http://hdl.handle.net/10468/197 Thu, 20 Jun 2013 07:15:22 GMT 2013-06-20T07:15:22Z http://hdl.handle.net/10468/966 In liminal tension towards giving birth: Eros, the educator Szakolczai, Árpád The discussion on the nature of Eros (love as sexual desire) in Plato’s Symposium offers us special insights concerning the potential role played by love in social and political life. While about Eros, the dialogue also claims to offer a true image of Socrates, generating a complex puzzle. This article offers a solution to this puzzle by reconstructing and interpreting Plato’s theatrical presentation his argument, making use of the structure of the plays of Aristophanes, a protagonist of the Dialogue. The new image of Socrates, it is argued, signals Plato’s move beyond the way he envisioned so far his master, best visible in his introducing Diotima, a prophetess who takes over the role of guide from Socrates; and by presenting the truth about Socrates through Alcibiades, cast into the role of a boastful intruder, a central figure in Aristophanes’ comedies. Eros and Socrates are both ‘in-between’ or liminal figures, indicating that Socrates is still entrapped in the crisis of Athenian democracy. The way out, according to the new philosophy of Plato, lies by redirecting Eros from the hunting of beautiful objects to be possessed to elevating the soul to the essence of beauty as a primary means for further generating beauty, in particular through engendering and educating children, thus reasserting a harmonious co-existence with the order of the cosmos. Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10468/966 2013-02-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10468/965 The gravity of Eros in the contemporary: an introduction Szakolczai, Árpád; Horvath, Agnes The question of Eros, understood in the broader sense of passionate devotion, takes us back to classical philosophical anthropology, the very foundations of social and political analysis, and in particular the work of Plato, which argues that imitation and not rationality is the moving force of social and political life. For Plato rationality, or reliance on the powers of reason, is not an anthropological constant, rather a capacity to be acquired and developed in order to resist the overwhelming powers of mimetic processes, particularly strong in ‘in between’ situations (on metaxy, see Voegelin, 1978). Historically, an ignorance of the role of imitation in politics resulted in the reduction of rationality to a tool in the instrumental furthering of imitative processes in order to promote particular political agendas; the central problem with contemporary media-driven politics. This special section argues that the imitative and multiplicative aspects of modern politics can be understood through analyzing the way in which subjugation to Eros, both in the narrow sense of ‘sexual’ pleasures (Foucault, 1986) and the broader sense of blind, unconditional, passionate devotion, is a main consequence of socially disruptive situations. Plato’s analysis of Eros as a force that deprives one of one’s faculties of distinction and judgement, thus allowing a potentially overwhelming capacity for imitative receptivity to take hold and to drive attempts to possess qualities and constitute identities, but that can at the same time shake up, turn around and elevate, will be our main methodological guiding tool. The overwhelming dominance of Eros in the contemporary world is well known by everybody – at least as far as the signs and symptoms go. We live in a world that has become totally penetrated and impregnated by Eros, in both private and public. The conviction that sex is the ultimate goal of human life was given its solemn, authoritative justification by the thinking of Freud. While the problematisation of Freud is also part of the contemporary intellectual landscape (see Dufresne, 2003; Esterson, 1993; Forrester, 1996; Webster, 2005),1 the damage was done; and, apart from deconstructing Freud, one should also explore better ways of thinking about the force of sexual love and passionate devotion. The papers in this Special section suggest a return to Ancient Greece, and in particular the thinking of Plato. Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10468/965 2013-02-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10468/967 Thinking as testing the limits of friendship: on the Voegelin-Schütz correspondence Szakolczai, Árpád The exchange of letters between Eric Voegelin and Alfred Schütz took place in between 1938, or the year in which both were forced to leave Vienna due to the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, and 1959, when Schütz passed away. Several of the more important letters were published previously in various contexts, and the project of publishing them all goes back to the 1970s. The entire correspondence, in the original German, only appeared in 2004. This book is a comprehensive selection and English translation of that volume. The book provides fascinating insights into the lives, times, works, and ideas of two master thinkers – though mostly to those who are already reasonably familiar with them. While the editors rightly state in their Introduction (the English version is a slightly modified translation of the German text) that it was not the place for a comprehensive reassessment of the work in light of this correspondence (p.5), more background details for a volume like this would have been helpful. However, the size of the book, both in English (261 pp.) and especially in German (579 pp.), might explain the limited space left for the ‘Editor’s Introduction’ (5 pages of text, followed by 2 full pages of notes). The most interesting part of the correspondence, without any doubt, are the often quite long letters that touch upon the heart of the work of the two thinkers, sparked by Voegelin’s first comments on reading Husserl’s Crisis. As both of them considered the other a privileged interlocutor, the ideas expressed have particular significance for the thinking of each. The exchange of letters is revealing not only concerning the substance of their disagreement, but also the manner in which this was addressed and handled. Here a central issue is played by the question of friendship. Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10468/967 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10468/971 Contesting, confusing, corrupting: Huizinga's foundational anthropology of play and its limits Szakolczai, Árpád Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/10468/971 2012-02-01T00:00:00Z