to resort to some images present in this dialogue that seem to reflect elements of marginal Greek religiosity, briefly dwelling on some of the elements that constitute the imagery of the Mysteries in Plato's time, as well as on some of the idiosyncrasies of the historical Alcibiades, especially with regard to the controversies concerning the Eleusinian Mysteries. Thus, we point out possible echoes of the historical imagery of the Mysteries in the dramatic imagery of what we call ‘Dialectical Mysteries’. Our aim is to reflect on the consequences of taking into account such representations and re-significations of the Mysteries in this dialogue in the interpretation of Eros, of dialectics and of the experience of truth: dialectics, Eros and the search for truth are represented in this dialogue as ineffable experiences that are not apprehended by discourse, impossible to be taught or revealed precisely because they are experiences and, therefore, they would presuppose to be experienced by the 'initiates' in the 'Dialectical Mysteries'. The dialogue’s own drama seems to point towards such experience: the different moments in the relation of antagonistic theses about Eros reflect the dynamic, procedural, gradual, fundamentally practical, and always constant character of the experience of the Dialectical Mysteries.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, Mysteries, dialectics
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Diotima. Discursos. Dialética. Banquete.
ABSTRACT: In this article we will analyze the analogy of use of the names erōs-poiēsis developed by Diotima in her dialogue with the young Socrates (205a-206a) in Plato’s Symposium. In this analogy, Diotima analyzes the use of the name erōs as both a particular kind of ‘desire’, as well as the general genre that involves all the particular species of ‘desire’. This study aims to understand the consequences of reading this passage in relation to the speeches of the first five symposiasts, considering them as at the same time speeches about what is and about what is not, that is, simultaneously true speeches, as they speak about Erōs features within a particular genre, and false, for taking the part (species) for the whole (genus). At this moment in the dialogue (205a-206a) there would be a discursive level shift made by the character Diotima, whose methodological goal with aiming at the more general leads her to guide the young Socrates towards ever more general formulations in the discourse, instead of the particularizations carried out so far in the dialogue by the other symposiasts. These speeches led to contradictory opinions not supported by an adequate discourse, thus being particular and insufficient aspects to the apprehension of the object sought by the dialectical activity. To illustrate this interpretation, we will seek to highlight how the moments in Diotima’s speech after the erōs-poiēsis analogy could be read as the identification of the insufficiencies of the preceding speeches, so as to deny them by means of subsumptions, namely, negations that methodologically maintain elements to be re-signified in a more generalizing discourse whose purpose is seeking the truth.
KEYWORDS: Diotima. Speeches. Dialectics. Symposium.
Palavras-chave: Platão, Banquete, discursos, método dialético
ABSTRACT: being read and studied since the Classical Period, Plato’s Symposium currently holds a few readings concerning the relation between the speeches made by the symposiasts Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon and Socrates, as well Diotima, invited by Socrates to partake in the speeches, and Alcibiades, the one that invades the meeting. We have chosen a few readings that, on the one hand, devalue all the speeches but Socrates’ to the understanding of the dialogue, insofar as their relation would be of exclusiveness, and others that, on the other hand, value both the content and form of said speeches, taking them as fundamental to the proper understanding of the dialogue. This historiographic debate seeks to ground an analysis of the methodological relations between all of the discourses, taking into account their continuities and ruptures, similarities and differences, both among themselves as well as with the remainder of this dialogue.
Keywords: Plato, Plato's Symposium, speeches, dialectical method.
Palavras-chave: Eros, Ser, Saber.
ABSTRACT: This paper develops an explanation of the function of Eros, within Plato's ontoepistemology in the Middle Dialogues, as an intermediary metaphysical element that enables a link between Being and Knowledge. Focusing on Socrates-Diotima's speech on Symposium, this paper establishes a confluence between Eros and the main ontoepistemological theories of the dialogues Phaedo, Phaedrus and Republic. While taking into account the structural and methodological principles of the platonic text, this paper, on the one hand, outlines the main ontoepistemological theories of the Middle Dialogues and, on the other hand, then presents the establishment of Eros as a metaphysical theory within the structure of the dialog, analyzing each and all of the speeches that builds the internal moments of the development of the function of Eros up to the point of the comprehension of its essence. The analysis of the speech of Socrates-Diotima and its link with the ontoepistemology of the Middle Dialogues allows the comprehension of the function of Eros in Plato's ontoepistemology.
Key-words: Eros, Being, Knowledge
Palavras-chave: Hegel, arte, fotografia, estética
ABSTRACT: Hegel establishes, through his thought on art and its metaphysical purpose, a path that leads us from the first artistic representations of Western culture to the modern art of his time. In this period, Hegel sees the 'end of art' as the moment that the metaphysical purpose of art within the development of the Absolut Spirit is fulfilled and, henceforth, art becomes the actualisation of the unlimited freedom of the artist, no longer determined by the metaphysical purpose of the system of arts and hereafter free to realise the development of the spirit on any kind of particular art. This thought was the seed of contemporary art, whose adaptation of almost infinite possibilities of art forms to the content to be developed by the artist allows us to think of photography as art. Thus, in this paper we trace a path that goes from the philosophical grounding of Hegel's philosophy of art to his clash with Kant and with the modern thought, landing onto the system of arts and dealing with the principles of contemporary art. After that, we seek to root photography as art in Hegel's philosophy.
Keywords: Hegel, art, photography, aesthetics
Palavras-chave: Platão, arte, fotografia, estética
ABSTRACT: photography is one of the most fundamental language forms of our time. To think of it as art, we must reflect on what is art in our time. We propose to resort to philosophy and to aesthetics to better understand the relationship between sensation, imagination and understanding. We resorted to the thought of Plato, Kant and Hegel, in a kind of mental experiment in order to speculate a possible place for photography in the 'aesthetics' of those three philosophers, which are essential to any reflection on what is art in the history of Western culture. In this article we go through the basis of the concepts of reality, knowledge and sensation in Plato's dialogues, so that we can understand what is art in his thought and, therefore, the possible place of 'photography' in Plato's philosophy.
Keywords: Plato, art, photography, aesthetics
Palavras-chave: Kant, fotografia, arte, estética
ABSTRACT: aesthetics reachers its autonomy in Kant, as a reflection on sensations and their relationship with art, nature, beauty, and the sublime. In relation to beauty, the aesthetic experience happens in a play of imagination and understanding, without coercion of experience, morality or knowledge. Even today Kant influences contemporary aesthetics and art in our culture. In order to think of photography as art, we resorted to Kant and to the judgements of taste in the first system that organised the limits and the dimension of aesthetic experience, so that we could point his a priori principles the condition of possibilities of forms of art in his philosophy.
Keywords: Kant, photography, art, aesthetics
Palavras-chave: Warcraft, Resenha, Fantasia Fantástica, Filosofia
ABSTRACT: Jeff Grubb's The Last Guardian is probably the most philosophical narrative in the entire Warcraft universe. From start to finish, Jeff Grubb's characters reflect on reality, freedom and determinism, as well as on truth and illusion, throughout more than 300 pages.
Keywords: Warcraft, Review, Fantastic Fantasy, Philosophy
Palavras-Chave: Warcraft, Resenha, Fantasia Fantástica, Filosofia
ABSTRACT: Micky Neilson has written the sequel to Rise of the Horde, throughout a harrowing and revealing story, fertile ground for reflection: Unbroken. In Unbroken, suffering appears as the axis to the reflections of Nobundo, the protagonist of this story. Unbroken was prepared with ingredients suitable for us to think about way we deal with suffering, with social pressure and with the challenges we face dealing with failure in our lives.
Keywords: Warcraft, Review, Fantastic Fantasy, Philosophy
Palavras-chave: Warcraft, Resenha, Fantasia Fantástica, Filosofia
ABSTRACT: Cristie Golden's Rise of the Horde is a fantastic narrative in which issues as intolerance, hatred and prejudice, as well as democracy, freedom and power can lead us to reflect on our own position within society, as well as can help us reflect on the importance of critical thought in relation to political positioning.
Keywords: Warcraft, Review, Fantastic Fantasy, Philosophy
Palavras-chave: Fantasia Fantástica, fantasia, linguagem, narrativa
ABSTRACT: there are a multitude of stories with magical characters and enchantments, though all of such stories are not necessarily Fantastic Fantasy. That said, what makes the narratives in which these elements are developed be considered Fantastic Fantasy? What allows us to say that a narrative belongs to this form of language called Fantastic Fantasy? What, then, is Fantastic Fantasy? To answer these questions, we aim in this article, firstly, to clarify expressly and explicitly what is both, on the one hand, Fantasy and, on the other hand, Fantastic, so that we are able to define what Fantastic Fantasy is.
Keywords: Fantastic Fantasy, fantasy, language, narrative
Palavras-chave: Fantasia Fantástica, ontologia, realidade, linguagem
ABSTRACT: starting with the question 'is Fantastic Fantasy an escape from reality?' we briefly outline the so-called 'ontology' researches, as well as the principles of the cosmological thinking in Eastern though, in order to ground one of the most essential principles of Fantastic Fantasy: to establish a reality by means of their own cosmologies. In this paper we reflect on such principle of Fantastic Fantasy with the goal of distinguishing the end of this form of language in relation to the philosophical concepts of truth, reality and language.
Keywords: Fantastic Fantasy, ontology, reality, language