Mediterranean Theoria: A View from Delphi

Abstract

Whereas the Mediterranean has not submitted easily to strong theories, still it has inspired a certain kind of theorizing from the ground. The setting of the Mediterranean viewed from the land's edge gave the world theoria, which Greek etymology and usage associates with looking onto a scene with amazement, viewing drama, being sent as an emissary to consult the oracle, or traveling for the purposes of sightseeing. The present essay explores some connections between the Mediterranean and theoria. Following a brief survey of how theoria functioned in antiquity, it studies the case of 20th-century Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos and American director and choreographer Eva Palmer - husband and wife - who sought to revive ancient ideas of theoria. They organized revivals of the Delphic Festivals in 1927 and 1930 as a prelude to re-establishing Delphi as a world center for people with a vision for the world. Their work rivaled that of the Olympic Revivals, except that the Delphic Revival was linked to a particular Mediterranean site and pursued the course of art, music, social thought, and especially tragedy together with athletics. A spectacular, imaginative, ambitious, but stillborn effort, it gives evidence of both the potential and limits of Mediterranean theoria.

Thirty Years of Thesis Eleven: a Survey of the Record and Questions for the Future

“…While this combination is reminiscent of the journal's willingness, expressed from the start, to include 'the views of non-Marxists' ('Editorial,' T11 2 [1981: 2]), it also suggests that by 1996 social theory was becoming the journal's overarching focus and critical and Marxist theory the subordinate categories. Indeed, some of the most exciting articles published since 1990 were unconnected to Marxism, for example Hans Joas's (1990) essay on 'The Classics of Sociology and the First World War' and Artemis Leontis (2001) on the Greek origins and concepts of theoria, while others grew out of a very expansive and not necessarily Marxist group of critical theories, for example the extremely insightful and provocative essay by Martin Jay (1992) on Lyotard and the 'denigration of vision in 20th-century French thought' and by Michel Freitag (2001) on the problem of normativity in the social sciences. In 2002 the journal's subtitle was revised again, to 'Critical Theory and Historical Sociology'.…”

Past as the Other – The Other as Past

“…I,30). U grþkom originalu, meÿutim, Solonovo posmatranje sveta oznaþeno je reþju theoria (Euben 2006, 21;Redfield 2002, 25;Leontis 2001). Istom reþju Herodot opisuje i dela Skita Anaharsida koji je, kao i Solon, kroz putovanje i posmatranje (theoria) stekao mudrost (sophia) (Euben 2006, 21).…”