Deleuze and Khora Zhang, Peter
China media research,
07/2021, Letnik:
17, Številka:
3
Journal Article
The concept of khora, which was elaborated but quickly repressed by Plato in Timaeus, has caught the attention of a whole coterie of contemporary philosophers. It is often interpreted as "receptacle" ...or "uterus." Its presence in Deleuze's corpus is largely covert and easily overlooked. Foregrounding its significance in Deleuze's work allows us to get a firmer grasp of his vitalistic thought. Following the lineage of Plato-Leibniz-Whitehead, Deleuze takes khora to be a screen, sieve, filter, or membrane that makes something issue from chaos, "even if this something differs only slightly'" Khora is the mother or locus of genesis, becoming, negentropy, and the event. Roughly speaking, the function of khora is twofold: prehension and negative prehension, or simply selective prehension. Two statements made by Deleuze deserve our particular attention: first, "the brain is the mind itself; second, "the brain is the screen." For our purposes, the second statement can be productively misinterpreted as, "the brain is the khora!' There is textual evidence in Deleuze's book, Negotiations, to support such an interpretation. After sorting out the rationale of Deleuzean vitalism through the lens of khora, this article moves on to such notions as the intermind, composite khora, and the global superbrain to probe into the human condition in the era of mental symbiosis between humanity and its artificially intelligent counterparts, and to negotiate the tension between control and becoming. Peter Zhang. Deleuze and Khora. China Media Research, 77(3):55-716 Keywords: Khora, Plato, Leibniz, Whitehead, Deleuze, the event, vitalism, khoralogy
Plato's dialogues are usually understood as simple examples of philosophy in action. In this book Professor Rowe treats them rather as literary-philosophical artefacts, shaped by Plato's desire to ...persuade his readers to exchange their view of life and the universe for a different view which, from their present perspective, they will barely begin to comprehend. What emerges is a radically new Plato: a Socratic throughout, who even in the late dialogues is still essentially the Plato (and the Socrates) of the Apology and the so-called 'Socratic' dialogues. This book aims to understand Plato both as a philosopher and as a writer, on the assumption that neither of these aspects of the dialogues can be understood without the other. The argument of the book is closely based in Plato's text, but should be accessible to any serious reader of Plato, whether professional philosopher, classicist, or student.
This paper deals with some philosophical uses of logos prominent in platonic dialogues, namely those associated to contrasting logical and-epistemological contexts. Contraposed to some ...non-predicative conceptions, the 'predicative' theory of logos (Sophist 261-264) culminates Plato's research on the subject. In the "socratic" dialogues it focuses on the request to answer the "What is?" question with a logos, to which corresponds, in the Phaedo and the Republic, the logon didonai requirement as proof of knowledge. As examples of sophistic uses of logos it examines three infallibilist and non-referentialist conceptions of logos advanced in the Euthydemus, the Theaetetus and the Cratylus. Having analyzed three cases of non-predicative logos, the paper suggests that with the predicative theory of logos Plato aims at enabling discourse to get at the knowledge of "what is". Keywords: Plato, dialogues, predicative, non-predicative logos. Este texto aborda alguns usos filosoficos de logos em Platao, em especial os associados a contextos logico-epistemologicos contrastantes. Contraposta a vagas concepcoes 'nao-predicativas', a teoria 'predicativa' do enunciado (Sofista 261-264) culmina a pesquisa sobre o logos, desenvolvida nos dialogos. Da obra "socratica", retira o pedido de resposta a pergunta "O que e?" por meio de um logos, correspondida, no Fedon e na Republica, pela exigencia de logon didonai como prova do saber. Noutro plano, exemplificando usos sofisticos do logos, sao expostas tres concepcoes infalibilistas e nao-referencialistas de logos, avancadas no Eutidemo, no Teeteto e no Cratilo. Depois de analisar tres casos de logos nao-predicativo, o texto defende que, com a teoria predicativa do logos, Platao visa a habilitar do discurso para o conhecimento de "o que e". Palavras-chave: Platao, dialogos, logos, predicatividade, naopredicatividade.
On Beauty and Measure features renowned philosopher John Sallis' commentaries on Plato's dialogues the Symposium and the Statesman. Drawn from two lecture courses delivered by Sallis, they represent ...his longest and most sustained engagement to date with either work. Brilliantly original, Sallis's close readings of Plato's dialogues are grounded in the original passages and also illuminate the overarching themes that drive the dialogues.
Heidegger's criticism of metaphysics has become a commonplace in academic circles. It is also common currency that Heidegger characterizes metaphysics as Platonism: Heidegger's best-known writ on ...Plato--Plato's doctrine of truth --explicitly points out that the essential features of metaphysics, which would have determined the history of the West ever since, "appear" for the "first time" in Platonic thought. Thus the image of Plato's "critical" Heidegger became equally well known. Less famous, and perhaps somewhat controversial, is the idea that between Plato's work and Heidegger's path there is not only distance, but fundamental neighborhoods. The present work aims to rehearse two steps towards this idea: 1) an indication of the relationship between Heidegger and Plato, culminating in and having as background an understanding of the relationship between Heidegger and (philosophical (Western) tradition); 2) an outline that looks for the common between how these two thinkers think the everyday, common life.
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