John M. Dillon – författare

Bildung and Paideia examines traditional humanistic ideals in light of philosophical reflection on the need for education of the whole human being. The study of what it is to be human is traditionally the task of the humanities. In recent years, however, the humanities have been increasingly subordinated to technological, economic, and utilitarian aims. Do the humanities still have a fundamentally distinct task to fulfil in education? Today’s reduction of educational outcomes to measurable competencies and economically exploitable skills is opposed to traditional ideals like that of Greek paideia and the German Romantic concept of Bildung, which emphasized formation of the whole human being. The present volume takes as its point of departure the conviction that the study of ‘the human experience'—whether through philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history, or languages—has something specific to offer in the realm of education today. The individual contributions examine the specific role of philosophy and the humanities in education from ancient times to the present and explore possibilities for conceiving philosophical models of education.The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory.

Bildung and Paideia examines traditional humanistic ideals in light of philosophical reflection on the need for education of the whole human being. The study of what it is to be human is traditionally the task of the humanities. In recent years, however, the humanities have been increasingly subordinated to technological, economic, and utilitarian aims. Do the humanities still have a fundamentally distinct task to fulfil in education? Today’s reduction of educational outcomes to measurable competencies and economically exploitable skills is opposed to traditional ideals like that of Greek paideia and the German Romantic concept of Bildung, which emphasized formation of the whole human being. The present volume takes as its point of departure the conviction that the study of ‘the human experience'—whether through philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history, or languages—has something specific to offer in the realm of education today. The individual contributions examine the specific role of philosophy and the humanities in education from ancient times to the present and explore possibilities for conceiving philosophical models of education.The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory.

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Plotinus was much exercised by Plato's doctrines of the soul. In this treatise, at chapter 1 line 27, he talks of "the divine Plato, who has said in many places in his works many noble things about the soul and its arrival here, so that we can hope for some clarity from him. So what does the philosopher say? It is clear that he does not always speak with sufficient consistency for us to make out his intentions with any ease." The issue in this treatise is one that has puzzled students of Plato from ancient to modern times—and is indeed a popular topic for undergraduate essays even today: Why should the philosopher, who has ascended through a long and painful process of dialectic to "assimilation to the divine," ever descend back into the body? Plotinus himself is said by Porphyry to have attained such a state of other-worldly transcendence on at least four occasions during his lifetime, so this was a very real and personal issue for him. In this treatise we see him grappling with it.

Platonists beginning in the Old Academy itself and up to and including Plotinus struggled to understand and articulate the relation between Plato’s Demiurge and the Living Animal which served as the model for creation. The central question is whether “contents” of the Living Animal, the Forms, are internal to the mind of the Demiurge or external and independent. For Plotinus, the solution depends heavily on how the Intellect that is the Demiurge and the Forms or intelligibles are to be understood in relation to the first principle of all, the One or the Good. The treatise V.5 [32] sets out the case for the internality of Forms and argues for the necessary existence of an absolutely simple and transcendent first principle of all, the One or the Good. Not only Intellect and the Forms, but everything else depends on this principle for their being.