

On the Pedagogical Motive for Esoteric Writing (2007) - gwern
https://pdf.yt/d/pLzAvzFb7e8sWjll

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le0n
There are some distinct ideas that this article at times seems to conflate:

\- Obscurity, speaking in fables, non-clarity, indirectness. Multiple layers
to one's teaching. This possibly for the sake of pedagogy.

\- Teachings for the public versus teachings for the initiates/elite/true
disciples. Two contradictory or opposed layers to one's teaching.

The former and the latter are quite different, and I wonder whether the latter
might be far less common than the former.

It seems clear that some thinkers, particularly in ancient Greece and Rome,
had opposed esoteric and exoteric aspects to their work, and that we should
acknowledge and try to discern this where it exists.

But I'd question whether esotericism is "of the greatest importance for our
understanding of the whole course of Western philosophy". The author seems to
think of it almost as a kind of skeleton key, as though maybe there is a
significant stream of thought that people have radically misunderstood. The
idea of a hidden thread of elite, secret knowledge has an alluring,
conspiratorial feel to it that the author doesn't mention -- a vibe that is
not so foreign to our modern sensibilities (Scientology, Kabbalah, New Age,
...).

Melzer writes that "with pedagogical esotericism, the writer actually embraces
concealment and obscurity (of the right kind) as a positive good and as
something essential to the primary purpose of his act of writing:
philosophical education". How does this not describe art of all kinds -- e.g.
fiction writing -- where the creator has a didactic purpose, but artfully
weaves this into their work? ("Ars est celare artem.") Again, there is no
distinction made between nonclarity and the demand for active, engaged,
creative reading and thinking on the one hand, and on the other, radically
opposed esoteric and exoteric meanings.

~~~
ryanf
I haven't finished the article yet, but I think one thread that's supposed to
connect those two ideas is that in both cases, it's important for the external
surface to be consistent with the worldview of a naive reader, while further
thought reveals a meaning that's at least somewhat subversive if not
completely contradictory to that worldview:

> It follows, then, that a writer who seeks to educate philosophically through
> Socratic dialectics must make a special effort to enter sympathetically into
> the received opinions of his time and place—though he may consider them
> false—while pointing quietly to certain puzzles or contradictions within
> those opinions.

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gwern
See also "Appendix: a chronological compilation of testimonial evidence for
Esotericism"
[http://www.press.uchicago.edu/sites/melzer/melzer_appendix.p...](http://www.press.uchicago.edu/sites/melzer/melzer_appendix.pdf)

~~~
le0n
Also a review at NDPR, which makes some points similar to mine above:
[http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/53333-philosophy-between-the-
lines-t...](http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/53333-philosophy-between-the-lines-the-
lost-history-of-esoteric-writing/)

------
yzzxy
Interesting article. I've been covering Descartes recently, and his writing
style is extremely ornate and complicated. From _Meditations on First
Philosophy_ :

"For this reason I have no doubt that if you deign to take the trouble in the
first place of correcting this work (for being conscious not only of my
infirmity, but also of my ignorance, I should not dare to state that it was
free from errors), and then, after adding to it these things that are lacking
to it, completing those which are imperfect, and yourselves taking the trouble
to give a more ample explanation of those things which have need of it, or at
least making me aware of the defects so that I may apply myself to remedy
them; when this is done and when finally the reasonings by which I prove that
there is a God, and that the human soul differs from the body, shall be
carried to that point of perspicuity to which I am sure they can be carried in
order that they may be esteemed as perfectly exact demonstrations, if you
deign to authorize your approbation and to render public testimony to their
truth and certainty, I do not doubt, I say, that henceforward all the errors
and false opinions which have ever existed regarding these two questions will
soon be effaced from the minds of men."

That's one sentence! The translation is from _The Philosophical Works of
Descartes_ , which was apparently translated from French, which was translated
from Latin. So there could be some cause for this style in the translation
work.

------
timrosenblatt
Awesome.

Or, should I say that my self-generated perception after a compressed review
of the literature has left me inclined to believe that the author is highly
self-aware and wry, with their oral muscular hydrostat firmly implanted in
either the left or right side of the orifice.

------
bobcostas55
Related: _Persecution and the Art of Writing_ , short and very sweet.

[https://ia600407.us.archive.org/32/items/LeoStraussOnEsoteri...](https://ia600407.us.archive.org/32/items/LeoStraussOnEsotericismExotericism/Strauss-
PersecutionArtOfWriting.pdf)

