Naslov
Marie-Élise Zovko (Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb) - "Homoiosis theoi" and "Ebenbildlichkeit": Likeness to God and Divinisation of Humanity as Basis for Education in Plato, Plotinus and Meister Eckhart

Autori
Marie-Elise Zovko

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
International Symposium Bildung and paideia: Philosophical Models of Education / - Zagreb : Plato Society of Zagreb, 2013, 26-27

Skup
International Symposium Bildung and paideia: philosophical Models of Education

Mjesto i datum
Hvar, Hrvatska, 12.10.2013. - 17.10.2013

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Pozvano predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
homoiosis theoi; likeness to God; imago dei; Ebenbildlichkeit; Bild; Bildung; archetype; image; analogy; proportion; hypothesis; anupotheton arhe; parousia; metexis; ascent of knowledge; love; unio mystica

Sažetak
In Plato, it is analogy which establishes the basis for perception, belief and knowledge of reality and of the forms. The presence (parousia) of ideas in particular things, and their participation (metexis) in the ideas makes possible recognition of what each thing is according to its nature and how it behaves, a conviction prefigured in Heraclitus' first fragment regarding the logos. The proportion of the Line provides the central image of this fundamental insight, distilling into a single seminal text the complex constellation of interrelated levels and types of knowledge and reality which provide the basis for Plato's approach to the central question of how to live well. At the heart of the Line and the source of its implications for Plato's theory of knowledge and reality, as well as for his psychology, ethics and theory of education, is the conviction or hypothesis that what we can know is based on what we are, and that both intellectual capacities and our knowledge of intelligible and sensible reality, as well as the structure and activity of our being, are grounded in a higher reality of which our own forms an image or likeness. The relationship of image and archetype is the basis for the relationship of our knowledge of reality and for the real existence of things, as well as for the subtle interrelationships which repeat and reflect – ana ton logon – that fundamental ratio at each of the levels which go to make up the entire proportion. The ascent of the Line has as its goal the attainment of the "unconditioned beginning" (anupotheton arhe) which is the ground of all hypotheseis. But we are not to stop here. As confirmed by the Analogy of the Cave, the ascent to the anupotheton arhe, to the vision of reality and the idea of the Good issues in a turning about and a redescent "through ideas, by means of ideas to ideas" of the things first recognized only on the basis of obscure images, outlines, reflections of those realities accessible to us in the sensible world. In the Cave, the goal of the ascent is the re-descent of the philosopher to the inhabitants of the Cave for the purpose of attempting to turn them toward the light and – by force or persuasion - inciting them to undertake the ascent themselves. This is to be realized in the concrete daily existence of the individual by means of the program of education outlined in the Republic, but also by implementation of aspects of philosophical method illustrated in the conversations of the early dialogues (definition, refutation) and further developed in the middle and later dialogues (differing forms of the method of hypothesis, anamnesis, division, diairesis). The integral role of analogy in philosophical method is often overlooked in this connection. The word "image" or eikon is used in the context of the Line to denote the furthest limit of the idea's reflection or stamp in sensible being, but constitutes at the same time an affirmation of the pervading presence of the highest principle of reality in all that exists. This is the basis for Plato's affirmation of homoiosis theoi as the ultimate goal of human striving, which informs and ultimately transcends the efforts described by the program of childrearing and formation, as well as in the program of formal education prescribed for the philosopher in the Republic. Our "likeness to God" and assimilation to the divine comes thus to constitute the metaphysical foundation of education in Plato and in his successors in the philosophy of Platonism. The relationship of image and archetype appears also in the biblical tradition and Judeao-Christian interpretations of the Biblical texts. In junction with the Platonic tradition of "assimilation to God", it forms the basis for the tradition of philosophical mysticism whose aim is union of the individual soul with God or the ultimate principle (henosis, unio mystica) As Dillon has noted, an apparently insuperable tension and opposition remains between the task of realizing virtue or arete in the concrete and the task of achieving unity with the ultimate principle of being and knowledge, which beyond the cathartic refutation of unquestioned assumptions, and the conversion of the mind by the practice of dialectic and analogy (as the method of philosophy) to higher realities, requires ultimately a stripping away of all finite determinations and all preoccupation with particular things and escape from the multiplicity of sensible and even intelligible reality to union with that which is "beyond being and knowledge" (epekeina tes ousias). Through reflection on selected passages from Plotinus and Meister Eckhart we shall attempt to bring the seminal concept of "likeness to God" and "assimilation to God" and its fundamental tension with the parallel demand of formation in the moral and civic virtues into focus, and to consider in what manner and to what extent these fundamental constellations continue to effect pedagogical theory and practice today.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filozofija

POVEZANOST RADA