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Ever since Vlastos' "Theology and Philosophy in Early Greek
Thought," scholars have known that a consideration of ancient
philosophy without attention to its theological, cosmological and
soteriological dimensions remains onesided. Yet, philosophers
continue to discuss thinkers such as Parmenides and Plato without
knowledge of their debt to the archaic religious traditions.
Perhaps our own religious prejudices allow us to see only a "polis
religion" in Greek religion, while our modern philosophical
openness and emphasis on reason induce us to rehabilitate ancient
philosophy by what we consider the highest standard of knowledge:
proper argumentation. Yet, it is possible to see ancient philosophy
as operating according to a different system of meaning, a
different "logic." Such a different sense of logic operates in myth
and other narratives, where the argument is neither completely
illogical nor rational in the positivist sense. The articles in
this volume undertake a critical engagement with this unspoken
legacy of Greek religion. The aim of the volume as a whole is to
show how, beyond the formalities and fallacies of arguments,
something more profound is at stake in ancient philosophy: the
salvation of the philosopher-initiate.
Ever since Vlastos' "Theology and Philosophy in Early Greek
Thought," scholars have known that a consideration of ancient
philosophy without attention to its theological, cosmological and
soteriological dimensions remains onesided. Yet, philosophers
continue to discuss thinkers such as Parmenides and Plato without
knowledge of their debt to the archaic religious traditions.
Perhaps our own religious prejudices allow us to see only a "polis
religion" in Greek religion, while our modern philosophical
openness and emphasis on reason induce us to rehabilitate ancient
philosophy by what we consider the highest standard of knowledge:
proper argumentation. Yet, it is possible to see ancient philosophy
as operating according to a different system of meaning, a
different "logic." Such a different sense of logic operates in myth
and other narratives, where the argument is neither completely
illogical nor rational in the positivist sense. The articles in
this volume undertake a critical engagement with this unspoken
legacy of Greek religion. The aim of the volume as a whole is to
show how, beyond the formalities and fallacies of arguments,
something more profound is at stake in ancient philosophy: the
salvation of the philosopher-initiate.
In a new interpretation of Parmenides' philosophical poem On
Nature," Vishwa Adluri considers Parmenides as a thinker of mortal
singularity, a thinker who is concerned with the fate of
irreducibly unique individuals.
Adluri argues that the tripartite division of Parmenides' poem
allows the thinker to brilliantly hold together the paradox of
speaking about being in time and articulates a tragic knowing:
mortals may aspire to the transcendence of metaphysics, but are
inescapably returned to their mortal condition. Hence, Parmenides'
poem articulates a "tragic return," i.e., a turn away from
metaphysics to the community of mortals. In this interpretation,
Parmenides' philosophy resonates with post-metaphysical and
contemporary thought. The themes of human finitude, mortality,
love, and singularity echo in thinkers such as Arendt, and
Schurmann as well.
"Plato, Parmenides and Mortal Philosophy "also includes a complete
new translation of 'On Nature' and a substantial overview and
bibliography of contemporary scholarship on Parmenides.
In a new interpretation of Parmenides philosophical poem On Nature,
Vishwa Adluri considers Parmenides as a thinker of mortal
singularity, a thinker who is concerned with the fate of
irreducibly unique individuals. Adluri argues that the tripartite
division of Parmenides poem allows the thinker to brilliantly hold
together the paradox of speaking about being in time and
articulates a tragic knowing: mortals may aspire to the
transcendence of metaphysics, but are inescapably returned to their
mortal condition.Parmenides.
Sets itself the Herculean task of comparing and reconciling the
modern and Platonic concepts of rationality. Modernity's break with
the Middle Ages is distinguished by a comprehensive turn to a world
of individual, empirical experience, a turn that was a repudiation
of Plato's idea that there is a reality of rationality and
intellect. Yet already in the Renaissance it was no longer thought
necessary to seriously confront the "old" concept of rationality
that emanates from Plato. Arbogast Schmitt's book sets itself this
until-now-unfulfilled task, comparing the arguments for a life
based on theory and one based on praxis in order to provide a
balance sheet of profit and loss. Showing that the Enlightenment
did not, as often assumed, discover rationality, but instead a
different concept of rationality, the book opens one's view to
other forms of rationality and new possibilities of reconciliation
with one's own - that is, Western - history. Modernity and Plato
was hailed upon its publication in Germany (2003, revised 2008) as
"one of the most important philosophy books of the past few years,"
as "a book that belongs, without any doubt, in the great tradition
of German philosophy," and as "a provocative thesis on the
antiquity-modernity debate." It is a major contribution to
synthetic philosophy and philosophical historiography, in English
for the first time. Arbogast Schmitt is Honorary Professor at the
Institute for Greek and Latin Philology at Free University, Berlin
and Emeritus Professor of Classical Philology and Greek at the
University of Marburg, Germany. Vishwa Adluri teaches in the
Departments of Religion and Philosophy at Hunter College, City
Universityof New York.
The Nay Science offers a new perspective on the problem of
scientific method in the human sciences. Taking German Indological
scholarship on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita as their
example, Adluri and Bagchee develop a critique of the modern
valorization of method over truth in the humanities.
The authors show how, from its origins in eighteenth-century
Neo-Protestantism onwards, the critical method was used as a way of
making theological claims against rival philosophical and/or
religious traditions. Via discussions of German Romanticism, the
pantheism controversy, scientific positivism, and empiricism, they
show how theological concerns dominated German scholarship on the
Indian texts. Indology functions as a test case for wider concerns:
the rise of historicism, the displacement of philosophical concerns
from thinking, and the belief in the ability of a technical method
to produce truth.
Based on the historical evidence of the first part of the book,
Adluri and Bagchee make a case in the second part for going beyond
both the critical pretensions of modern academic scholarship and
and the objections of its post-structuralist or post-Orientalist
critics. By contrasting German Indology with Plato's concern for
virtue and Gandhi's focus on praxis, the authors argue for a
conception of the humanities as a dialogue between the ancients and
moderns and between eastern and western cultures.
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