Episteme and Logos in Plato\u27s Later Thought

What is knowledge? Plato does try to answer this question, asked at the beginning of the Theaetetus, but the answer is not in the dialogue itself, either negatively (as Cornford argued) or positively (as Fine suggested). His answer is partially given in the Sophist and Statesman: the project of definition has been shown to involve the mastery of the whole field to which the object of definition belongs, and hence a science of the field in question. The dramatic sequels to the Theaetetus are also its doctrinal complements. By making knowledge the object of knowledge, Plato was able to exhibit both the correct method and the content of dialectic, which he took as the very essence of knowledge itself

Meaning vs. Power: Are Thick Description and Power Analysis intrinsically at odds? Response to Interpretation, Explanation, and Clifford Geertz

This essay clarifies and defends the methodological multidimensionality and improvisational character of Clifford Geertz’s account of interpretation and explanation. In contrast to accounts of power analysis offered by Michel Foucault and Talal Asad, I argue that Geertz’s work can simultaneously attend to meaning, power, identity, and experience in understanding and assessing religious practices and cultural formations

Ironia e identidade pessoal: proposta de sentido a partir de José y sus hermanos, de Thomas Mann

El artículo plantea que entre la identidad personal y la obra de arte literaria –en este caso, José y sus hermanos– acontece un tipo de interacción llamada propuesta de sentido, que se hace posible gracias a la ironía entendida, no como tropo literario, sino como ambigüedad intencional. En el primer apartado, se precisan las definiciones y funciones de la imaginación, la identidad personal y la propuesta de sentido. En el segundo, se realiza la caracterización de la ironía como ambigüedad intencional que hace posible el juego de sentido. En el tercero, se rastrea la ironía en José y sus hermanos y, gracias a los juegos con el tiempo se narra una experiencia con el tempo. En el cuarto apartado, se ofrecen las apelaciones y sugerencias que José y sus hermanos le hace a la identidad personal. Y se concluye que la experiencia de la identidad personal requiere de un volver-siempre a José y sus hermanos, gracias a la permanente sugerencia de la propuesta de sentido que hace su rasgo estilístico irónico.This paper sets that between personal identity and the literary art work –in this case, Joseph and his siblings– there is some kind of interaction called sense proposal, which is possible due to understood irony, not as a literary trope, but as an intentional ambiguity. In the first paragraph, definitions and functions of imagination, personal identity and sense proposal are specified. In the second paragraph, the characterization of irony as an intentional ambiguity that makes the sense game possible is carried out. In the third paragraph, the irony in Joseph and his siblings is tracked, and as a result of games with time, an experience with tempo is narrated. In the fourth paragraph, appeals and suggestions Joseph and his siblings make to personal identity are offered. The conclusion is that experience of personal identity requires to always return to Joseph and his siblings, due to its permanent suggestion of sense proposal which has an ironic style.Este artigo propõe que, entre a identidade pessoal e a obra de arte literária — neste caso, José y sus hermanos—, acontece um tipo de interação chamada proposta de sentido, que se torna possível graças à ironia entendida, não como tropo literário, mas sim como ambiguidade intencional. Na primeira seção, tornam-se precisas definições e funções da imaginação, da identidade pessoal e da proposta de sentido. Na segunda, realiza-se a caracterização da ironia como ambiguidade intencional que possibilita o jogo de sentido. Na terceira, rastreia-se a ironia em José y sus hermanos e, graças aos jogos com o tempo, narra-se uma experiência com o tempo. Na quarta seção, oferecem-se as apelações e as sugestões que a experiência da identidade pessoal requer de um voltar-sempre a José y sus hermanos, devido à permanente sugestão da proposta de sentido que torna seu traço estilístico irônico

Nietzsche and Amor Fati

This paper identifies two central paradoxes threatening the notion of amor fati [love of fate]: it requires us to love a potentially repellent object (as fate entails significant negativity for us) and this, in the knowledge that our love will not modify our fate. Thus such love may seem impossible or pointless. I analyse the distinction between two different sorts of love (eros and agape) and the type of valuation they involve (in the first case, the object is loved because we value it; in the second, we value the object because we love it). I use this as a lens to interpret Nietzsche?s cryptic pronouncements on amor fati and show that while an erotic reading is, up to a point, plausible, an agapic interpretation is preferable both for its own sake and because it allows for a resolution of the paradoxes initially identified. In doing so, I clarify the relation of amor fati to the eternal return on the one hand, and to Nietzsche?s autobiographical remarks about suffering on the other. Finally, I examine a set of objections pertaining both to the sustainability and limits of amor fati, and to its status as an ideal

Post-modernism's use and abuse of Nietzsche

I focus on Nietzsche's architectural metaphor of self-construction in arguing for the claim that postmodern readings of Nietzsche misunderstand his various attacks on dogmatic philosophy as paving the way for acceptance of a self characterized by fundamental disunity. Nietzsche's attack on essentialist dogmatic metaphysics is a call to engage in a purposive self-creation under a unifying will, a will that possesses the strength to reinterpret history as a pathway to "the problem that we are". Nietzsche agrees with the postmodernists that unity is not a pre-given, however he would disavow their rejection of unity as a goal. Where the postmodernists celebrate "the death of the subject" Nietzsche rejects this valorization of disunity as a form of Nihilism and prescribes the creation of a genuine unified subjectivity to those few capable of such a goal. Postmodernists are nearer Nietzsche's idea of the Last Man than his idea of the Overman.Articl

The unacknowledged legacy

This paper presents a critical discussion of the treatment of mimetic art, and particularly poetry and the theatre, in the work of the Athenian philosopher Plato (427-347 BC). It centres on Plato's discussion of the corrupting powers of the arts in the Republic, and the implications that his fierce attack on poetry and theatre have for his construction of the ideal polity. The legacy of Platonic ideas in later elaborations of the corrupting power of the arts is discussed. Furthermore, the paper investigates the relationship between current debates on cultural policy and the Platonic idea that the transformative powers of the arts ought to be harnessed by the state to promote a just society. The conclusion thus reached is that “instrumental cultural policy”, rather then being a modern invention, was in fact first theorized precisely in Plato's Republic