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

Bibliographic Data

ID4750022
AuthorsJohn M Chase (0000-0001-9255-5721, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume13
Issue6
Pages479
Publication date2022-05-25
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel13060479
OpenAlexW4281482908
LanguageEN
References cited18

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, other-centered (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

Aesthetics · Art · Buddhism · Contemplation · Dialectic · Emptiness · Epistemology · Happiness · Meditation · Psychotherapist · SOCRATES · Theology · Visual arts · Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions · Philosophy · Psychedelics and Drug Studies · Psychology · Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

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