This volume deals with the appropriations, criticism and transformation of Plato’s and Aristotle’s positions about theory, practice and the contemplative life, including their epistemological and metaphysical foundations, from ...

This volume gathers an international team of renowned scholars in the fields of ancient greek philosophy, in order to explore the continuous but changing dialogue between Platonism and Aristotelianism from the early imperial age to the end of Antiquity. While most chapters concern Platonists (Philo, Plutarch, Plotinus, Syrianus, Proclus, Damascius, Philoponus), and their uses or criticism of Aristotle's doctrines, several chapters are also devoted to Peripatetic authors (Boethius and mostly Alexander of Aphrodisias) and their attitudes towards Plato's positions. Each of (...) the eleven chapters draws the attention to specific polemical contexts and philosophical problems which made Platonists and Aristotelians unite against common adversaries like the Stoics, or split up, not only in the fields of metaphysics and cosmology, but also in epistemology, psychology and ethics. (shrink)

This paper draws a parallel between two contemporary French conceptions of sociology. Each is first considered in terms of the principles and strategies of its sociological method. Through an analogy with Marx's philosophy of social science, critical sociology is shown to make an heuristic use for the analysis of cultures and social structures of the resistance to sociology that the sociologist encounters in the social objects, whereas pragmatic sociology adopts a pluralistic and descriptive strategy towards actions, actors and things. The (...) paper then tries to show how common interests or trading zones could allow both critical and pragmatic sociology to profit from their competitive relation by taking each other as objects of sociological analysis. (shrink)

Le stoïcisme est une philosophie née de la pratique et faite pour être appliquée. Cette étude exhume la théorie de sa pratique implicite et montre que les doctrines antiques s'articulent rigoureusement à une manière de vivre.

Bien qu’il existe plusieurs ouvrages français connus concernant les conceptions antiques de l’amitié, ceux-ci ont eu tendance à être sévères avec le stoïcisme et à soutenir qu’il s’intéresse peu à l’amitié. L’ouvrage d’Anne Banateanu (A. B.) vient corriger opportunément cette image inexacte. Il possède avant tout de très grandes vertus pé­dagogiques, comme le montrent nettement son plan et sa méthode. Loin de présenter une interprétation globale et définitive de la théo­rie stoïcienne de l’am...

Contrairement à ses deux ouvrages précédents, qui depuis longtemps sont des classiques incontournables de l’histoire de la philosophie antique, le dernier livre d’Anna Maria Ioppolo ne se présente pas comme l’étude d’un auteur ou d’un problème hellénistique important, mais, plus modestement, comme l’étude d’un témoignage, celui de Sextus sur l’Académie sceptique. À première vue, il s’agirait donc d’un ouvrage appartenant à un genre bien connu et assez ancien, l’étude de sources, au double sen...

La critique de l’héliocentrisme d’Aristarque de Samos par le stoïcien Cléanthe n’était-elle qu’une défense de la religion traditionnelle? On montre qu’il n’en est rien, en replaçant cette polémique dans le contexte des débats cosmologiques et épistémologiques de l’époque hellénistique. Cléanthe devait d’abord considérer l’héliocentrisme comme un produit de la physique sans dieu de Straton de Lampsaque. Par ailleurs, son adoption d’une théologie solaire originale obligeait Cléanthe à se distinguer nettement de tout héliocentrisme. Enfin, loin de les ignorer, Cléanthe discutait les (...) constructions de l’astronomie mathématique et prétendait les relativiser au profit d’une explication cosmobiologique héraclitéenne des mouvements des astres. (shrink)

À l’instar de nombreux dialogues socratiques de Platon, le Ménexène s’ouvre sur une rencontre fortuite, près de l’agora, entre Socrate et le jeune Ménexène (qui est présent dans le Lysis et aussi dans le Phédon). Ils engagent une discussion à propos de l’éloge des soldats morts au combat traditionnellement prononcé lors de leurs funérailles publiques à Athènes, qui doivent bientôt avoir lieu et pour lesquelles l’orateur doit être choisi par le Conseil. Socrate estime que ce type de discours n...

Before the rediscovery of Stoic logic during the 20th Century, the debate between the two French historians of philosophy Victor Brochard (1848-1907) and Octave Hamelin (1856-1907) triggered a renewed interpretation of Stoic syllogistics by focusing on the relations between logic and physics, and their philosophical implications.

Cet ouvrage cherche à mettre en lumière et reconstituer une manière antique négligée d’analyser la connaissance que l’auteure désigne comme « socratique » (p. 3), comme « pyrrhonienne » (p. 184) ou comme une « lecture sceptique de Platon », et dont elle trouve et analyse les principaux éléments chez Platon, Sextus Empiricus et les stoïciens. Cette lignée est définie comme liant immédiatement les questions épistémologiques à des questions normatives à propos de notre incapa­cité d’examiner nos...

L’article met en lumière la continuité intellectuelle de l’Académie à propos d’une question précise, les rapports entre philosophie et géométrie. On soutient d’abord que, dans les livres VI-VII de la République, Platon ne cherche pas à réformer les pratiques des géomètres mais identifie les contraintes incontournables de leurs raisonnements (constructions, hypothèses), qui constituent et limitent leur objectivité. On montre ensuite que cette analyse constitue le cadre des réflexions académiciennes ultérieures sur la géométrie. Speusippe reprend et développe l’analyse platonicienne des constructions (...) géométriques, qui est appliquée (de Speusippe à Crantor) à la cosmologie et même à la doctrine des principes, afin d’expliquer comment elles saisissent leurs objets éternels depuis le devenir, de manière indirecte. Si la Nouvelle Académie d’Arcésilas et de Carnéade critique les mathématiques, on fait l’hypothèse qu’il s’agissait pour elle – dans le contexte des débats philosophiques hellénistiques sur les usages des mathématiques –, de rappeler les limites de leur objectivité contre toute idéalisation dogmatique de la méthode géométrique. (shrink)

Tout en définissant les systèmes philosophiques par des critères a priori, l’analyse de Vuillemin a l’ambition de s’appuyer sur l’histoire réelle de la philosophie pour les comprendre. Cet article examine cette articulation entre logique et histoire à propos de la question de la genèse de l’exigence de systématicité en Grèce antique. En s’appuyant sur des textes inédits déposés dans les Archives Vuillemin à Nancy, on montre que Vuillemin semble avoir évolué à propos des tentatives de contextualisation historique de la naissance (...) de la philosophie, qu’il jugeait inutiles dans Nécessité ou Contingence, et à propos du rôle respectif du mythe et de la raison dans ce processus. On discute ensuite l’hypothèse principale de Vuillemin, à savoir le rôle moteur de l’axiomatique dans l’élaboration des systèmes antiques et on la compare avec l’hypothèse (issue de l’anthropologie historique de la Grèce) d’un rôle structurant des débats publics. (shrink)

Cet article est une explication suivie et presque complète du chapitre III, 12 des Entretiens d’Épictète intitulé « Sur l’exercice » et en particulier de l’opposition qu’il propose entre les exercices des acrobates et ceux du philosophe. On analyse la discussion sous-jacente avec Diogène de Sinope et la critique de la dimension spectaculaire des exercices cyniques, à laquelle Epictète oppose un entraînement philosophique essentiellement privé et même invisible.

This paper offers an analysis of Epictetus, Discourses 3.12 « On Training ». To explain the objects, the functions and risks of philosophical exercises in Epictetus, I study his criticism of acrobatic exercises and of Diogenes’ practice of cynicism as a public performance, to which Epictetus opposes his notion of philosophical training as essentially private and even invisible.

While Epictetus’Diatribaiare not an ethical treatise, but aim chiefly at urging and training pupils to practice philosophy, they can also be used to reconstruct Epictetus’ positions about some of the questions raised within the Stoa after Zeno. This paper focuses on the problem of the contribution of indifferent (external or bodily) things to happiness and of the relationship between virtue and these indifferents. Against scholars claiming that Epictetus shared Aristo of Chios’ heterodox indifferentism, it is shown that Epictetus upholds Chrysippus’ (...) ethical doctrine of thetelosand acknowledges that some indifferents are natural or have ‘value’ (axia) and should not be despised or ignored. In making this point, Epictetus uses the concept of ‘good reasonning’ about value which can be traced back to Diogenes of Seleucia (and Antipater of Tarsus). Moreover, when he describes how we can reach the goal of life through our natural faculties, Epictetus might also borrow Panetius’ explanation of thetelos. (shrink)

This is a survey of the history, organization and activities of hellenistic and roman philosophical schools, followed by a study of the way in which these schools shaped the notion and practice of philosophy during this period.

This chapter contains sections titled: A Brief History of Philosophical Schools in Antiquity Life in the Schools Specific Characteristics of Philosophy in the Hellenistic Schools Bibliography.

Les travaux sur la Nouvelle Académie n’ont pas manqué durant les trente dernières années, mais très rares sont les monographies entièrement consacrées à l’un de ses trois grands représentants, l’exception qui confirme la règle étant l’ouvrage de Charles Brittain sur Philon de Larissa (Oxford, 2001). L’ouvrage de Simone Vezzoli (désormais S. V.) sur Arcésilas est issu d’une thèse de doctorat soutenue à Macerata en 2010 et a inauguré une nouvelle collection des éditions Brepols, Philosophie hel...

Name der Zeitschrift: Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie Jahrgang: 98 Heft: 4 Seiten: 373-394.

Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae Source presents the transcription of the collection of testimonies about Socrates and Socratics (Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae) originally edited by G. Giannantoni. -/- The site enable users to access texts, exploit resources, and perform queries. Notes, additional information and a legenda for a better access to the texts are also available. -/- The publication is peer-reviewed and aspire to meet the highest quality standards. The content of the site and its internet addresses are stable and can (...) be freely consulted and used for scholarly purposes. -/- The site will be soon open for semantically enrich the data published on the websites. A use of peer-to-peer (p2p) networking will also provide an efficient and engaging collaborative work space. (shrink)

This article is currently available as a free download on ingentaconnect.

Bien qu’il tende à interpréter l’ἐποχή comme une position personnelle d’Arcésilas, Thomas Bénatouïl admet cependant que cette interprétation n’est pas pleinement justifiée par nos sources, lesquelles, loin d’être unanimes, font également état d’une interprétation exclusivement dialectique de l’ἐποχή περὶ πάντων. Mais s’il en est ainsi, il est également difficile de soutenir qu’Arcésilas utilise un vocabulaire qui lui est propre pour exposer son point de vue ; en conséquence de quoi le mot ἄδη...

The general content of the book is dedicated to the dialectical practices and their logical tools and techniques developed after Plato and Aristotle within the philosophical schools of the Hellenis...

In this book, T. M. Scanlon offers new answers to these questions, as they apply to the central part of morality that concerns what we owe to each other.

This volume brings together for the first time a significant number of Reid's manuscript papers on natural history, physiology and materialist metaphysics. An important contribution not only to Reid studies but also to our understanding of eighteenth-century science and its context.

Thomas Reid was a philosopher who founded the Scottish school of 'common sense'. Much of Reid's work is a critique of his contemporary, David Hume, whose empiricism he rejects. In this work, written after Reid's appointment to a professorship at the university of Glasgow, and published in 1785, he turns his attention to ideas about perception, memory, conception, abstraction, judgement, reasoning and taste. He examines the work of his predecessors and contemporaries, arguing that 'when we find philosophers maintaining that (...) there is no heat in the fire, nor colour in the rainbow … we may be apt to think the whole to be only a dream of fanciful men, who have entangled themselves in cobwebs spun out of their own brain'. Written by one of the Scottish Enlightenment's most important thinkers, this work brings to life the intellectual debates of the time. (shrink)

Thomas Aquinas produced a voluminous body of work on moral theory, and much of that work is on virtue, particularly the status and value of the virtues as principles of virtuous acts, and the way in which a moral life can be organized around them schematically. Thomas Osborne presents Aquinas's account of virtue in its historical, philosophical and theological contexts, to show the reader what Aquinas himself wished to teach about virtue. His discussion makes the complexities of Aquinas's (...) moral thought accessible to readers despite the differences between Thomas's texts themselves, and the distance between our background assumptions and his. The book will be valuable for scholars and students in ethics, medieval philosophy, and theology. (shrink)

There has been an explosion of interest in the metaphysics of fundamentality in recent decades. The consensus view, called metaphysical foundationalism, maintains that there is something absolutely fundamental in reality upon which everything else depends. However, a number of thinkers have chal- lenged the arguments in favor of foundationalism and have proposed competing non-foundationalist ontologies. This paper provides a systematic and critical introduction to metaphysical foundationalism in the current literature and argues that its relation to ontological dependence and substance should (...) be qualified in important ways. (shrink)

In a recent paper Weinberg (2007) claims that there is an essential mark of trustworthiness which typical sources of evidence as perception or memory have, but philosophical intuitions lack, namely that we are able to detect and correct errors produced by these “hopeful” sources. In my paper I will argue that being a hopeful source isn't necessary for providing us with evidence. I then will show that, given some plausible background assumptions, intuitions at least come close to being hopeful, if (...) they are reliable. If this is true, Weinberg's new challenge comes down to the claim that philosophical intuitions are not reliable since they are significantly unstable. In the second part of my paper I will argue that and why the experimentally established instability of folk intuitions about philosophical cases does not show that philosopher's expert intuitions about these cases are instable. (shrink)

I critically examine some deflationary theories of properties, according to which properties are ‘shadows of predicates’ and quantification over them serves a mere quasi-logical function. I start by considering Hofweber’s internalist theory, and pose a problem for his account of inexpressible properties. I then introduce a theory of properties that closely resembles Horwich’s minimalist theory of truth. This theory overcomes the problem of inexpressible properties, but its formulation presupposes the existence of various kinds of abstract objects. I discuss some ways (...) to reduce these existence assumptions, but ultimately suggest that deflationists can hardly avoid quantification over abstract objects of one sort or another. I conclude that property deflationism is perhaps not as deflationary as some philosophers want it to be, but that it’s still apt to call the position ‘deflationary’. (shrink)

Looking back on it, it seems almost incredible that so many equally educated, equally sincere compatriots and contemporaries, all drawing from the same limited stock of evidence, should have reached so many totally different conclusions---and always with complete certainty.

Issues concerning patients' rights are at the center of bioethics, but the political basis for these rights has rarely been examined. In Bioethics in a Liberal Society: The Political Framework of Bioethics Decision Making , Thomas May offers a compelling analysis of how the political context of liberal constitutional democracy shapes the rights and obligations of both patients and health care professionals. May focuses on how a key feature of liberal society -- namely, an individual's right to make independent (...) decisions -- has an impact on the most important relational facets of health care, such as patients' autonomy and professionals' rights of conscience. Although a liberal political framework protects individual judgments, May asserts that this right is based on the assumption of an individual's competency to make sound decisions. May uses case studies to examine society's approach to medical decision making when, for reasons ranging from age to severe mental disorder, a person lacks sufficient competency to make independent and fully informed choices. To protect the autonomy of these vulnerable patients, May emphasizes the need for health care ethics committees and ethics consultants to help guide the decision-making process in clinical settings. Bioethics in a Liberal Society is essential reading for all those interested in understanding how bioethics is practiced within our society. (shrink)