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Chapter 5 - The Gods Made Visible

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2021

Andrea Nightingale
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
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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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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • The Gods Made Visible
  • Andrea Nightingale, Stanford University, California
  • Book: Philosophy and Religion in Plato's Dialogues
  • Online publication: 15 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108938815.006
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  • The Gods Made Visible
  • Andrea Nightingale, Stanford University, California
  • Book: Philosophy and Religion in Plato's Dialogues
  • Online publication: 15 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108938815.006
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Gods Made Visible
  • Andrea Nightingale, Stanford University, California
  • Book: Philosophy and Religion in Plato's Dialogues
  • Online publication: 15 April 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108938815.006
Available formats
×