Agalma

Il desiderio non è una cosa semplice - ágalma Milano, Mimesis, pp. 221, € 13, In questo ben documentato volume, Fulvio Carmagnola − docente di Estetica presso l'Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca − propone alcune feconde declinazioni della nozione di ágalma. Il fi lo conduttore, come vedremo a breve, è rintracciabile negli studi di Lacan attorno a questa tematica nel Seminario VIII, senza per questo tralasciare altre importanti 'fi gure di ágalma' -come suggerisce lo stesso sottotitolo del libro. La questione centrale, scrive Carmagnola, è quella che sorge dall'intersezione tra l'immaginario e il desiderio, concetti in sé problematici ed enigmatici, che tuttavia, a causa delle caratteristiche della società postindustriale, hanno subito un processo di mercifi cazione e costrizione su cui occorre svolgere un lavoro di critica e rifl essione.

Trata o texto de aspectos relevantes acerca do nome das imagens na Antiguidade greco-romana. Assim observa como gregos e romanos associam o nome do tipo de imagem a uma prática plástica e/ou pictórica específica, tendo em vista processos elocutivos e invedivos das mesmas imagens. Assim a designação da espécie imagética mantém estreita reçào com o tipo de imagem produzida.

Plato's Symposium exposes the axial points of Eros. As Francalanci shows in her work Love, Speech, Truth: an interpretation of Plato's Symposium, the eulogies of Symposium are not conflicting. Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon and Diotima's speeches are versions of the same essence -this essence is called as agalma by Socrates and also by Lacan. According to the psychoanalyst the concept of agalma is also opportune to consider the event of desire. In Symposium, all the four eulogies mentioned comprehended as exposing Eros, actually, came out of the same enigma on which Lacan comments: the agalma happens in the middle of three perspectives. In other words, Eros requires three different aspects to show himself. Also according to Lacan, in the end of Symposium the way Eros is caused is a little more specific: it is caused by the agalma, that's the brightness in Alcibiades' words, and the desire of being seen by the Other, in lacanian interpretation. In the end of the commented dialogue, Alcibiades has a fit of jealousy but, according to Socrates, he has the desire of being seen by Agathon. We propose, then, to make a brief commentary on the function of the agalma in the event of Eros.

This article examines the well from which good learning, teaching, and research originate. It investigates how to perform these three aspects of academic practice well and to do it in a playful manner. Instead of repeating existing knowledge and scientific methods punctiliously, the playful academic experiences and presents knowledge in new or alternative ways. Playfulness more often results in discoveries and inventions that are otherwise unthinkable. Through an analysis of a selection of Plato's myths, allegories, and imagery, the article demonstrates how very complicated subject matters can be illustrated in a playful, synecdochic form, hereby making the unfathomable easier to approach and understand. Examining Plato's concept of 'agalma'-the beautiful ornament of wisdom-the article discusses how we can see academia as a jewellery box; or as a plaything. Agalma allows us to see learning, teaching, and research as an adventurous journey or as a playful labyrinth leading into all dimensions of being.

This paper looks at the way “euphrosynē” was instilled in ancient polis members in order to federate them around community-binding ideals, values and aspirations. Its point of departure is Gorgias’s comments in his “Encomium to Helen” on the “incantatory magic” administered by “meteorologists”, rhetoricians and philosophers. The case is made that Orpheus, the Sophists and Plato are the exemplars of these three kinds of magician. While all three had in common the goal of “bewitching” their respective publics’ into feeling “delight” (τέρψις) while doing what each enchanter wanted them to do, they were nevertheless antipodes apart when it came to the finalities sub-served by their incantations. This is so because each of them ascribed to irreconcilably opposed cosmopolitical paradigms. It was therefore inevitable that they should also differ as to the laws and customs (νόμοι καὶ νόμιμα) polis-members ought to observe to order their lives both publicly and in private. These three magicians also differed in the techniques of persuasion (πιθανουργία) they used to seduce their respective publics’ into compliance. For if all three depended on “pleasure” to “drug” community members into compliance, they disagreed on what pleasure should be taken to mean. Just as they diverged on how it ought to be administered, experienced and engineered into a resource for organising the polis and regulating the ethos of the people belonging to it. The paper concludes by asking if the discussed applications of Euphrosyne may not have valuable lessons to offer us on how to address our own Cosmopolitical crisis.


Subsection Headings

1. Introduction - Polis and ‘Pathos’?
2. Who were the Meteōrolόgoi in Gorgias’ Defence of Helen?
3. What Cosmopolitics and Parainetics were subserved by the “Magic” (ἐπῳδή) practiced by the inspired meteōrológos?
4. Eu-ph(e)ro-synē and Dikaiosynē
5. “Song” as a Community Normatising Resource
6. How to make a “sound statue” (ἀγάλμα φωνή) of théia dynamis
7. The Psychotropic effects of exposure to the Magic of θέσπις ἀοιδή
8. The Twilight of Orphic “Song culture” and the Emergence of the Sophistic paideía in the Classical Age
9. The insidious Societal and Political consequences of the Magic administered by Sophistic “ῥητορικὴ τέχνη”
10. Classical Philosophy’s – qualified – reinstatement Orphic Euphrosynē for Cosmopolitical and Parainetic End Uses
11. Socrates versus Marsyas – turning Euphrosynē into Sophrosynē
12. Concluding Remarks: What praxis of Euphrosynē for the Cosmopolitical crisis of nostrum aevum?

The notion of 'symbol' in Eriugena's writing is far from clear. It has an ambiguous semantic connection with other terms such as 'signification', 'figure', 'allegory', 'veil', 'agalma', 'form', 'shadow', 'mystery' and so on. This paper aims to explore into the origins of such a semantic ambiguity, already present in the texts of the pseudo-Dionysian corpus which Eriugena translated and commented upon. In the probable Neoplatonic sources of this corpus, the Greek term symbolon shares some aspects of its meaning with other words inherited from the ancient tradition, such as synthēma , eikōn , homoiotēs. Some of them, such as eikōn and homoiotēs, belong to the field of images and are associated with linguistic semantics in the Neoplatonic commentaries not only to Plato but also to Aristotle's logical works. Among the late ancient Neoplatonists, particular attention is paid to Proclus and to his use of the term agalma. In fact, the textual history of this word seems to be a privileged perspective from which to reconstruct the Neoplatonic semantic blending of symbol and image, as well as the main role played by linguistic issues in this conflation.

This article examines the well from which learning, teaching, and research originate. It investigates how to perform these three aspects of academic practice well and to do it in a playful manner. Instead of repeating existing knowledge and scientific methods punctiliously, the playful academic experiences and presents knowledge in new or alternative ways. Playfulness more often results in discoveries and inventions that are otherwise unthinkable.Through an analysis of a selection of Plato’s myths, allegories, and imagery, the article demonstrates how very complicated subject matters can be illustrated in a playful, synecdochic form, hereby making the unfathomable easier to approach and understand.Examining Plato’s concept of ‘agalma’ – the beautiful ornament of wisdom – the article discusses how we can see academia as a jewellery box, or as a plaything. Agalma allows us to see learning, teaching, and research as an adventurous journey or as a playful labyrinth leading into all dime...

Electronic reference:
Éveline Loucas-Durie, “Simulacre humain et offrande rituelle”, Kernos [Online], 1 | 1988, Online since 31 January 2011, connection on xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx . URL: http://journals.openedition.org/kernos/107; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/kernos.107

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