AKN-312.25
AN-312.25, ANN-312.25
The Platonic Traditions and Romanticism (A platonikus bölcselet és a romantika) in spring 2004
Péter Ágnes, Fri 12:00–13:30, ADS 234, host: DES (R338)
description & set texts
In the critical theories of Romanticism Platonism and some Renaissance forms of Neoplatonism played a crusial part. In this seminar some major dialogues of Plato will be discussed and the influence of his hypotheses on European thought, especially on Romantic theory of art. The following texts will be read and assessed: Plato: Timaeus; Paedo; Pheadrus; Symposium (issues addressed: cosmogony, correspondence of the microcosm and the macrocosm, Chain of Being, appearance and reality; mechanism of the Soul, concept of Love and Beauty, the ascent (the the Platonic ladder; ratiocination and "a bastard sort of reasoning"; Eros and Truth). Plotinus's Enneads: V.1. The Three Initial Hypostases; III.8. Nature, Contemplation and the One; III.5. Love; I.6. Beauty; IV.8. The Soul's Descent into the Body; II.9. Against the Gnostics (the concept of Beauty, intuition, the nature of matter, emanation versus desire, nature a set of signs or symbols). Renaissance Neo-Platonism: Marsilio Ficino: Translation into Latin (into English) of and Commentary on the Phaedrus. The Platonic and the Christian: St. Augustin: Confessions (8); The City of God (8, 10) The Gospel of St. John: the Greek and Gnostic influence. Romantic Neo-Platonism: Schelling: Bruno; Über das Verhältnis der bildenen Künste zur Natur; Coleridge: On Poesy or Art; Thomas Taylor: A Dissertation on the Eleusinian or Bacchic Mysteries; Shelley: A Defence of Poetry.

requirements & assessment
active and articulate presence during the discussions and a home essay of c. 8-10 pages about one of the topics discussed.

will be based on oral and written performance