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Philosophy as the Exegesis of ‘Sacred’ Texts
- Author(s):
- D. Gregory MacIsaac (see profile)
- Date:
- 2012
- Group(s):
- Philosophy
- Subject(s):
- Philosophy, Plato
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- Neoplatonism, Proclus, Classics
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/fbtm-w995
- Abstract:
- According to his Cratylus commentary Proclus thinks that, although an oracle or a poet is the customary promulgator of a divine name, it is the philosopher who is the authoritative interpreter of that divine name. The reason for this is that the philosopher has the same access to the source of revelation as does the oracle or the poet, because the source of revelation is the same as the source of human reason, namely our intellection (noêsis) of the nature of the gods. Because of this, Proclus calls the true philosopher divine. There have not been many of them, but the most important of them was Plato, whose dialogues are therefore to be considered as revealed texts. Most importantly, however, although the dialogues are sacred texts, Proclus thinks that Plato’s act of authorship and his own act of interpreting Plato are squarely within the practice of philosophy, because philosophy, or dialectic, is just one mode of discourse that expresses the truth about the gods, alongside the inspired (in the stricted sense), the symbolic, and the mode that uses images.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Book section
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 4 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
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2013cratylus.pdf