Did Socrates Meditate? On Some Traces of Contemplative Practices in Early Greco-Latin Philosophy - Centre Jean Pépin - UMR 8230 Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Religions Année : 2022

Did Socrates Meditate? On Some Traces of Contemplative Practices in Early Greco-Latin Philosophy

Greco-Latin Early
  • Fonction : Auteur
John Michael Chase

Résumé

Following insights by Pierre Hadot, I suggest that although explicit discussions of practices of breath control and other psychosomatic techniques of contemplative attention management are conspicuously absent in early Greek thought, there are some signs that analogous practices did exist, perhaps as early as Socrates. The combined evidence of Aristophanes and Plato suggests that Socrates may have engaged in a practice that has key features in common with meditative practices and experiences as attested in Zen Buddhism. This technique consists in two stages: an initial practice of top-down, voluntary, egocentric focused meditation resulting in a state of "absorption" or abstraction from all sensory input, followed by the practice of a more bottom-up, open, othercentered (allocentric) form of meditation, intended to provide a more global or universal perspective, in which the practitioner situates herself as a part of the cosmos. This paper includes discussion of "withdrawal" into oneself as a contemplative practice in Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Evagrius Ponticus, and Gregory Palamas.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
Did_Socrates_Meditate_On_Some_Traces_of.pdf (209.68 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte

Dates et versions

hal-03881691 , version 1 (02-12-2022)

Identifiants

Citer

Greco-Latin Early, John Michael Chase. Did Socrates Meditate? On Some Traces of Contemplative Practices in Early Greco-Latin Philosophy. Religions, 2022, 13, ⟨10.3390/rel13060479⟩. ⟨hal-03881691⟩
22 Consultations
48 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More