Jonathan Westphal

Carl Avren Levenson

Reality brings together philosophical and literary works representing the many ways--metaphysical, scientific, analytic, phenomenological, literary--in which philosophers and others have reflected on questions about reality.

Reality

Life and Death brings together philosophical and literary works representing the many ways--metaphysical, scientific, analytic, phenomenological, literary--in which philosophers and others have reflected on questions about life and death.

Life and Death

Time brings together philosophical and literary works representing the many ways--metaphysical, scientific, analytic, phenomenological, literary--in which philosophers and others have reflected on questions about time.

Time

In the dialogues of Plato, we find many references to the Corybantic rites. These were rites of initiation performed in honor of the goddess Rhea. However, as Carl Levenson argues in Socrates Among the Corybantes, Plato's dialogue entitled the Euthydemus contains more than a mere reference to the rites. Within the context of the Socratic dialogue itself, an actual performance of the rite (although veiled and distorted) takes place. If Levenson is correct in his thesis about the Euthydemus, then this dialogue is a valuable source for the history of religions since Corybantic rites were meant to be secret. Moreover, as these rites are Dionysiac, Plato is giving us a glimpse of the reality of Dionysiac ecstasy. Such an analysis is far from the usual reading of Euthydemus, which has been interpreted by academics solely as a satire on philosophical debate and has subsequently been consigned to a marginal place in Plato's canon. But here Plato is rejecting his abstract theories on form in favor of intimacy with the world -- of matter rather than of form. Levenson states that complete immersion in the material substrate of the world is what Plato discovered was at the heart of Dionysiac ecstasy -- an ecstasy which, as Plato said, could purify the soul of its ancient guilt.

Carl Avren Levenson

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