Chromenos the Collage
“Chrao” here is very meaningful, as it is a verb used mostly to refer to the Oracles, that of Delphi in
particular: “chromenos en
Delphoîs”. We have ...
53) Consult
the wise (Σοφοις χρω)
“Chrao”
here is very meaningful, as it is a verb used mostly to refer to the Oracles,
that of Delphi in particular: “chromenos en Delphoîs”. We have already met the
Idea of Sophia, now we can apply the idea to those who participate into the
Idea herself. Sophoi are those who have knowledge of the divine and human, and
of their causes and effects, those who possess non-hypothetical knowledge but
true wisdom which contemplates the causes of being: they understand the
reason related to the universal truths.
The
Pre-Socratic philosophers assert the existence of absolute eternal truth
that can be grasped intuitively and expressed verbally by a few wise men
(sophoi). Even though they disagree and dispute each other on the content of
truth, they all share in the esoteric view of truth. Just as Being is separated
from the realm of appearance by Parmenides, so the wise man who alone can
discern Being is clearly distinguished from the common crowd who cannot move
beyond the realm of appearance. Or according to Heraclitus only the wise man
can give ears to the eternal Logos amid the ever-changing flow of the world;
whereas fools are compared with swine that are content with mud. This view
gives the wise the authority to teach Truth ex cathedra.
The
Laws on which we are meditating were written by the seven excellent Sages of
Hellas, about whom Plato says: “That to frame such utterances is a mark of the
highest culture…among these were Thales, Pittacus, Bias, our own Solon,
Kleoboulos, and Myson, and a Spartan, Chilon…their wisdom consisted of pity and
memorable dicta…they met together and dedicated the first-fruits of their
wisdom to Apollo..inscribing these words which are on everyone’s lips “know thyself”
and “nothing to excess”…in particular this saying of Pittacus “hard is to be
noble”, got into circulation privately and earned the approval of the wise.”
People
consult the Oracles to know what is the proper course of conduct in a specific
matter, in order to get an advice from the God, to know “the will of Zeus”. The
Lord of Delphi also sends among mortal beings some enlightened persons, the
sophoi, who know the universal Truth: they are God-like. Not only this, because
the sophoi are celebrated for their having applied their metaphysical knowledge
to the ethical field, to politics, etc. Hesiod says that Linus is “versed in
all kinds of sophia”; in this way was also used of the sophoi in general and of
the Seven in particular, whose wisdom consisted of ideal Sophia and practical
statesmanship. Not the man who knows many things is sophos, says Aeschylus, but
he whose knowledge is useful. Because the knowledge of the truly wise man is
highly useful, we have to consul him as if we would approach an oracle, in
order to get a response…
--
and in the Phaedrus
the question of
beauty in the
phaedrus
79
being when, in the cycle, it comes
their time to choose their next life. Only those who have ‘‘seen the truth’’ (idousa ten aletheian ) can enter into a human form. Socrates explains why, and the
passage is worth quoting:
It is necessary for a human being to acquire
understanding of what is said according to forms (kat’ eidos
legomenon),
gathering together many perceptions into one through reasoning (logismo ). This is a recollection (anamnesis ) of those things which our
soul once beheld when it traveled with a god, and lifting its vision above that
which we now are, rose up into what really is (to on ontos ). For this reason it is
just that only the thinking of a philosopher (he tou philosophou dianoia ) willmake the wings grow,
because, through memory (mneme ), he
is always, as much as he is able, together with those things whose proximity
make a god divine. When a man uses correctly these reminders (hupomnemasin
orthos chromenos), he
is al-ways initiated perfectly into perfect mysteries, and he alone becomes
really perfect (teleous aei teletas teloumenos, teleos ontos monos gignetai ).
(249c)
Let us remark on several of the points made in
this passage. First, humans must understand what is said (legomenon ) according to forms (kat’ eidos ). T wo important
issues are signaled here. We understand ‘‘according to forms,’’ and this is
accomplished via a certain ‘‘gathering’’ of many perceptions into a one. To say the least,
this points to a complicated situation indeed. I emphasize here only that
it is we humans who do the gathering of many into one, that we are the gatherers
here. But second, what we come to understand through this gathering is what is said.
And we do so by
reasoning (logismo). Logos is all over the
place in this passage. The gathering of many into one, according to forms,
is accomplished via logos.
We are reminded again of
the role of eros, according to Diotima, which, in the middle between the mortal and the
divine, ‘‘binds the two together into a whole’’
( Symposium 203a). Logos, once again,
is one of these daimonic gatherers or binders, similar to eros, that enable us
to construct a coherent world. Second, however, this experience of gathering
many perceptions into one, Socrates now says, is enabled by a recollection of our former insight into
the beings when we followed a god. It looks very much like the human experience
to which the myth of recollection refers is something like our occasional non-discursive insights or intuitions (always
accompanied by but not reducible to logos) into formal structure that enable us
to understand. Finally, Socrates
concludes in a hyperbolic repetition of variants of the Greek word for ‘‘perfection’’ or ‘‘completeness’’ that it is these
reminders (
hupomnemasin)—these occasional
experiences of insight into formal unity, we may say—that make us as perfect as
can be. We presently will have occasion to remind
ourselves of the use of this word. Here, let us note, ‘‘reminders’’ are good. They
are a crucial element in our gaining what knowledge we, as humans,
may attain. We shall need very much to recall this when we turn
to Socrates’ critique of writing, which in part will be predicated on the denigration of precisely this phenomenon of ‘‘reminding.’’ But this must await
our address of that passage in a later chapter.
[Greek: "Dio de
dikaios mone pteroutai he tou philosophou dianoia
pros gar ekeinois aei esti
mneme kata dunamin, pros oisper theos on
theios esti. tois de de toioutois aner
hupomnemasin orthos
chromenos, teleous aei teletas teloumenos, teleos ontos
monos
gignetai."]
PLATO,
_Phaedrus_, p. 249.
* [3504]haimatos
tou Christou. Kai proegeitai he toutou teleiosis
anankaios tes chreseos. Ei gar pro tes chreseos me en teleion, ouk
an ho kakos chromenos krima heauto esthie kai epinen; epei psilou
artou kai
oinou en meteschekos. Nun d' anaxios metechon krima eauto
esthiei kai pinei; hoste ouk en te chresei alla kai pro tes
chreseos
echei to tes euchari
* [3505]auton; ma
hochi ekeinoi na paschousi kan mian kolasin, kai
met' auten na katharizon
November 19
From Thessalonika, PSU
graduate Sophia answers my query
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