L\u2019apparenza e la traccia. Ricordo di Horst K\ufcnkler (1936-2008) a dieci anni dalla scomparsa: panoramica sulla sua opera edita e inedita

In this paper, Alessandro Stavru provides a review of the published and unpublished work of Hans-Georg Gadamer\u2019s favourite student, Horst K\ufcnkler (1936-2008). K\ufcnkler wrote his PhD with Gadamer and K\uf6hler in Heidelberg in 1965, on the reception of Aristotelian mimesis in French Classicism. Under the influence of Karl L\uf6with, K\ufcnkler wrote important works on philosophers such as Hegel, Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida, but also on writers such as Pirandello, Moli\ue8re, Kleist, and especially Paul Celan. In the 70s he moved to Naples, where he became full professor at the University \u201cL\u2019Orientale\u201d. Here he taught courses on Cusanus, Leibniz, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Derrida, and Ricoeur. But he also kept working on poets and writers, i.e. 17th century French playwrights, H\uf6lderlin, Kleist, Rilke, Kafka and Celan. Among K\ufcnkler\u2019s most valuable unpublished works is the \u201cAnalytics of appearance\u201d, a monograph on which he worked for three decades: here he discusses Jacques Derrida\u2019s notion of trace, which he examines in the light of Western philosophical tradition (from Plato to Aristotle, up to Kant and Hegel, reaching until Heidegger)

Phainesthai and Aletheia in Plato\u2019s Republic

In Plato\u2019s Republic the link between phainesthai and al\u113theia is of utmost importance. In different passages \u201ctruth\u201d is defined by a juxtaposition with a \u201cfalsehood\u201d consisting in a deceptive appearance of things. Phainesthai is therefore a characteristic feature of the objects belonging to the lowest level of knowledge. This does not entail, however, that phainesthai should be understood as a mere error or deception. Its meaning is in fact much wider, and not only a negative one. Plato stresses how the whole ascent to the ideas takes place within the phainesthai of the visible. Each step undertaken by the dialektik\u113 techn\u113 is related to different ontologic \u201cappearances\u201d of things. The visibility arising from the phainesthai of things is therefore both mimetic (concealing truth) and ontologic (showing that very truth). This paper deals with both these aspects and shows their complementarity in Plato\u2019s polyvalent use of phainesthai

Cornelli, G. (2013). In Search of Pythagoreanism. Pythagoreanism as an Historiographical Category, “Studia Praesocratica” 4, de Gruyter, Berlin

CORNELLI, G. (2013). In Search of Pythagoreanism. Pythagoreanism as an Historiographical Category, “Studia Praesocratica” 4, de Gruyter, Berli

Introduction

Orphism, way of life, dietetics and medicine, music, number and harmony, late refractions of Pythagorean beliefs and tenets \u2013 these issues can by no means be separated from each other. On the contrary, they are vitally interconnected. Most of the contributions to this volume show quite clearly the interrelationships of all of these topics. Indeed, the present collection aims to enhance the study of the many links, transfers, have emerged throughout history, from Archaic Greece to Early Modern times

Pythagorean Knowledge from the Ancient to the Modern World: Askesis \u2013 Religion \u2013 Science

In both ancient tradition and modern research Pythagoreanism has been understood as a religious sect or as a philosophical and scientific community. Numerous attempts have been made to reconcile these pictures as well as to analyze them separately. The most recent scholarship compartmentalizes different facets of Pythagorean knowledge, but this offers no context for exploring their origins, development, and interdependence. This collection aims to reverse this trend, addressing connections between the different fields of Pythagorean knowledge, such as eschatology, metempsychosis, metaphysics, epistemology, arithmology and numerology, music, dietetics and medicine as well as politics. In particular, the contributions discuss how the Pythagorean way of life related to more doctrinal aspects of knowledge, such as Pythagorean religion and science. The volume explores the effects of this interdependence between different kinds of knowledge both within the Pythagorean corpus and in its later reception. Chapters cover historical periods from the Archaic Period (6th century BC) to Neoplatonism, Early Christianity, the European and Arabic Middle Ages, and the Renaissance through to the Early Modern Period (17th century AD)

Ekphrasis

Ekphrasis was designed originally as an exercise of rhetorical skills: its core feature was neither the description itself nor the thing described (which could even be non-existent), but the vividness (enargeia) with which the description appealed to the mind\u2019s eye of the audience. Throughout antiquity up to early modernity, ancient ekphrasis was not linked to specific objects: it could describe paintings or sculptures as well as persons, places, or even specific events such as battles. In the 20th century ekphrasis acquired, thanks mostly to Leo Spitzer, the restricted meaning which is common nowadays among scholars and art critics, namely that of \u201ca poetic description of a pictorial or sculptural work of art\u201

Il kairos e le arti / Kairos in ancient arts and techniques

It is a well-known fact that the concept of kairos encompasses a wide variety of meanings, ranging from “due time”, “critical situation”, “appropriate or decisive moment”, to “correct behaviour” and “skilful action”. All of these meanings point not only to the temporal, spatial and circumstantial characteristics of kairos, but also, and more importantly, to the action that is required in order to seize a favourable opportunity in a given moment. Without such action, and the ability to perform it, the kairos does not yield any advantage, thus remaining unexploited. On the other hand, without kairos no action can be successful, as even the most refined ability is by itself no guarantee for a successful outcome. In the Graeco-Roman world, kairos is therefore always linked with specific skills: in arts such as poetry, rhetoric, medicine, divination, alchemy and in a variety of techniques such as those needed in farming, warfare and sports, the successful outcome depends on the ability to grasp the kairos that is within reach at a given moment. This volume examines the different meanings of kairos as reflected in the methodologies commonly applied in the arts and techniques, showing how these help to broaden and deepen our knowledge of kairos. The chapters investigate both aspects of kairos: that relating to its objective conditions, i.e. its manifestation on certain occasions and circumstances; and that relating to its subjective conditions, i.e. the skills needed to grasp the opportune moment in which it should be utilized

Della bellezza e della superficie. Nota sull\u2019estetica giapponese

In questo saggio l\u2019estetica giapponese viene presentata come un\u2019estetica della superficie, della pura esteriorit\ue0, e, in quanto tale, contrapposta all\u2019estetica occidentale, imperniata invece sul gioco tra interiorit\ue0 (pathos o ethos) ed esteriorit\ue0 (eidos o species). Il tema della superficie attraversa i vari ambiti del mondo giapponese: dall\u2019arte figurativa alla musica, dal tiro con l\u2019arco alla contemplazione della natura, dai bagni termali al culto della pelle candida, dall\u2019effimera architettura in bamb\uf9 e carta a quella delle case da t\ue8 e dei giardini, dalla cultura culinaria del crudo alla devozione per la prima luce del giorno e gli Dei shinto. Si tratta tuttavia di un\u2019estetica i cui aspetti contraddittori emergono con particolare evidenza nel suo rapporto ambiguo con la civilt\ue0 occidentale, che, da un lato, viene assimiliata con acribica precisione, mentre, dall\u2019altro, \ue8 svuotata di ogni senso e profondit\ue0