Theatrical dialogue in teaching the classics

This article addresses some fundamental affinities between theatre and teaching and is based on emerging work in a long-term experiment which we began in the conference ‘Weber/Simmel Antagonisms: Staged Dialogues’, held at the University of Edinburgh on December 2015. Aimed at exploring the possibilities of the theatrical and dialogical forms for teaching the classics of social and cultural theory, it is a risky experiment whose initial results are presented in this special issue. In order to introduce the dialogues and situate them in the context of the broader project, the article does three things: first, it expounds the process of subjectivation at work in both theatre and teaching and explores some of the modalities of the subjective shift sought for in spectators and students. Second, it explains the specificity of this experiment by contrasting it with other uses of theatrical dialogue in teaching. Finally, before briefly introducing each of the dialogues, the article clarifies the fundamental difference between the dialogical form and debate, as radically separating them is at the heart of any experiment in subjectivation, away from the stirring of opinions

Separation of body and soul in Plato’s Phaedo : an unprecedented ontological operation in the affinity argument

Instituto de Ciências Humanas (ICH)Departamento de Filosofia (ICH FIL

Paradoxo e natureza no livro V da República

O artigo analisa a primeira onda do livro V da República de Platão, levando em conta a oposição entre opinião (dóxa) e ciência (epistéme), só formulada ao final da terceira onda. Sócrates problematiza a opinião corrente que aceita a diferença de natureza entre homens e mulheres para avançar a ideia de uma natureza humana comum. É essa tese paradoxal que justifica que possam ter uma mesma educação e que, assim, possam desempenhar as mesmas funções, vindo a ser guardiões e governantes da cidade.<br>The paper analyses the first wave in Plato´s Republic V, taking into account the opposition between opinion (doxa) and science (episteme), formulated at the end of the third wave. Socrates questions the current opinion which accepts the difference in nature between men and women in order to propose the idea of a common human nature. It is this paradoxical thesis that justifies the proposal that all should have the same education, thus allowing them to fulfill the same functions and, eventually, to become guardians and rulers in the city

Empedocle tra poesia, medicina, filosofia e politica

Skepsis. Collana di testi e studi di filosofia antic

Plato and the "Internal Dialogue": An Ancient Answer for a New Model of the Self

International audienceThe Theaetetus and the Sophist depict one of Plato's most well-known ideas about thought, namely, the dialogue of the soul with itself. Unfortunately, what Plato means by this has been obscured by three habits in the scholarship: (1) to consider the notion as being self-evident, (2) to treat it as being about the immaterial and universal language of thought, and (3) to understand it through the distorting lens of the Christian-modern idea of inwardness and inner private space. I argue for a more tentative reading of "inner dialogue," where its localization is understood in terms of "physical distinction" and its meaning is construed around Plato's ideas of polyphony and "microcommunity." We thereby learn that thinking is a psychophysical process associated with breathing and that it consists of a "coming-together" of multiple "voices." "Inner dialogue" is mirrored in the overall structure of Plato's works, and it represents the very way philosophical debate ought to be conducted