Find counter arguments by entering NameVs… or …VsName.
The author or concept searched is found in the following 1 entries.
| Disputed term/author/ism | Author |
Entry |
Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing | Plato | Gadamer I 396 Scripture/Plato/Gadamer: It is the methodological advantage of writing that the hermeneutical problem emerges in its detachment from all psychological aspects. What in our eyes and for our intention represents a methodological advantage is, of course, at the same time the expression of a specific weakness that is characteristic of everything written even more than of language. The task of understanding arises with particular clarity when one recognizes the weakness of everything written. Plato/Gadamer: We only need (...) to remind us of Plato's example, who saw the peculiar weakness of the written word in the fact that no one could help the written speech if it is the result of deliberate or involuntary misunderstanding(1). Plato, as is well known, saw in the helplessness of the Scriptures an even greater weakness than the speeches have (to asthenes ton logon), and if he demands dialectical help for the speeches in order to remedy this weakness, but on the other hand declares the case of the Scriptures to be hopeless, it is obviously an ironic exaggeration, by which he conceals his own literary work and art. 1. Plato, 7th letter 341 c, 344 c Phaidr. 275. Ricoeur II 38 Writing/Plato/Ricoeur: (Against writing: PlatoVsWriting): The attack against writing comes from afar. It is linked to a certain model of knowledge, science, and wisdom used by Plato to condemn exteriority as being contrary to genuine reminiscence.(1) He presents it in the form of a myth because philosophy here has to do with the coming to being of an institution, a skill, and a power, lost in the dark past of culture and connected with Egypt, the cradle of religious wisdom. The king of Thebes receives in his city the god Theuth, who has inverited numbers, geometry, astronomy, games of chance, and grammata or written characters. Questioned about the powers and possible benefits of his invention, Theuth claims that the knowledge of written characters would make Egyptians wiser and more capable of preserving the memory of things. No, replies the king, souls will become more forgetful once they have put their confidence in external marks instead of relying on themselves from within. This "remedy" (pharmakon) is not reminiscence, but sheer rememoration. As to instruction, what this invention brings is not the reality, but the resemblance of it; not wisdom, but its appearance. The commentary of Socrates is no less interesting. Writing is like painting which generates non-living being, which in II 39 turn remains silent when asked to answer. Writings, too, if one questions them in order to learn from them, "signify a unique thing always the same." Besides this sterile sameness, writings are indifferent to their addressees. Wandering here and there, they are heedless of whom they reach. And if a dispute arises, or if they are injustly despised, they still need the help of their father. By themselves they are unable to rescue themselves. Ricoeur: This Platonic attack against writing is not an isolated example in the history of our culture. Rousseau and Bergson, for example, for different reasons link the main evils that plague civilization to writing. >Writing/Rousseau, >Writing/Bergson. 1. Phaedrus, 274e-277a. |
Gadamer I Hans-Georg Gadamer Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik 7. durchgesehene Auflage Tübingen 1960/2010 Gadamer II H. G. Gadamer The Relevance of the Beautiful, London 1986 German Edition: Die Aktualität des Schönen: Kunst als Spiel, Symbol und Fest Stuttgart 1977 Ricoeur I Paul Ricoeur De L’interprétation. Essai sur Sigmund Freud German Edition: Die Interpretation. Ein Versuch über Freud Frankfurt/M. 1999 Ricoeur II Paul Ricoeur Interpretation theory: discourse and the surplus of meaning Fort Worth 1976 |
| |||
No results. Please choose an author or concept or try a different keyword-search.