Profaning the Vision: Re-evaluating Images in Plato’s Philosophy through His Use of Mystery Language

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Given the ambiguous position of images in Plato’s dialogues, the question arises: why does Plato use such vivid sense imagery, placing emphasis especially on sight, light, and music, when he describes the vision of the Forms? To answer this question, I suggest that an improved understanding of the analogy that Plato draws between the rites of ancient mystery cults and his own philosophical system can rehabilitate the place of images, especially sensible phenomena, in Plato’s philosophy and additionally offer a way by which readers can approach the dialogues themselves as written objects. I will explore in particular the process of Plato’s philosophical system in relation to the Eleusinian Mysteries, whose framework and imagery Plato utilizes to describe the progression from sense-perception (aisthesis) through recollection (anamnesis) and dialectic to the noetic vision of the Forms. I will show that a refined approach to the relationship between the telea and epopteia of Eleusis sheds new light on the role played by sensible images in philosophical memory and that this relationship informs how we might understand the dialogues themselves. First, I offer a re-structuring of the ‘steps’ of philosophic learning that maps onto a revised reconstruction of Eleusinian mystery rites. Based on this new framework, I argue that the place of sense perception in Plato’s philosophy can be better established by understanding the process of philosophic learning, like mystery rites, as repetitive. Finally, I will extend the mystery analogy to Plato’s dialogues as written logoi to illuminate a way in which readers can approach the texts as images of a way of life.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract
• 1. Background
• 2. Philosophic Telea
• 3. Repetitive Rites
• 4. Philosophic Profanation
• Bibliography