Classical Greek Philosophy

En el presente artículo se propone un estudio del papiro P. Oxy. III. 414, cuyo contenido se centra en el análisis de los posibles beneficios de la poesía. Dado su enorme interés histórico, filológico y filosófico, así como la falta de una revisión filológica actualizada de la edición del texto y de una traducción al español, se propondrá en las presentes páginas una aproximación tanto al estudio de su forma como de su contenido hasta alcanzar una clarificación que permita, en (...) un futuro, abordar con mayor exactitud la polémica en torno a su posible autoría. Se estudiarán detenidamente las ediciones de texto realizadas hasta ahora y se propondrá una versión algo más conservadora, así como una traducción que, se espera, pueda servir como punto de partida a la hora de abordar dicha posible discusión en torno a su autoría de manera rigurosa. (shrink)

This article argues that the meaning of σύνεσις in the classical period has been inadequately understood, and consequently its historical significance has likely been misplaced. The traditional view is that the word possessed two basic meanings. First and foremost, σύνεσις meant a general ability to understand. Second and less frequently, it meant moral conscience or some such ability to judge the morality of human choice and action. However, by considering anew the attestations of σύνεσις and its grammatically related forms, it (...) will be shown that σύνεσις never meant moral conscience, but instead often denoted a hermeneutic virtue by which we interpret the deeper significance of things said and done. (shrink)

This paper examines the soul-turning metaphor in Book 7 of Plato’s Republic. It argues that the failure to find a consistent reading of how the metaphor is used has contributed to a number of long-standing disagreements, especially concerning the more famous metaphor with which it is intertwined, the Cave allegory. A full reading of the metaphor, as it occurs throughout Book 7, is offered, with particularly close attention to what is one of the most difficult and stubbornly divisive passages in (...) Book 7, 532b6–d1. (shrink)

Hippocrate a contribué à l’évolution de la médecine grecque de son temps par ses observations détaillées sur les maladies et leurs effets, en insistant sur l’importance du régime et de l’environnement en ce qui concerne la santé des patients. Il s’est interrogé sur la moralité du praticien, son comportement et son attitude avec son patient afin de produire des normes éthiques solides pour départager sa médecine des conceptions magico-religieuses, des pratiques qu’il estimait douteuses, trompeuses. Certains aspects des textes du Corpus (...) Hippocratique ont été largement considérés pertinents par la médecine moderne, tout particulièrement en ce qui concerne les rapports médecin-patient. Dans l’article qui suit, nous nous intéressons au rôle de la confiance dans la relation médecin-patient au sein du Corpus Hippocratique : comment le corps des médecins hippocratiques joue-t-il un rôle dans la construction de la confiance avec le patient ? Nous soutenons que le corps du médecin agit comme élément essentiel dans l’établissement de la confiance et comme support de sa réputation. Or, si la relation de confiance médecin-patient est une condition fondamentale pour la pratique de l’art médical, la confiance est un facteur important et s’inscrit dans une approche où le malade est l’allié du médecin afin de combattre la maladie. Plus le patient a confiance en son médecin, plus le médecin hippocratique est apte à pratiquer son art médical et prêt à aider le patient dans son combat contre la maladie. Ainsi, pour répondre à la question posée, nous présenterons, en premier lieu, le contexte dans lequel le médecin hippocratique pratique son art. Cette présentation nous aidera à comprendre l’importance de la confiance, notamment en ce qui concerne son impact dans la relation médecin-patient, ainsi que de la quantité de données indispensables transmises par le patient au médecin. Nous serons alors en mesure, en deuxième lieu, de démontrer que le corps du médecin et le corps du patient sont des éléments fondamentaux dans l’élaboration de la confiance : corps comme vecteur de l’image du médecin et corps comme instrument. (shrink)

Contrairement à une tendance majoritaire de l’exégèse du vocabulaire de la douleur dans le Corpus hippocratique (CH), qui le réduit à trois familles de mots et qui conçoit la douleur chez les médecins hippocratiques comme un phénomène exclusivement physique, nous avons des raisons de penser qu’on peut trouver plusieurs manières de signifier la douleur dans le CH et que les médecins hippocratiques ont thématisé des éléments émotionnels dans leurs diagnostics de la douleur.

Hippocrate de Cos, médecin et philosophe, est souvent considéré comme le père de la médecine. Si la représentation d’un Hippocrate comme « père de la médecine » relève de l’inflation mythique, elle est néanmoins révélatrice de l’importance de son héritage. L’objectif de cet article est de rendre compte des différentes versions du Serment d’Hippocrate, ainsi que des versions professionnelles subséquentes, afin de souligner certaines difficultés inhérentes à ce texte. Nous souhaitons également avancer l’idée selon laquelle les idéaux hippocratiques ne sont (...) pas à considérer comme un ensemble de principes aujourd’hui caduques, mais plutôt comme un cadre conceptuel pertinent pour comprendre certains des enjeux propres à la relation médecin-patient.e aujourd’hui. (shrink)

Dans cet article, j’étudie la représentation faite par la médecine hippocratique des principaux organes du corps et du système vasculaire en souhaitant montrer que l’anatomie hippocratique n’est ni le produit de l’observation rigoureuse, ni celui de la pure fantaisie, mais qu’elle a toujours pour fonction de soutenir une théorie physiologique ou une pratique thérapeutique. Je mets d’abord en évidence la correspondance étroite entre certaines descriptions anatomiques parmi les plus détaillées du Corpus hippocratique et la physiologie humorale défendue par plusieurs auteurs. (...) J’analyse ensuite quelques schémas du système vasculaire dans le but d’exposer leur dépendance à l’égard de l’étiologie et de la thérapie. (shrink)

Le traité Du Régime se démarque des autres traités du corpus hippocratique à bien des égards. Aucun autre texte de ce corpus n’a poussé aussi loin le lien entre le corps humain en tant que microcosme et le cosmos, son macrocosme. Ce lien se manifeste notamment dans de multiples analogies, dans des expressions communes utilisées pour les décrire, ainsi que dans des explications identiques des phénomènes qui les caractérisent. Le présent article enquêtera sur une expression spécifique liant l’homme et le (...) cosmos : le terme περίοδος. Dans la continuité des travaux de Luc Brisson et Jacques Jouanna qui ont signalé plusieurs traits communs au Timée de Platon et au traité Du Régime, il s’agira de mettre en lumière l’importance du terme περίοδος, du concept de rotation/révolution, dans l’association microcosme-macrocosme, autant d’un point de vue structurel que fonctionnel. (shrink)

To what extent were the different aspects of Xenophanes’ philosophy interrelated? I argue: (1) that in fragments B 27-B 33 Xenophanes offered a coherent set of explanations of a wide range of terrestrial and heavenly phenomena in terms of a small number of basic forces and material substances; (2) that in fragments B23-26 he articulated a coherent view of a deity wholly isolated from the natural realm and human affairs; and (3): that in fragments B18 and B 34 he encouraged (...) inquiry into both divine and natural realms while acknowledging that a clear and sure understanding of non-evident phenomena lay beyond human capacities. Xenophanes’ view of a nature unrelated to divine influence neatly complemented his view of the divine as lacking any involvement in nature and human affairs. It is not clear, however, that Xenophanes’ moral concerns and criticisms of current mores drew support from other aspects of his thought. (shrink)

Çağdaş ya da geleneksel hiçbir toplum gösterilemez ki; iletişim olmaksızın varlığını sürdürüp, gelişim içinde olabilsin. Ne var ki; bu süreç içinde iletişim kimi zaman görünür olmamış; bu nedenle her zaman sorgulanamamıştır. Oysa iletişim ve uygarlık insanın yeryüzünde varoluşuyla birlikte birbirini tamamlayan, biri olmaksızın diğerinin olamayacağı, birbirini besleyen iki olgudur. Uygarlıktan söz edebilmemiz için, üretimin; üretimin olabilmesi için işbölümünün; işbölümünün ortaya çıkabilmesi için de, iletişimin tüm kanallarıyla var olması gerekiyor. Bu nedenle İletişim ve Uygarlık adını vermiş olduğumuz elinizdeki bu kitap; kronolojik (...) anlamda, öncelikli bir uygarlık tarihi çalışması değildir. Daha çok iletişim kavram ve olgularının, siyasal kimliklerin, kamuoyu, kamusal alan, siyasal düşüncenin, propagandanın geçirmiş oldukları aşamaları, insanlığın uygarlık süreci içinde ortaya çıkmış bulunan üretim biçimlerine dönük; belirli tarihsel kesitleri temel almaktadır. Dar bir kapsamda da olsa, tarihsel bir bakış açısı içinde olgulara yaklaşıp, bulunduğu döneme özgü oluşum ve anlamlarının iletişimsel değerlerini ortaya koymak amacını taşımaktadır. Bu yaklaşım da; hem, uygarlık tarihinin bir nebze de olsa yeni bir biçim almasını, hem de iletişimin tarihsel işlevlerinin daha iyi kavranıp, anlaşılmasını sağlayacaktır. (shrink)

Book 1 of Plato’s Laws, and particularly the image of the puppet introduced near its end, has been traditionally interpreted as presenting the moral psychology model that underlies the educational system delineated by the Athenian Stranger, which construes virtue as consonance between the non–rational and the rational elements of the soul. But a different and competing conception of virtue looms large in Laws 1, virtue as victory of the best part of the soul in psychic conflict. This paper argues that (...) the Athenian’s conception of education as the correct conformation of originally conflicting psychic forces requires the simultaneous presence of the harmony and the conflict models of virtue in Laws 1. Education is in turn defined by calculation, the rational activity which persuasively leads the conflicting non–rational forces towards a consonant reciprocal rapport. By strategically developing his understanding of education and calculation in Laws 1, the Athenian shows how the harmony model of virtue overcomes the conflict model, while at the same time recognising that there is some truth to the conflict model after all and integrating it within the harmony model. (shrink)

Bu makalede Milet Okulu Filozofları ve ilk materyalistler olarak anılan Thales, Anaksimandros ve Anaksimenes’in ontolojileriyle ilişkili olarak arkhe arayışı içerisinde tanrıyla ilgili görüşlerine yer verilecektir. Bazı düşünürler tarafından tanrı tanımaz olarak nitelendirilen Miletli filozofların evrenin ilk maddesi nedir sorusuna vermiş oldukları yanıtların aslında o dönemki Antik Yunan din anlayışıyla bazı önemli noktalarda bağdaştığı gösterilecektir. Makalenin sonunda bu düşünürlerin kendilerine ait bir teoloji ve tanrı düşüncesine sahip oldukları sonucuna varılacaktır.

In Book v of Plato's Laws, he defends that a virtuous life is better than a vicious one, based on the idea that the former involves more pleasure than the latter (733a-734e). The use of this kind of argumentation seems to contradict other passages of the Laws, in which it will be objected that pleasure can work as a criterion of election. This essay aims to show that this recourse does not presuppose any kind of hedonism. In order to prove (...) this, I hold that in the Laws (i) education tries to integrate our natural tendencies in the good life; (ii) this integration is possible because some pleasures can be pursued for their own sake because they are harmless. Based on these principles, I argue that (iii) the argument of Book v appeals to the possibility of choosing pleasure if they are not involved in other criteria of election. (shrink)

Putting all of his faith in the power of abstract reason, Parmenides argues in his poem that genuine knowledge can only involve being, and that non-being is literally unspeakable and unthinkable. Using only the premise that "what is" is and what "is not" is not, he proceeds to deduce the nature of reality. The reality he arrives at bears no resemblance at all to the world we experience around us through our senses. -/- When starting out on a rational inquiry, (...) according to Parmenides, there are only two logically coherent possibilities: either you begin your inquiry with the premise that the subject of your inquiry exists or you begin with the premise that it does not exist. (shrink)

It is widely believed that the ancient Greeks thought that Thales was the first philosopher, and that they therefore maintained that philosophy had a Greek origin. This paper challenges these assumptions, arguing that most ancient Greek thinkers who expressed views about the history and development of philosophy rejected both positions. I argue that not even Aristotle presented Thales as the first philosopher, and that doing so would have undermined his philosophical commitments and interests. Beyond Aristotle, the view that Thales was (...) the first philosopher is attested almost nowhere in antiquity. In the classical, Hellenistic, and post-Hellenistic periods, we witness a marked tendency to locate the beginning of philosophy in a time going back further than Thales. Remarkably, ancient Greek thinkers most often traced the origins of philosophy to earlier non-Greek peoples. Contrary to the received view, then, I argue that (1) vanishingly few Greek writers pronounced Thales the first philosopher; and (2) most Greek thinkers did not even advocate a Greek origin of philosophy. Finally, I show that the view that philosophy originated with Thales (along with its misleading attribution to the Greeks in general) has roots in problematic, and in some cases manifestly racist, eighteenth-century historiography of philosophy. (shrink)

For Plato, philosophy depends on, or is perhaps even identical with, dialectic. Few will dispute this claim, but there is little agreement as to what Platonic dialectic is. According to a now prevailing view it is a method for inquiry the conception of which changed so radically for Plato that it "had a strong tendency ... to mean ‘the ideal method’, whatever that may be" (Richard Robinson). Most studies of Platonic dialectic accordingly focus on only one aspect of this method (...) that allegedly characterizes one specific period in Plato’s development. -/- This volume offers fresh perspectives on Platonic dialectic. Its 13 chapters present a comprehensive picture of this crucial aspect of Plato’s philosophy and seek to clarify what Plato takes to be proper dialectical procedures. They examine the ways in which these procedures are related to each other and other aspects of his philosophy, such as ethics, psychology, and metaphysics. Collectively, the chapters challenge the now prevailing understanding of Plato’s ideal of method. -/- New Perspectives on Platonic Dialectic will appeal to scholars and advanced students interested in Plato, ancient philosophy, philosophical method, and the history of logic. (shrink)

I defend, against its more recent critics, a literal, factual, and consistent interpretation of Timaeus’ creation of the cosmos and time. My main purpose is to clarify the assumptions under which a literal interpretation of Timaeus’ cosmology becomes philosophically attractive. I propose five exegetical principles that guide my interpretation. Unlike previous literalists, I argue that assuming a “pre-cosmic time” is a mistake. Instead, I challenge the exegetical assumptions scholars impose on the text and argue that for Timaeus, a mere succession (...) of events and the relations derived from it (before, after, simultaneous with) imply no time, given the narrow definition of the term used in the dialogue. For Timaeus, I explain, time is measurable, regular, and dependent on the motion of the celestial bodies. A mere succession of events like the one needed to understand the creation story and the pre-cosmos requires none of these elements. Readers of Plato erroneously assume that a succession of events implies time, but that is to impose a conception of time absent in the text. The chapter offers a detailed reconstruction of the pre-cosmic stage under a literalist interpretation and argues how it is compatible with the immutable relationship between the Demiurge and the cosmos. -/- This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. chapter 4. (shrink)

İonya, MÖ 1000’lerde 12 İon koloni şehrinin birlikteliğiyle oluşmuştur. İonlar bir denizci topluluğuydu ve kültürel etkileşimleri, halkına sunduğu özgürlükçü alan onların düşünsel duruşunun önemli nedenlerindendi. İonya doğayı anlama, görünenin ve değişenin ardında yatan değişmeyen temel ilkenin ne olduğu konusunda rasyonel bir tutumun, girişimin ortaya konduğu önemli bir merkezdi. Bu 12 şehirden en önemlisiyse Milet’ti (Rasyonalist, 2020). İsmi, İon dilinde Miletos, Dor dilinde Milatos, Aiol dilinde ise Millatos’dur (Gür, 2010: 225). Ortaçağda tiyatronun üzerindeki kaleden dolayı Palatia olarak anılmış, Türk egemenliğine girdikten (...) sonra Balat olarak anılmıştır (Erşen, 2007: 207). Bu ad, harabelerin antik dönemdeki büyük kralların sarayları olduğu inancından doğan ve Yunanca’da saray anlamına gelen Palatia sözcüğünün bozulmuş halidir (Freely, 2008: 131). (shrink)

Quelque nombreuses et quelque influentes qu'elles soient par ailleurs, les vues d'Aristote sur le langage se caractérisent à la fois par leur hétérogénéité et par leur marginalité. Sans faire nulle part du langage et de la signification l'objet d'une investigation autonome et méthodique, Aristote multiplie les remarques et les digressions à leur sujet, que ce soit dans ses écrits d'éthique et de politique ou dans ses traités d'histoire et de philosophie naturelle, ou encore dans ses manuels de dialectique, de poétique (...) et de rhétorique. Face à l'abondance de ces matériaux et aux difficultés qu'ils présentent du fait de s'offrir au lecteur en ordre quelque peu dispersé, «Le langage. Lectures d'Aristote» fait le choix d'indexer l'étude du langage chez Aristote sur des passages précis du corpus en ne posant aux textes aristotéliciens d'intérêt linguistique que les questions auxquelles ces mêmes textes - tantôt pris isolément, tantôt mis en relation les uns avec les autres - apportent une réponse. (shrink)

Even though Aristotle speaks often about language, his remarks do not fall within the province of any given discipline, let alone belong to the same subject matter or amount to a πραγματεία of their own. Rather, they are somewhat scattered across the Aristotelian corpus and are to be gleaned from a vast array of texts, including ethical and political writings (where language plays a remarkable role in shaping human sociability), treatises on natural history (where Aristotle outlines the physiology of phonation (...) in some animals such as birds and human beings), books on the soul (where Aristotle describes how language is intertwined with perception, imagination and thought) and works on dialectics, poetics and rhetoric (where linguistic expression is described as a powerful means of both persuasion and deception). Accordingly, «Le langage. Lectures d’Aristote» elects to study Aristotle’s understanding of language and its workings by asking relevant Aristotelian texts only those questions these texts answer – either by themselves or in conjunction with one another. -/- Quelque nombreuses et quelque influentes qu'elles soient par ailleurs, les vues d'Aristote sur le langage se caractérisent à la fois par leur hétérogénéité et par leur marginalité. Sans faire nulle part du langage et de la signification l'objet d'une investigation autonome et méthodique, Aristote multiplie les remarques et les digressions à leur sujet, que ce soit dans ses écrits d'éthique et de politique ou dans ses traités d'histoire et de philosophie naturelle, ou encore dans ses manuels de dialectique, de poétique et de rhétorique. Face à l'abondance de ces matériaux et aux difficultés qu'ils présentent du fait de s'offrir au lecteur en ordre quelque peu dispersé, «Le langage. Lectures d'Aristote» fait le choix d'indexer l'étude du langage chez Aristote sur des passages précis du corpus en ne posant aux textes aristotéliciens d'intérêt linguistique que les questions auxquelles ces mêmes textes - tantôt pris isolément, tantôt mis en relation les uns avec les autres - apportent une réponse. (shrink)

On propose ici de clarifier ce qu’Anaximandre entendait par « le divin » et ce qu’il appelait des « dieux ». À partir d’une réévaluation des sources anciennes, on soutient que cette enquête peut aider à comprendre son modèle cosmologique et le problème des cataclysmes dans son système. Trois hypothèses sont avancées à cette fin : [i] que dans Physique, III, 4, 203b3 15, le syntagme τὸ ἄπειρον renvoie à une notion concrète de substrat infini ; [ii] que dans ce (...) même passage, Aristote n’a probablement pas attribué aux philosophes de la nature – y compris Anaximandre – la thèse selon laquelle τὸ ἄπειρον est divin, mais plutôt la thèse selon laquelle ils comprennent le divin comme étant immortel et impérissable ; [iii] qu’Anaximandre, en supposant que « les astres célestes » sont des dieux, admettrait qu’ils naissent mais ne se détruisent pas – ce qui réfuterait l’idée d’un cataclysme universel chez lui. En conclusion, l’étude discute en quoi consisterait la gouvernance cosmique de τὸ ἄπειρον dans un univers divisé en trois niveaux et propose que cette gouvernance viendrait du fait que τὸ ἄπειρον possède un mouvement éternel. (shrink)

In principio è il sorgere del significato filosofico del termine greco εἶδος, rimarcante la forma, chiara e definita, indicativa dell’aspetto in cui ogni singolo ente del mondo si dà all’apparire. Tale aspetto, nella sua consistenza prima e originaria, viene a coincidere con l’essere, da parte della cosa che appare, un questo qui (τόδε τι) di cui poter dire: è. Il reale appare come teatro dell’infinito disseminarsi del Tutto in forme intese in siffatta maniera. Dall’antica filosofia greca, i cui riverberi vengono (...) rintracciati, in epoca moderna, presso la critica artistica di J.J. Winckelmann, la letteratura di F. Hölderlin e quella di Novalis, si procede attraverso la poesia di W. Blake, l’estetica di E. Munch e la letteratura di H. von Hofmannsthal, sino ai contributi filosofici e pittorici offerti da V. Kandinskij, A. Schönberg, K. Malevič e F. Marc, rinnovando, ogni volta, l’inquietudine della domanda: si può dimostrare di esser certi della saldezza di questa struttura, per la quale il Tutto sia da pensare già da sempre salvo dalla minaccia dell’indistinto, poiché già da sempre tenuto in forma come da una sorta di giustizia cosmica? (shrink)

This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the physical theory of the Islamic philosopher Avicenna (d. 1037). It seeks to understand his contribution against the developments within the preceding Greek and Arabic intellectual milieus, and to appreciate his philosophy as such by emphasising his independence as a critical and systematic thinker. Exploring Avicenna’s method of "teaching and learning," it investigates the implications of his account of the natural body as a three-dimensionally extended composite of matter and form, and examines (...) his views on nature as a principle of motion and his analysis of its relation to soul. Moreover, it demonstrates how Avicenna defends the Aristotelian conception of place against the strident criticism of his predecessors, among other things, by disproving the existence of void and space. Finally, it sheds new light on Avicenna’s account of the essence and the existence of time. For the first time taking into account the entire range of Avicenna’s major writings, this study fills a gap in our understanding both of the history of natural philosophy in general and of the philosophy of Avicenna in particular. (shrink)

What role, if any, does dialectic play in Aristotle’s epistemology in the Topics? In this paper I argue that it does play a role, but a role that is independent of endoxa. In the first section, I sketch the case for thinking that dialectic plays a distinctively epistemological role—not just a methodological role, or a merely instrumental role in getting episteme. In the second section, I consider three ways it could play that role, on two of which endoxa play at (...) least a co-starring role. But in the third section, I argue that endoxa don’t play that co-starring role, by arguing for a deflationary account of what endoxa are. For that reason, the third view emerges as the most plausible; but the third view is, I’ll suggest, Platonic. (shrink)

The aim of this essay is to consider the nature of the philosophical task and of the conditions of its possibility according to Parmenides and Plato. With these thinkers, the task of the philosopher necessitates a propaedeutic activity that makes the doing of philosophy possible; that is, both Parmenides and Plato identify the need for a philosophical education that would alleviate the obstacles that would make philosophy impossible to practise, ensuring and accounting for the possibility of philosophical practice. The impossibility (...) of philosophical practice concerns the philosopher’s claim and obligation to occupy a place (τόπος) from which to contemplate being. The problem becomes conspicuous, for the first time, in the first lines of the first fragment of the first text of pure ontology: in the proemium of Parmenides’ poem. I will argue that the proemium has a crucial philosophical function that binds it integrally to the argument of the poem. This function consists in the implementation of a philosophical propaedeutic that makes possible the articulation of the goddess’s critique. The need for a propaedeutic stems from the nature of the project that lies ahead, that is, the project of the youth’s education. Such education takes the form of the delimitation of the realm of the beings that νοῦς can concern itself with. (shrink)

_Sense Perception_ is the first part of the trilogy _Forms of Representation in the Aristotelian Tradition_. It investigates some of the most complex and intriguing aspects of theories of perception in the Greek, Latin, and Arabic reception of Aristotle’s psychology.

_Concept Formation_ is the final part of the trilogy _Forms of Representation in the Aristotelian Tradition_. It investigates some of the most perplexing and provocative discussions on conceptual thinking in the Greek, Latin, and Arabic reception of Aristotle’s psychology.

_Dreaming_ is the second part of the trilogy _Forms of Representation in the Aristotelian Tradition_. It investigates some of the most fascinating and enduring discussions on dreams in the Greek, Latin, and Arabic reception of Aristotle’s psychology.

This book assembles an international team of scholars to move forward the study of Plato’s conception of time, to find fresh insights for interpreting his cosmology, and to reimagine the Platonic tradition.

In this paper, I argue that Plato's views on Forms play a central role in his educational philosophy. In response to what certain commentators have recently written, I contend that this interpretation not only is accurate but also is advantageous because of how it can help philosophy of education. I also address the view, proposed by one philosopher of education, that Plato believes that the most valuable sort of knowledge cannot be fully expressed in words and that the objects of (...) this knowledge are something other than transcendent Forms. Preferable to that view, I argue, is the idea that Plato wants knowledge of Forms which is nonrepresentational. (shrink)

In order to show the relevance of the Presocratic thinkers, certain achievements are sometimes presented as anticipations of some discoveries made by contemporary science. Anaxagoras’ explanation for the origin of the world in particular has been compared to the Big Bang theory by some scholars. The purpose of this article is to show why this theory is very different from Anaxagoras’ view of the origin of the world. For Anaxagoras, the world does not start from a tiny expanding particle. Rather, (...) already before the beginning of the cosmos, there is a totality filled by a primordial mixture. The world emerges in it as a kind of dilating bubble. The cosmos grows by means of a whirl which absorbs the exterior mixture, deconstructing it to give origin to the different things that we know. This vortex is a unique explanation for multiple phenomena, not only helping to understand the origin of the world but also the present cosmos, which is in continuous expansion, since cosmogenesis has not been interrupted. (shrink)

Palestra na XIII Semana de Estudos Clássicos da Feusp (in Os Outros, Os Mesmos - A Alteridade no Mundo Antigo. Galatea/Feusp, 2018).

This paper presents the teaching of Isocrates (436-338 BC), Plato’s contemporary Athenian author, and his conceptions about the form and purposes of paideia or education, which he called, as a whole, philosophía. To this end, the list of students Isocrates supposedly had, the popularity of his school and the testimony by other authors of antiquity on his educational influence are described. After that, the isocratic definition of philosophía is discussed: sometimes presented as an intellectual commitment coupled with experience, at other (...) times as the culture or paideia created by Athens, a city where logos, in its double meaning of reason and discourse, occupied a place of exceptional importance. Finally, I move from this general definition of philosophía to that presented and professed by Isocrates in his school, which, according to him, was the only one to fully deserve the title of philosophía, defined as a deliberate educational procedure. Then the philosophía of Isocrates and its most important principles are presented: dóxa or opinion, empeíria or experience, and the kairós or occasion, pointing out the reasons for this option, the expected results of such educational program, and how such principles appear in what we would call its pedagogical methods, among which Isócrates’ practice of submitting his own works to the criticism of his students, in a form of discussion or debate that nowadays we would call a seminar, stands out. ********** O artigo apresenta o magistério de Isócrates (436-338 a.C.), autor ateniense contemporâneo de Platão, e suas concepções acerca da forma e dos propósitos da paideía ou educação, que ele denominava, em seu conjunto, philosophía. Para tanto, descrevemse o rol dos alunos que Isócrates teria tido, a popularidade de sua escola e o testemunho, por outros autores da Antiguidade, de sua influência educativa. Em seguida, discute-se a definição isocrática de philosophía, apresentada, por vezes, como um empenho intelectual conjugado à experiência; em outros momentos, como a cultura ou paideía criada por Atenas, cidade em que o lógos, em seu duplo sentido de razão e discurso, ocupava lugar de excepcional importância. Por fim, passa-se dessa definição geral de philosophía para aquela que a apresenta como um procedimento educativo deliberado, sendo que o professado por Isócrates em sua escola seria, segundo ele, o único a merecer, de todo direito, o título de philosophía. Descreve-se, então, a philosophía de Isócrates, com seus princípios mais importantes, a dóxa, ou opinião; a empeiría, ou experiência, e o kairós, ou ocasião, indicando as justificativas para essa opção e os resultados esperados de tal programa educativo, e de que modo tais princípios estariam presentes no que chamaríamos de seus métodos pedagógicos, dos quais se destaca a prática de Isócrates de submeter suas próprias obras à crítica de seus alunos, em um formato de discussão ou debate próximo do que denominaríamos, hoje, de seminário. (shrink)

Anaxagoras’ theory of the nous constitutes one aspect of his philosophy particularly interesting for Aristotle. However, he maintains a somewhat bivalent position about it: on the one hand, he praises the Presocratic philosopher for putting the nous as the first principle, while on the other, he shows his disappointment. According to him, Anaxagoras’ nous works insufficiently in the universe, but it is also the cause of goodness, indeed it is the Good capitalized. Our goal is to explain how Aristotle was (...) able to develop both types of seemingly inconsistent discourse concerning Anaxagorean nous. Two solutions to this dilemma are offered: even although some teleology exists in Anaxagoras’ philosophy, it is insufficient for Plato and Aristotle; the reception of the thought of Anaxagoras in later authors still before Aristotle furtively associates goodness with nous. (shrink)

In this paper I investigate whether in the 'Phaedo' the body or the soul is the subject of bodily desires. By analyzing Plato’s portrayal of the disembodied soul in the dialogue, I argue that because many souls are shown possessing bodily desires after death, the soul can possess bodily desires. Part of my analysis is built on my argument that the best way to understand afterlife punishment in the dialogue is as the necessary frustration of persistent bodily desires. Finally, I (...) end the paper by offering some reasons to think that the soul is the only subject of bodily desires in the dialogue. (shrink)

In this chapter, we explore Xenophon’s philosophy of management and identify nine dimensions of business management, as well as the competencies that good management requires. The scientific contribution of this chapter does not only consist in the fact that this is the first publications in which Xenophon’s philosophy of management is systematically analyzed. Historical analysis can also help to question the self-evidence of our contemporary conceptualization of management. Xenophon’s philosophy of management enables us to criticize the contemporary focus on profit (...) maximization and to articulate an intrinsic relation between business and society; to criticize the contemporary disconnectedness of business management and to develop a broader set of individual competencies and know-how that is required for business managers; to criticize the contemporary focus on management and control; and to rehabilitate the role of business management as ability and capacity that involves know-how, actual engagement, and virtuous competencies. Finally, this concept of management challenges contemporary conceptualizations of the differences between private and public management in political philosophical debates. (shrink)

The common view is that democratic legal processes moved away from the "emotional and personal" to the "rational and civic," but Allen shows that anger, honor, reciprocity, spectacle, and social memory constantly prevailed in Athenian law and politics."--Jacket.

Resenha do livro: MUNÕZ, Yolanda GG Nietzsche. Isócrates e Nietzsche: uma relação perigosa?. São Paulo: Paulus Editora, 2019. 211p.

For the last four decades, David Keyt has devoted substantial scholarly energy to the reconstruction of political and ethical arguments in Aristotle’s <i>Nicomachean Ethics</i> and <i>Politics</i>, and to a lesser degree the same in Plato’s <i>Republic</i>. Although Keyt’s translation of and commentary on <i>Politics</i> Books V and VI in the Aristotle Clarendon series (1999), to my mind, is his most substantial contribution to ancient philosophy scholarship, close competitors are his scholarly articles which seek to reconstruct the philosophical positions of Aristotle (...) (and to a lesser extent Plato) with pain-staking logical and philological care. <i>Nature and Justice</i> contains eleven such articles, eight previously published and three appearing for the first time. (Titles are listed at the end of the review.) Several of the articles are landmark works of Aristotle scholarship both for the scholarly controversies which they have sparked and for the methodological approach they exhibit. (shrink)

This book explores a distinctive feature of ancient philosophy: the close relation between ancient ethics and the study of the natural world. Human beings are in some sense part of the natural world, and they live their lives within a larger cosmos, but their actions are governed by norms whose relation to the natural world is up for debate. The essays in this volume, written by leading specialists in ancient philosophy, discuss how these facts about our relation to the world (...) bear both upon ancient accounts of human goodness and also upon ancient accounts of the natural world itself. The volume includes discussion not only of Plato and Aristotle, but also of earlier and later thinkers, with an essay on the Presocratics and two essays that discuss later Epicurean, Stoic, and Neoplatonist philosophers. (shrink)

Ausgehend von den vv. 218ff. der Iphigenie bei den Taurern zeigt der Beitrag, wie in dem Drama die tragische Dimension des menschlichen Daseins als eine unwirtliche zu Tage tritt. Diese offenbart eine wirtliche Ökonomie, die diesem Dasein ein Fundament geben kann, das nicht zunächst nach dem ausgerichtet ist, was recht und billig erscheint, sondern, allem voran, im sinnstiftenden Reichtum eines tragischen Schicksals wurzelt, das dem Menschen sein Eigenes und Freies zu gewähren vermag.

This paper offers a reconstruction of the fortuna of a Hippocratic formula that has been conspicuously misunderstood since the sixteenth century by physicians and philosophers. For several centuries, and despite the increasing care with which translators and editors have examined classical texts and their circulation, the quote in question by Hippocrates has been expounded as a sentence advocating the primacy of sensory experience as a means of knowledge. This article aims to highlight the philological, cultural, and epistemic circumstances that produced (...) and reinforced this misunderstanding, which persisted until the nineteenth century. (shrink)