lunedì 7 marzo 2016

INTRODUCTION - Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing by Arthur M. Melzer

INTRODUCTION - Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing by Arthur M. Melzer - #perchèscrivere? #teoriaeprassi #metodosocratico
INTRODUCTION What Is Philosophical Esotericism?Read more at location 171
Note: esoterismo confuso col misticismo e: una forma retorica un modo di scrivere il dilemma: teoria e prassi sono in armonia? illuminismo e classicismo 4 e.: difensivo protettivo politico pedagogico strategie e.: oralità... multilevel gradualità dell e. esoterismo tesi: regola nn eccezione Edit
Note: @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Edit
In common parlance, “esoteric” is often used synonymously with “recondite” or “abstruse,”Read more at location 179
Note: LINGUAGGIO COMUNE Edit
But in a stricter sense—and the one intended here—it is something difficult to understand because hidden or secret.Read more at location 181
An esoteric writer or writing would involve the following characteristics: first, the effort to convey certain truths—the “esoteric” teaching—to a select group of individualsRead more at location 182
Note: ELITE Edit
the concomitant effort to withhold or conceal these same truths from most people;Read more at location 184
Note: NASCONDERE UNA VRRITÀ Edit
the effort to propagate for the sake of the latter group a fictional doctrine—theRead more at location 185
Note: INGANNO Edit
forms of mysticism: Theosophy, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Kabbalah, Neoplatonism, Neo-Pythagoreanism,Read more at location 188
Note: SCUOLE Edit
Leo StraussRead more at location 191
“the phenomenon in question [esotericism] . . . is discussed under the title ‘mysticism’”1—a statement that, despite the efforts of Strauss and others, still remains largely true today.Read more at location 192
Note: CONFUSIONE COL MISTICISMO Edit
But the mystical version of esotericism is a very small part of a larger phenomenon.Read more at location 196
Here “esoteric” denotes not a particular body of secret or occult knowledge but simply a secretive mode of communication—notRead more at location 200
Note: CODICE Edit
It is not a philosophical doctrine but a form of rhetoric,Read more at location 202
philosophical problem of theory and praxis—especially the question of the relation between philosophic rationalism and political community, or between “the two lives”: the vita contemplativa and the vita activa. Are the two fundamentally harmonious (essentially the Enlightenment view) or antagonistic (the dominant classical view)?Read more at location 209
Note: TEORIA E PRASSI. CONFLITTO O ARMONIA? Edit
Classical and medieval thinkers, by contrast, tended to practice a more concealed, more thoroughgoing esotericism—esotericism in the fullest sense—because they were motivated,Read more at location 219
Note: CLASSICI E MEDIEVALI Edit
by the fear that, to the contrary, rationalism, if openly communicated, would inevitably harm that world by subverting its essential myths and traditions.Read more at location 221
Their purpose for publishing books of philosophy was rooted not primarily in political schemes, as with the Enlightenment thinkers, but in educational aims.Read more at location 223
Note: PERCHÈ SCRIVERE UN LIBRO Edit
Socratic method—it forces readers to think and discover for themselves.Read more at location 225
Note: METODO SOCRATICO Edit
a philosophical writer will purposely endeavor to obscure his or her true meaning either to avoid some evil or to attain some good. The evils to be avoided are essentially two: either some harm that society might do the writer (persecution) or some harm that the writer might do society (“dangerous truths”), or both. The effort to avoid these two dangers gives rise to what I will call defensive and protective esotericism, respectively.Read more at location 227
Note: TASSONOMIA DELL ESOTERISMO Edit
A philosopher might write nothing at all, for example, and confine himself entirely to oral teaching,Read more at location 235
Note: ORALITÀ Edit
Or his writings may contain multiple levels, with an exoteric teaching on the surfaceRead more at location 239
Note: LIVELLI MULTIPLI Edit
Esotericism also varies widely in degree. In some cases, the exoteric doctrine may merely be a popularized or sanitized version of the esoteric doctrine. In others, it will be radically different,Read more at location 243
Note: IL GRADO Edit
not tell “the whole truth,” but they will tell “nothing but the truth.”Read more at location 245
conceal the truth and present falsehoods or “noble lies”Read more at location 246
scholars today are willing to admit that, here and there, a philosopher or two can be found who engaged in esoteric writing.Read more at location 248
Note: IL GIUDIZIO OGGI SULL ESOTRRISMO Edit
esotericism has not been a curious exception—it has been the rule.Read more at location 254
Note: TESI DEL LIBRO Edit
HOW TO DEMONSTRATE THE EXISTENCE OF ESOTERICISMRead more at location 259
the evidence can be sifted as closely as possible, placed in historical context, and evaluated in dialogue with the secondary literature.Read more at location 266
Note: CONTESTO E TESTI SECONDARI