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The “unknown voice” in Western history since Socrates

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Published/Copyright: January 26, 2017

Abstract

Socrates remains one of the most prominent paternal figures of Western dialogism and phonocentric paradigm; the man who stirred up the dialectic imaginations of his days. In Plato’s Socratic dialogues, his inner voice (daimonion) sounds as a last-instance statement to cast the light on the final solution of the conversation. In the context of antiquity and following cultural tradition, Socrates was the only hearer of warning signals from inside. The rest of the voices were urging (voices of the imaginable cursed souls, saints, angels, etc.). There was no need for a “personal” dictating voice when a divine dictation was already present. According to Charles Peirce’s classification, a “voice without evident source” or a voice from the head is a dicent indexical legisign.

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Published Online: 2017-1-26
Published in Print: 2017-3-1

©2017 by De Gruyter Mouton

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