PPM51 is read back in Portland, ME, on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Memphis, TN. This is the second day of what I would describe as the post-presentation of the Allegory. That is, now that I have re-told the four parts of Plato's Allegory, I begin the reflection and what I described in the PPM50 commentary as the arrangement of the Allegory aka the 'rewriting'. PPM50 culminates with the principal quotation, that is, the quotation from Plato's Republic that represents the cornerstone of the entire experiment, which initiated it and frames it. The quotation is from Republic 518, and represents the statement Socrates makes in the immediate aftermath of his telling of the Allegory. And it is where we encounter the speculation, the wonder, about 'an art' capable of turning the soul around (a practice of paideia), that is taken up with the writing happening in this experiment. Indeed, as I say in my post-reading commentary, this writing is an experiment in a kind of daily practice, I suppose one could call it a form of autodidacta (self-turning, or what Luce Irigaray calls the 'turning back to the self', thinking, dwelling), that makes the very art that Socrates/Plato are saying 'must exist': "We must conclude that education is not what it is said by some, who profess to put knowledge into a soul which does not possess it, as if they could put sight into blind eyes. On the contrary, our own account signifies that the soul of every man does possess the power of learning the truth and the organ to see it with; and that, just as one might have to turn the whole body round in order that the eye should see light instead of darkness, so the entire soul must be turned away from this changing world, until its eye can bear to contemplate reality and that supreme splendor which we have called the Good. Hence there may well be an art whose aim would be to effect this very thing, the conversion of the soul, in the readiest way; not to put the power of sight into the soul's eye, which already has it, but to ensure that, instead of looking in the wrong direction, it is turned the way it ought to be."(Republic 518)
Now, importantly, the only difference, and it is a major point of departure, between what Plato has written and what I am writing, is the following: the turning away 'from' the world is not so much a vertical transcendence, but rather a horizontal one that can be likened to an intensification of our perception of this world, one that is capable of perceiving/receiving the 'supreme splendor' of its becoming, that is to say, Being's presencing. For it is in this world that we take up our freedom by repairing and renewing it, as Arendt would say.
Now, importantly, the only difference, and it is a major point of departure, between what Plato has written and what I am writing, is the following: the turning away 'from' the world is not so much a vertical transcendence, but rather a horizontal one that can be likened to an intensification of our perception of this world, one that is capable of perceiving/receiving the 'supreme splendor' of its becoming, that is to say, Being's presencing. For it is in this world that we take up our freedom by repairing and renewing it, as Arendt would say.
3.0 - Encountering the full quotation from Plato Rep. 518 is a reminder of the originary Evocative fragment, the one that put this project into motion. (Speaking of motion, I'm on the NJT, just left my old stomping ground, the New Providence station, Towne Deli, Division Ave...about to change trains in good ole Summit, and will continue after the transfer).
ReplyDeleteFirst, need to acknowledge this day, anniversary of the killing of MLK, jr, his body but not his spirit, which lives on, and was recalled forcefully by my student Priscilla on Tuesday in class when she described his genius of communicating complex ideas to the public, the gift of the true orator, the one who can gather the congregation,)
Second, Rep. 518, and the turning. Yesterday I "justified" the error of assigning the turning to paideia instead of periagogē. And that error will not be repeated! The 'turning' or 'being turned around' is the key to the learning I am describing, the process of being re-placed into the location and movement (process) of the dialectic and dialogue occurring in the freedom of thinking and poetic praxis. What are the components of the turning: the one who is turned; that which evokes and moves the turning (and this is probably two distinct components). The one(s) who is (are) turned: learners. The modality of learning is experienced in the turning. This is a particular modality, and does not stand for 'all' learning, and perhaps we can even distinguish the modality of the 'student' from the 'learner' in the description. Learning is the modality of a philosophical education. Perhaps this is one way to read Rep. 518's claim that everyone has the capacity to take up what I am calling learning, and the challenge is to discover ways of turning on that capacity, or, as Plato's describes it, turn around toward learning. And for my project, especially where it is now, the turning happens sonically, e.g., through the encounter with music, but also through Evocative speech, and thus is happening with listening. One way to read the Allegory is as a warning against the possible deception of the eyes. Perhaps this elevates sound, speaking and listening. And, again, as I wrote the other day, this consistent with Plato's critique of writing and reading, and his identification of the spoken word as the way the philosophical educator "plants the seed of truth" in the soul of the learner.