Book contents
- Philosophy and Religion in Plato’s Dialogues
- Philosophy and Religion in Plato’s Dialogues
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Forms, the Good, and the Divine
- Chapter 2 Eternal Longings
- Chapter 3 Dialogue of Self and Soul
- Chapter 4 Wings of Desire
- Chapter 5 The Gods Made Visible
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 5 - The Gods Made Visible
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2021
- Philosophy and Religion in Plato’s Dialogues
- Philosophy and Religion in Plato’s Dialogues
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Forms, the Good, and the Divine
- Chapter 2 Eternal Longings
- Chapter 3 Dialogue of Self and Soul
- Chapter 4 Wings of Desire
- Chapter 5 The Gods Made Visible
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
But how can you look at something and set your own ego aside? Whose eyes are doing the looking? As a rule, you think of the ego as one who is peering out of your own eyes as if leaning on a window sill, looking at the world stretching out before him in all its immensity. So, then: a window looks out on the world. The world is out there; and in here, what do we have? The world still – what else could there be? With a little effort of concentration, Mr. Palomar manages to shift the world from in front of him and set it on the sill, looking out. Now, beyond the windows, what do we have? The world is also there, and for the occasion has been split into a looking world and a world looked at. And what about him, also known as “I,” namely Mr. Palomar? Is he not a piece of the world that is looking at another piece of the world? Or else, given that there is world that side of the window and world this side, perhaps the “I,” the ego, is simply the window through which the world looks at the world. To look at itself the world needs the eyes (and the eyeglasses) of Mr. Palomar.
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- Philosophy and Religion in Plato's Dialogues , pp. 213 - 261Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021