Department of Philosophy Colloquium Series 2021-22
Bruce Gilbert, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy and Liberal Arts, Coordinator of the Social Justice and Citizenship Minor at Bishop’s University, Lennoxville, Quebec
Sketch of a Phenomenological Plato.
WHEN: Wednesday, March 30, 4–5:30 p.m.
WHAT: Sketch of a Phenomenological Plato.
WHERE: The Maples, Room 110 (Weisz Room)
Phenomenology is typically taken to be anti-Platonist: human beings are constrained by a horizon of finitude, and thus resoluteness in the face of anxiety or boredom and, ultimately our death, is the limit of any transcendence we may be capable of. This paper will argue, on the contrary, that meaningfulness is impossible without Platonic forms and the ideals to which they give rise. I will show that Plato’s forms function erotically (as invitations), provoke creativity, generate the criteria of better and worse, and demand a universal recognition and promotion of all that “participates” in forms. I will conclude by suggesting that Plato’s forms are metaphysically real, and not the operators of some kind of constituting consciousness.
