After Socrates Episode 3 - Dialectic into Dia-logos

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Apr 24, 2023

John Vervaeke, a Philosophical Fellowship & Dialectic into Dialogos practitioner, discusses topics like the relationship between dialectic and cultivating virtue, the importance of non-propositional knowledge in wisdom and meaning-making, and the role of orientation in our perception of reality. He also explores the concept of knowing in two different ways and guides listeners through a practice of opening and closing their senses.

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INSIGHT

Dialectic's Missing Manual

Dialectic and dialogos are central to Socrates' philosophy, yet Plato offers no clear explanation of how to practice them.
This suggests that dialectic is learned through practice and experience, not just theoretical study.

INSIGHT

Why No Dialectic Instructions?

Three hypotheses explain the lack of instructions for practicing dialectic: it's learned through apprenticeship, embedded in an ecology of practices, or the focus was on the results (virtue and wisdom), not the method itself.
These hypotheses highlight the experiential and embodied nature of dialectic.

INSIGHT

Reverse-Engineering Dialectic

Reverse-engineering dialectic from its results, like virtue and wisdom, is proposed as a method to understand its practice.
This approach prioritizes practical application and achieving similar outcomes over historical accuracy.

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Welcome back to episode 3 of After Socrates! Please join our patreon to support our work! https://www.patreon.com/johnvervaeke

You are invited to join me live, online, at the next Circling & Dialogos Workshop where we discuss & practice the tools involved in both Philosophical Fellowship & Dialectic into Dialogos.

You can find more information, and register, here:

https://circlinginstitute.com/circling-dialogos/

Books Referenced:

Dialectic and Dialogue: Plato's Practice of Philosophical Inquiry - https://amzn.to/3QzeW7i

New Perspectives on Platonic Dialectic A Philosophy of Inquiry - https://amzn.to/3ird3wJ

Thinkers Referenced:

Pierre Hadot

Plotinus

Francisco J. Gonzalez

Aristotle

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Gilbert Ryle

James J. Gibson

Stanley Rosen

Wallace Matson

Vasilis Politis

Augustine of Hippo

Graham Priest

Werner Stegmaier

Eric Sanday

James H. Austin

Show Notes:

[0:00] Intro

[9:24] Pierre Hadot was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy specializing in ancient philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism.

[14:56] Plotinus c. 204/5 – 270 CE. A philosopher of the Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism.

[16:25] "In the end, I'm not concerned ultimately about historical accuracy. I'm concerned about affording people the ability to practice a way of life."

[23:25] Semantic Memory - General knowledge about the world: e.g., facts, ideas, and other concept-based knowledge unrelated to specific experiences.

[24:41] Procedural memory - a type of implicit memory involved in the performance of different actions and skills: the memory of how to do certain things.

[26:07] Perspectival Knowing - Refers to knowing via embodied perception. It consists of seeing and experiencing the world from within a certain state or place of consciousness.

[28:29] Episodic memory - The memory of everyday events that can be explicitly stated. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at particular times and places.

[30:28] ver·i·si·mil·i·tude - the appearance or semblance of truth; genuineness; authenticity.

[31:02] Propositional knowing has to do with our reasoning capacity (language and inference). Procedural knowing relates to our basic skills and cognition (sensory-motor interaction). Perspectival knowing is about embodied consciousness (salience landscaping).

[32:45] The Fourth Kind of Knowing: Participatory Knowing. Finding agency within an agent-arena relationship; by being fitted to the arena, the agent is able to determine the consequences of behavior and alter that behavior to bring about the desired consequences.

[38:39] James Jerome Gibson (1904 – 1979). An American psychologist considered to be one of the most important contributors to the field of visual perception.

[45:04] Stanley Rosen (1929-2014). One of the central themes of his work is the claim that the extraordinary discourses of philosophy have no other basis than the intelligent understanding of the features of ordinary life or human existence.

[49.37] Wallace Matson (1921-2012). An American professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his works on the existence of God.

[52:17] Ep. 17 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Gnosis and Existential Inertia:

[1:06:46] Vasilis Politis (1963-) is a Greek philosopher and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. He is known for his expertise on Plato and Aristotle. (Dialectic and the Ability to Orientate Ourselves)

[1:12:55] Graham Priest (born 1948) Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is known for his defense of dialetheism, his in-depth analyses of the logical paradoxes and his many writings related to paraconsistent and other non-classical logics.

[1:27:13] The Forms: The forms are something like fundamental principles of intelligibility and of being. The forms are the principles by which things "Are" and by which they are known or knowable by us.

[1:32:33] Beginning of the practice.

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After Socrates is a series about how to create the theory, the practice, and the ecology of practices such that we can live and grow and develop through a Socratic way of life. The core argument is; the combination of the theoretical framework and the pedagogical program of practices can properly conduct us into the Socratic way of life. We believe that the Socratic way of life is what is most needed today because it is the one that can most help us cultivate wisdom in a way that is simultaneously respectful to spiritual tradition and to current scientific work.