Madness in the Timaeus and Divination in the Phaedrus are considered by Plato two opposed extreme conditions of noluntas – lack of will and intelligence. Madness is object of a ‘medical’ inquiry insofar it is a psycho-somatic illness, which approximates humans to beasts; divination belongs the standard-religious-experience and in the best practice of the inspired oracles approximates humans to Gods. Although they are both forms of ‘inability’ of intelligence and will, their role in human life can be ethically and intellectually positive, moving the soul – through the ‘therapy’ of the psycho-physical education and in front of an indistinct but authentic ‘prevision’ of the truth – to self-awareness and up to the Good.
Cattanei, E., Il folle e l'oracolo. Paradeigmata noluntatis in Platone, in Cattanei, E., Maso, S. (ed.), Paradeigmata Voluntatis 2. L'esperienza dell'Occidente, Ca' Foscari, VENEZIA -- ITA 2025: <<LEXIS SUPPLEMENTS. LEXIS STUDIES IN GREEK AND LATIN LITERATURE>>, 17 29- 48 [https://hdl.handle.net/10807/314481]
Il folle e l'oracolo. Paradeigmata noluntatis in Platone
Cattanei, Elisabetta
2025
Abstract
Madness in the Timaeus and Divination in the Phaedrus are considered by Plato two opposed extreme conditions of noluntas – lack of will and intelligence. Madness is object of a ‘medical’ inquiry insofar it is a psycho-somatic illness, which approximates humans to beasts; divination belongs the standard-religious-experience and in the best practice of the inspired oracles approximates humans to Gods. Although they are both forms of ‘inability’ of intelligence and will, their role in human life can be ethically and intellectually positive, moving the soul – through the ‘therapy’ of the psycho-physical education and in front of an indistinct but authentic ‘prevision’ of the truth – to self-awareness and up to the Good.
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