Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Theoria as a cultural practice
- 2 Inventing philosophic theoria
- 3 The fable of philosophy in Plato's Republic
- 4 Theorizing the beautiful body: from Plato to Philip of Opus
- 5 “Useless” knowledge: Aristotle's rethinking of theoria
- Epilogue: “Broken knowledge”? Theoria and wonder
- List of references
- Index of passages cited
- General index
1 - Theoria as a cultural practice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Theoria as a cultural practice
- 2 Inventing philosophic theoria
- 3 The fable of philosophy in Plato's Republic
- 4 Theorizing the beautiful body: from Plato to Philip of Opus
- 5 “Useless” knowledge: Aristotle's rethinking of theoria
- Epilogue: “Broken knowledge”? Theoria and wonder
- List of references
- Index of passages cited
- General index
Summary
Not only does a journey transport us over enormous distances, it also causes us to move a few degrees up or down in the social scale. It displaces us physically and also – for better or for worse – takes us out of our class context, so that the color and flavor of certain places cannot be dissociated from the always unexpected social level on which we find ourselves in experiencing them.
Lévi-Strauss, Tristes TropiquesThank heaven, here is not all the world.
Henry David Thoreau, WaldenThe fourth-century philosophers borrow the notion of “contemplating the spectacle of truth” not from the Presocratic tradition but from a specific civic institution – that of theoria. In ancient Greece, theoria was a venerable cultural practice characterized by a journey abroad for the sake of witnessing an event or spectacle. This chapter will examine the three most prominent forms of theoria in the classical period: visits to oracular centers, pilgrimages to religious festivals, and journeys abroad for the sake of learning. In all journeys of theoria, the pilgrim or theoros traveled away from home to see some sort of spectacle or to learn something about the outside world, thus confronting foreign peoples and places. In classical Greece, the theoros could be sent as an official representative of his city, in which case the theoria was carried out in a civic and political context. But a theoros could also venture forth on his own, enacting a “private” rather than a “civic” theoria.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Spectacles of Truth in Classical Greek PhilosophyTheoria in its Cultural Context, pp. 40 - 71Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004