This article argues that Aristotle depicts the soul as a detectable aspect of one’s being, is in the form of properties, and is discernable by cognition. Thus, he proposed that it is possible to discern the complementary connection between one’s being and the first cause of creation. Aristotle, like Kant, recognised that the age-old problem of scepticism posed a challenge to epistemological, ontological, and ethical claims. However, Kant did not develop his ideas regarding bridging the gap between what is demonstrable (...) and the first cause of creation – which resulted in perpetuating problems with scepticism and dualism. Consequently, in the effort to resolve the problems of scepticism and dualism, to promote self-actualisation, holistic well-being and, to help individuals realise their full potential there is a resurgence of Aristotle’s explanation of the relationship between self-knowledge and knowledge of the first cause of creation. This article contributes to the philosophy of science, the philosophy of the social sciences, the philosophy of religion, to contemporary literature on social psychology, and to literature addressing the interface between the sciences and perennial philosophy by demonstrating that Aristotle’s perennial wisdom and his epistemic approach – based on logical positivism – resolve problems related to scepticism, materialism, and dualism. (shrink)

Ancient Greek elite theorists and ordinary democratic practitioners shared a distinctive account of the institutional features of democracy: democracy requires both institutions that empower ordinary citizens to decide matters and the widespread diffusion of agenda-setting powers. In the Politics, Aristotle makes agenda control central to his understanding of what it is to be kurios in the city, to his distinction between oligarchy and democracy, and to his analysis of the preconditions for democratic control of the polis. For democratic citizens, isēgoria (...) (the equal right to speak and make proposals in the assembly) was more than an expression of the democratic commitment to equality. It was also an institutional tool to resist oligarchic domination of the agenda. Institutionalizing isēgoria was part of the Athenian response to a crucial problem for democratic theory and practice: how to ensure that popular participation reliably translates into popular control. (shrink)

With the recent developments in the Human Genome Mapping Project and the new technologies that are developing from it there is a renewal of concern about eugenic applications. Francis Galton (b1822, d1911), who developed the subject of eugenics, suggested that the ancient Greeks had contributed very little to social theories of eugenics. In fact the Greeks had a profound interest in methods of supplying their city states with the finest possible progeny. This paper therefore reviews the works of Plato (The (...) Republic and Politics) and Aristotle (The Politics and The Athenian Constitution) which have a direct bearing on eugenic techniques and relates them to methods used in the present century. (shrink)

This article is an analysis of the Internet as a mnemonic system and an assessment of its debt to and impact upon the classical tropes of memory established by Plato in the dialogue Meno.

Jacques Rancière’s conception of equality as an axiomatic presupposition of the political is important, because it bypasses the tradition which defines equality in terms of Aristotle’s conception of geometric equality. In this paper, I show that Rancière’s theory both espouses a monism, according to which inequality implies equality, and relies on a concept of the free will, which is incompatible with monism. I highlight this tension by bringing Rancière’s theory into conversation with the great monist of the philosophical tradition, Baruch (...) Spinoza. (shrink)