ibidem-Press, Stuttgart
Contents
Introduction: Philosophical Ideas
1 Plato’s Poetics: A Reexamination
2 Hegel’s Dialectic: A Reexamination
3 Vico’s Science: A Reexamination
4 Cassirer’s Symbol: A Reexamination
Afterword: On the Contemplative Life
Preface
There is a tradition that Plato placed a notice at the entrance to the Academy—the school he founded on the outskirts of Athens, in the park and gymnasium sacred to the hero Academus—that no one was to be admitted who had not studied mathematics, geometry in particular. To comprehend geometric forms requires the ability of thought to make objects out of itself. Diogenes Laertius, in his account of Plato’s doctrines, says that “the object of thought is something constant from which nothing is subtracted, to which nothing is added. This is the nature of the eternal things, the attribute of which is to be ever alike and the same.” Thought makes distinctions within itself for itself.
The language of ideas, like the language of mathematics, is the preserve of the mind. From mathematics the philosopher learns the power of coherence. Coherence is the hallmark of reason, the key to the life of the mind, to the art of contemplation. Without ideas as its guide language remains at the level of simple speech, conveying meanings of the moment that pass away when the conditions of the moment change. Ideas take shape in time but act as the means to suspend it. They offer a sense of permanence.
The life of ideas is their interpretation. The mind in possession of ideas has the propensity to restate them, to engage in their reexamination. It is the task of philosophy to so engage itself with those ideas it has taken up. The chapters that follow are four examples of the reexamination of such ideas. Plato’s poetics and Hegel’s dialectics have long histories of controversy regarding how best to interpret them. Vico’s conception of science and Cassirer’s conception of symbol have been considered from various viewpoints, but not as extensively as have the doctrines of Plato and Hegel. We have attached the word “reexamination” to each of these chapters. Our intention is to suggest that what is often thought of one of the main ideas of each of these thinkers can benefit from further consideration.
Our approach to the ideas of these philosophers is that of ars topica, not ars critica. We regard these ideas as places from which to think through the meaning of the love of wisdom. Ideas subjected to ars critica are of little use if not connected to the ars topica through which they originate. Ars topica depends upon ingenium, the ability to grasp similarity in dissimilars, which requires the metaphor. The metaphor comes from outside time and gives reason its starting points. In the pursuit of critical thinking it is easily forgotten as to how what is assessed has originally come before the mind. In topical thinking we are brought by memory to recover the origin points of thought. These mental places contain the ideas. Such ideas are the pleasure of the mind and the medium of human culture.
Ideas are good because they are good to think. Without ideas the mind remains an instrument. All ideas are philosophical in that they are the medium of wisdom. Philosophical ideas as distinguished from ideas as such are ideas carried to the highest level of generality. They are analogous to Aristotle’s categories. They are like those predicates that can be attached to any existent. Philosophical ideas reign over all that there is—the human, natural, and divine. Thought always requires a vision. It is the vision that carries it forward, that animates the ideas.
The great philosophers, and all who pursue true philosophy, attempt to think beyond their time, to grasp the universal. The lover of wisdom will look for the ideas in their works that illuminate themes of philosophia perennis—God, self, world, freedom, and associated topics. To think philosophically is to make distinctions. The reader of philosophical works must master the art of finding the ideas that are great and lasting within each work of philosophy. They are the basis from which philosophy goes forth.
It is our intention that these pages should be a pleasure to read. They were a pleasure to write. What Horace, in Ars Poetica, says of the purpose of poetry, can be said of the purpose of philosophy: it should instruct, delight, and move. It is the best standard. Not all philosophy needs to be critical. Sometimes philosophy can simply be the pleasure that accompanies contemplation. Our aim is to present these thoughts in this spirit. Should the reader learn from them, enjoy them, and benefit from them, we will not have put them forth to no end.
This work is formulated on the premiss that the reader has a knowledge or partial knowledge of the works interpreted. Our choice of the works, ancient and modern, and the ideas they contain are those that have consumed our own reason and imagination, but we put them forth as having an objective value. All philosophical ideas cannot be addressed in a single space. We intend the ideas discussed here to be more than personal views—that what is said fits the texts themselves. The fact that ideas require interpretation means that there is no right or final meaning to be assigned to them. But some interpretations are better and more interesting than others. It is interest that guides interpretation and that aims at truth.
We thank Molly Black Verene for her skills in editing and typing the manuscript.
Introduction: Philosophical Ideas
Pythagoras’s Answer to Leon
His mode of instruction was double. And
among those who came to him, the ones
were called “knowers” (mathemetikoi),
the others “listeners” (akousmatikoi).
Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras 37
The idea of wisdom is the beginning of philosophy and is what sustains the will to philosophize. In the discourse Plato arranges between Socrates and Diotima in the Symposium, Diotima informs Socrates of the meaning of the idea of wisdom (sophia). Diotima says: “In fact, you see, none of the gods loves wisdom or wants to become wise—for they are wise—and no one else who is wise already loves wisdom; on the other hand, no one who is ignorant will love wisdom either or want to become wise.” Socrates asks: “In that case, Diotima, who are the people who love wisdom if they are neither wise nor ignorant?”
Diotima says: “That’s obvious. A child could tell you. Those who love wisdom fall in between those two extremes. And Love [Eros] is one of them, because he is in love with what is beautiful, and wisdom is extremely beautiful. It follows that Love must be a lover of wisdom and, as such, is in between being wise and being ignorant” (204b). The people who love wisdom are the philosophoi. The friendly love or fondness (philia) they have for wisdom places them between the extremes of being wise and being ignorant. In this same middle place is Eros. It is through Love, Eros, that we encounter beauty. Pursuit of the beautiful leads us to happiness (Eudaimonia), to having a good daimon, a spirit that will allow us to attain well-being and a good, flourishing life. The friendship with wisdom that characterizes the philosopher provides