DOCSLIB.ORG

Greek Philosophy Macmillan and Co., Limited London Bombay Calcutta - Madras Melbourne the Macmillan Company New York Boston * Chicago Dallas San Francisco

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Greek Philosophy Macmillan and Co., Limited London Bombay Calcutta - Madras Melbourne the Macmillan Company New York Boston * Chicago Dallas San Francisco of flijiiosopijp GREEK PHILOSOPHY MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA - MADRAS MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON * CHICAGO DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO GREEK PHILOSOPHY PART I THALES TO PLATO BY JOHN BURNET MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1924 COPYRIGHT First Edition 1914. Reprinted 1920, 1924. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN PREFACE THE preparation of this volume was undertaken some the Lexicon years ago, but was interrupted by my work on Platonicum, which has proved a more formidable task than was at first anticipated. I have to thank the editor of this series and the publishers for their generous indulgence in the circumstances. It is unfortunate in some respects that I have been in a form obliged to deal with certain parts of the subject which does not admit of detailed argument and still less Greek of controversy. The second edition of my Early Philosophy (referred to as E. Gr. Phf} makes this in large measure unnecessary in Book L, but there are certain parts of Book III. where I have had to state my conclusions baldly in the hope that I may have a later opportunity for the of discussing their grounds. My chief aim present has been to assist students who wish to acquire a firsthand of knowledge of what Plato actually says in the dialogues some- Jiis maturity. So long as they are content to know Platonism thing of the Republic and the earlier dialogues, must be a sealed book to them. I have not thought it well to present Greek names in a Latin dress. I see no advantage, and many disadvantages, in writing Herakleitos as Heraclitus. It often leads to his being called out of his name, as the Emperor Herakleios vi PREFACE usually is when disguised as Heracttus. On the other hand, the Latin titles of Plato's dialogues are English words. Theaitetos of Athens is best left with the beautiful cc " name chosen for him by his father Euphronios, but the Theaetetus is as much English as Thessalonians. We shall it reach on this matter I f never, seems, agreement ; only wish to explain my own practice. I have to thank my friend and former colleague, Sir Henry Jones, for many valuable suggestions and, above all, for his constant encouragement. Mr. Hetherington of Glasgow University was good enough to verify most been of my references, and the proofs have carefully read by Mr. W. L. Lorimer, Lecturer in Greek at the Univer- sity of St. Andrews. For the imperfections which remain I am solely responsible. J. B. CONTENTS I'AGE INTRODUCTION- ------- i BOOK L THE WORLD CHAPTER I THE IONIANS -------- 17 Miletos .-- 17 The Breakdown of Ionian Civilisation 28 Religion 3 1 Enlightenment .------32 CHAPTER II PYTHAGORAS --------37 The Problem - 37 Life and Doctrine ------ 38 Music --------45 Medicine 49 Numbers - - - - - - - - 5 1 CHAPTER III HERAKLEITOS AND PARMENIDES 57 Herakleitos --------57 Parmenides -------- 63 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER IV THE PLURALISTS ._--_._ 69 - - - - - - Empedokles- - 71 Anaxagoras -------- 76 CHAPTER V ELEATICS AND PYTHAGOREANS 82 Zeno - ....... -82 Melissos ------- -85 - - - The Later Pythagoreans - - 87 CHAPTER VI LEUKIPPOS .-.,--... .. BOOK II. KNOWLEDGE AND CONDUCT CHAPTER VII THE SOPHISTS ....... 105 Law and Nature- -----. 105 The "Sophists" ....... 107 - - Protagoras - ..... no Hippias and Prodikos - - - - - - 118 - Gorgias - - - - - - -119 Eclectics and Reactionaries - - - - -122 CHAPTER VIII THE LIFE OF SOKRATES --.... I2 6 The Problem - - - - - - -126 The Platonic Sokrates - - - - - -128 Aristophanes and Xenophon - - - - - 144 CONTENTS ix CHAPTER IX PAGE t THE PHILOSOPHY OF SOKRATES 151 The Associates of Sokrates - - - - -151 - The Forms - - - - * - 154 Goodness - - - - - ~ - -170 CHAPTER X THE TRIAL AND DEATH OF SOKRATES - - - 180 The Condemnation - - - - - -180 The Alleged Offence - - - - - 182 The Real Offence 185 The Pretext 189 The Death of Sokrates - - - - -191 CHAPTER XI DEMOKRITOS _---_.._ 193 Theory of Knowledge- - - - - 196 Theory of Conduct - - - - - -199 BOOK III. PLATO CHAPTER XII PLATO AND THE ACADEMY - 205 Plato's Early Life --.... 205 Foundation of the Academy - - - - 213 Plato and Isokrates - - - - - -215 The Methods of the Academy - - - 219 The Programme of Studies ----- 223 Eukleides and Plato ---,.-. 230 CONTENTS CHAPTER XIII PAGE CRITICISM .---_-.. 234 The Theaetetus - - - - - - -237 The Parmenides - - - - - - ~ 2 53 CHAPTER XIV LOGIC -_.-.---- 273 The Sophist ------- 273 CHAPTER XV POLITICS --------- 290 The Statesman ------- 290 Plato and ------ 294 Dionysios The Laws -------- 301 Education -------- 305 CHAPTER XVI THE PHILOSOPHY OF NUMBERS - 312 I. Forms, Mathematicals and Sensibles - - 315 II. The One and the Indeterminate Dyad - - 320 The Philebus 324 CHAPTER XVII THE PHILOSOPHY OF MOVEMENT - 333 The Soul ..------ ~ 333 God --------- 335 The World ------- 338 Conclusion ------- - 349 APPENDIX 351 INDEX --...-.-. 352 INTRODUCTION Jo will one ever succeed in writing a history of philo- for like works of are ophy ; philosophies, art, intensely >ersonal things. It was Plato's belief, indeed, that no truth could be communicated in at >hilosophical writingx 11 it was sort that ; only by some of immediate contact me soul could kindle the flame in another. Now in dealing vith the philosophy of an earlier age, we are wholly con- ined to written records, and these are usually fragmentary ind often second-hand or of doubtful 'authority. They ire written, too, in a language which at best we only half anderstand, and have been moulded by influences for the most part beyond our ken. It will only, therefore, be in so far as the historian can reproduce the Platonic contact of souls that his work will have value. In some measure this is possible. Religious faith often seems able to break through the barriers of space and time, and so to appre- hend its but such faith is object directly ; something personal and incommunicable, and in the same way the historian's reconstruction of the past is primarily valid for himself alone. It is not a thing he can hand over ready- made to others. There is nothing mysterious about this aspect either of religious faith or of philological inter- pretation. On the contrary, all knowledge has the same character. In the present case it only means that a man who tries to spend his life in sympathy with the ancient philo- 1 sophers will sometimes find a direct conviction forcing itself 1 This is what Plato calls rb crvffiv (Ef. vii. 34.1 c), but he is thinking of the living, not the dead. 2 INTRODUCTION upon him, the grounds of which can only be represented very imperfectly by a number of references in a footnote. Unless the enumeration of passages is complete and it can never be complete and unless each passage tells exactly in the same way, which depends on its being read in the light of innumerable other passages not consciously present to memory, the so-called proofs will not produce the same effect on any two minds. That is the sense in which philological inquiry, like every other inquiry, requires an act of faith. It is clear, however, that no one whose experience has not been identical can be called on to repeat this act after another, and for this reason professed histories of philosophy are often more of a hindrance than a help. They seem only to interpose another obstacle where there are obstacles f enough already. But though a history of philosophy is impossible, there are some humbler tasks that can in a measure be per- formed, and of which the performance may help to prepare the way for a more direct vision. In the first place, there are certain external matters that may be determined with considerable accuracy and which are not without importance. We are more likely to understand a philosopher rightly if we know the time he lived at and the surroundings that may have helped to shape his thought, even though these can never wholly explain him. It is particularly useful to know what other philosophers he was acquainted with, either directly or through their In the writings. second place, the development of Greek philosophy depends on the progress of scientific, and especially mathematical, discovery more than on anything and it is else, possible to ascertain pretty accurately the stage Greek science had reached by a given time. The records are full, and, when critically used, trustworthy. It is for these reasons that this work deals so largely with matters which may appear at first to lie outside the pro- vince of That in its philosophy. is, fact, chief justification. It is an attempt to lead the reader to the right point of from which he then see view, may for himself. Lastly, MYTHOLOGY 3 there is what may be called the cathartic or purgative function of history. The greatest of all the obstacles we have to surmount is just the mass of scholastic explana- tion and dogma which so soon overwhelm the teaching of any original genius. To clear that away is perhaps the greatest service that can be rendered in this field. We do not wish to see Plato with the eyes of Aristotle, or even of Plotinos, but if possible, face to face, and anyone who can help us here deserves our thanks. It may seem a purely negative service, but that lies in the nature of the case. In the long run the positive con- struction must be left to the individual student, and no two students will see quite alike. All the historian can do is to point the way, and warn others off tracks which have already been found to lead nowhere. Even this, however, implies that we know already what philosophy is, and clearly, unless we have some notion of that, we shall be in danger of losing the thread of our story. We can nevertheless dispense with such a defini- tion as would be applicable to the philosophy of all ages and peoples, for we shall find a pretty clear notion of what philosophy was during the Hellenic period emerging as we go on.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Matter and Minds: Examining Embodied Souls in Plato's Timaeus
    Matter and Minds: Examining Embodied Souls in Plato’s Timaeus and Ancient Philosophy By Emily Claire Kotow A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in Philosophy in conformity with the requirements for the Master of Arts Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada September, 2018 Copyright © Emily Claire Kotow, 2018 Abstract With the rise of Platonism influenced by Plotinus and Descartes, philosophers have largely overlooked the fact that Plato directly acknowledges that there is a practical and valuable role for the body. The Timaeus clearly demonstrates that Plato took the idea of embodied minds seriously, not just as an afterthought of the immortal soul. Ultimately this research demonstrates that Plato did not fundamentally have a problem with the mind-body relationship. In offering an argument for Plato’s positive ideas of embodied minds and the necessity thereof, I will also demonstrate, through a historical comparative, why I think the emphasis on mind rather than on embodied mind might have occurred. ii Acknowledgments I would like to thank Dr. Jon Miller and the Philosophy Department of Queen’s University for allowing me to pursue my interests freely -a great privilege that few are fortunate enough to experience. iii Table of Contents Abstract………………………………….………………………………….…………………………………. ii Acknowledgments………………………………….………………………………….………………….. iii Table of Contents………………………………….………………………………….…………………….iv Introduction………………………………….………………………………….……………………………5 Chapter One: Plato’s Embodied Soul.……………………………….……………………………12 i. Plato and
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Unit 2 Pre-Socratic Thinkers and Their Contribution
    UNIT 2 PRE-SOCRATIC THINKERS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION Contents 2.0 Objectives 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Pre-Socratic Thinkers 2.3 The Schools of the Pre-Socratics 2.4 The Ionian School or The Milesian School 2.5 The Pythagorean Brotherhood 2.6 The Eleatic School 2.7 The Atomist School 2.8 Challenges to the Study of Pre-Socratics: 2.9 The Pre-Socratics as Scientists 2.10 So can we call Anaximanes a Scientist? 2.11 The Pre-Socratics and their Predecessors: 2.12 Pre-Socratics and Modern science 2.13 Let Us Sum Up 2.14 Key Words 2.15 Further Readings and References 2.16 Answers to Check Your Progress 2.0 OBJECTIVES This unit will help us to understand the following: • Who are the Pre-Socratics • Schools of the Pre-Socratics era • Pre-Socratics as Proto-Scientists or First Scientists • Pre-Socratics and modern Science. 1 2.1 INTRODUCTION It has become an academic sutra to say that the entire academic edifice of the western world is founded on firm foundation laid down by the Greeks. This revolution is said to have taken place in the sixth century BCE. But we know that science began even before the Greek period. Civilizations that developed around the basins of great rivers –the Nile, the Euphrates with the Tigris and the Indus manifest a lot of scientific know-how. These people developed science to meet their existential needs. But it was Greeks who discovered the philosophical explanation that led to the birth of theoretical science. This is accepted as their singular contribution as their contribution led to what we might call the scientific approach to the study of nature.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy Sunday, July 8, 2018 12:01 PM
    Philosophy Sunday, July 8, 2018 12:01 PM Western Pre-Socratics Fanon Heraclitus- Greek 535-475 Bayle Panta rhei Marshall Mcluhan • "Everything flows" Roman Jakobson • "No man ever steps in the same river twice" Saussure • Doctrine of flux Butler Logos Harris • "Reason" or "Argument" • "All entities come to be in accordance with the Logos" Dike eris • "Strife is justice" • Oppositional process of dissolving and generating known as strife "The Obscure" and "The Weeping Philosopher" "The path up and down are one and the same" • Theory about unity of opposites • Bow and lyre Native of Ephesus "Follow the common" "Character is fate" "Lighting steers the universe" Neitzshce said he was "eternally right" for "declaring that Being was an empty illusion" and embracing "becoming" Subject of Heideggar and Eugen Fink's lecture Fire was the origin of everything Influenced the Stoics Protagoras- Greek 490-420 BCE Most influential of the Sophists • Derided by Plato and Socrates for being mere rhetoricians "Man is the measure of all things" • Found many things to be unknowable • What is true for one person is not for another Could "make the worse case better" • Focused on persuasiveness of an argument Names a Socratic dialogue about whether virtue can be taught Pythagoras of Samos- Greek 570-495 BCE Metempsychosis • "Transmigration of souls" • Every soul is immortal and upon death enters a new body Pythagorean Theorem Pythagorean Tuning • System of musical tuning where frequency rations are on intervals based on ration 3:2 • "Pure" perfect fifth • Inspired
    [Show full text]
  • Anaximander and the Problem of the Earth's Immobility
    Binghamton University The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB) The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter 12-28-1953 Anaximander and the Problem of the Earth's Immobility John Robinson Windham College Follow this and additional works at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp Recommended Citation Robinson, John, "Anaximander and the Problem of the Earth's Immobility" (1953). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 263. https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/263 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter by an authorized administrator of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. JOHN ROBINSON Windham College Anaximander and the Problem of the Earth’s Immobility* N the course of his review of the reasons given by his predecessors for the earth’s immobility, Aristotle states that “some” attribute it I neither to the action of the whirl nor to the air beneath’s hindering its falling : These are the causes with which most thinkers busy themselves. But there are some who say, like Anaximander among the ancients, that it stays where it is because of its “indifference” (όμοιότητα). For what is stationed at the center, and is equably related to the extremes, has no reason to go one way rather than another—either up or down or sideways. And since it is impossible for it to move simultaneously in opposite directions, it necessarily stays where it is.1 The ascription of this curious view to Anaximander appears to have occasioned little uneasiness among modern commentators.
    [Show full text]
  • Parmenides B6.1–2 Without a Modal Fallacy
    Aporia vol. 21 no. 1—2011 Parmenides B6.1–2 without a Modal Fallacy MICHAEL J. HANSEN n all accounts, Parmenides makes a marvelous argument in the Way of Truth. However, there is no clear consensus among inter- Opreters about how to read it. The only noncontroversial point in interpreting the work seems to be that in it, Parmenides did something pro- found to philosophy. Despite this collective obligation to acknowledge Par- menides’ unique innovation (whatever it may be), it has become popular to read Parmenides as relying on a modal fallacy to make his argument. This would be an embarrassing mistake for such an influential work, especially given the argument’s deductive appearance. In this paper, I will outline the modal fallacy that Parmenides is accused of and argue for an interpretation that is free of the fallacy. I. The Alleged Modal Fallacy The critical fragment we must examine to decide the question is B6.1–2, in which the fallacy is supposed to occur: crhV toV levgein te noei`n t' ejoVn e!mmenai e!sti gaVr ei^nai, mhdeVn d' oujk e!otin . (Graham 214) Michael J. Hansen is a senior majoring in philosophy at Brigham Young University. He is interested in ancient philosophy, the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and metaphysics. In the fall, he will be pursuing a PhD in philosophy at the University of California–Los Angeles. This essay placed first in the 2011 David H. Yarn Philosophical Essay Contest. 2 MICHAEL J. HANSEN As usual, Parmenides’ language admits of many permissible translations for interpreters to quibble over, but this fragment is exceptionally difficult to render.
    [Show full text]
  • Lucan's Natural Questions: Landscape and Geography in the Bellum Civile Laura Zientek a Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulf
    Lucan’s Natural Questions: Landscape and Geography in the Bellum Civile Laura Zientek A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2014 Reading Committee: Catherine Connors, Chair Alain Gowing Stephen Hinds Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Classics © Copyright 2014 Laura Zientek University of Washington Abstract Lucan’s Natural Questions: Landscape and Geography in the Bellum Civile Laura Zientek Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Catherine Connors Department of Classics This dissertation is an analysis of the role of landscape and the natural world in Lucan’s Bellum Civile. I investigate digressions and excurses on mountains, rivers, and certain myths associated aetiologically with the land, and demonstrate how Stoic physics and cosmology – in particular the concepts of cosmic (dis)order, collapse, and conflagration – play a role in the way Lucan writes about the landscape in the context of a civil war poem. Building on previous analyses of the Bellum Civile that provide background on its literary context (Ahl, 1976), on Lucan’s poetic technique (Masters, 1992), and on landscape in Roman literature (Spencer, 2010), I approach Lucan’s depiction of the natural world by focusing on the mutual effect of humanity and landscape on each other. Thus, hardships posed by the land against characters like Caesar and Cato, gloomy and threatening atmospheres, and dangerous or unusual weather phenomena all have places in my study. I also explore how Lucan’s landscapes engage with the tropes of the locus amoenus or horridus (Schiesaro, 2006) and elements of the sublime (Day, 2013).
    [Show full text]
  • Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece
    Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ancient Greek Philosophy but didn’t Know Who to Ask Edited by Patricia F. O’Grady MEET THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ANCIENT GREECE Dedicated to the memory of Panagiotis, a humble man, who found pleasure when reading about the philosophers of Ancient Greece Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece Everything you always wanted to know about Ancient Greek philosophy but didn’t know who to ask Edited by PATRICIA F. O’GRADY Flinders University of South Australia © Patricia F. O’Grady 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Patricia F. O’Grady has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identi.ed as the editor of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union Road 101 Cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7PT VT 05401-4405 England USA Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Meet the philosophers of ancient Greece: everything you always wanted to know about ancient Greek philosophy but didn’t know who to ask 1. Philosophy, Ancient 2. Philosophers – Greece 3. Greece – Intellectual life – To 146 B.C. I. O’Grady, Patricia F. 180 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Meet the philosophers of ancient Greece: everything you always wanted to know about ancient Greek philosophy but didn’t know who to ask / Patricia F.
    [Show full text]
  • Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
    PML9_Aristotle_2006 Page i Friday, February 17, 2006 10:53 AM The Peter Martyr Library Volume Nine Commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics PML9_Aristotle_2006 Page ii Friday, February 17, 2006 10:53 AM Habent sua fata libelli EDITORS OF THE PETER MARTYR LIBRARY, SERIES ONE GENERAL EDITORS John Patrick Donnelly, S.J., Frank A James III, Joseph C. McLelland EDITORIAL COMMITTEE W. J. Torrance Kirby, William J. Klempa EDITORIAL BOARD IRENA BACKUS JOHN MCINTYRE Institut d’histoire de la Réformation University of Edinburgh Université de Genève MICHAEL PERCIVAL-MAXWELL PETER S. BIETENHOLZ McGill University, Montreal University of Saskatchewan H. WAYNE PIPKIN FRITZ BÜSSER Associated Mennonite Institut für Schweizer Biblical Seminaries Reformationsgeschichte, Zurich JILL RAITT EMIDIO CAMPI University of Missouri, Columbia Institut für Schweizer Reformationsgeschichte, Zurich ROBERT V. SCHNUCKER University of Northern Iowa RICHARD C. GAMBLE Reformed Theological Seminary DAN SHUTE The Presbyterian College, Montreal TIMOTHY GEORGE Beeson Divinity School JOHN TEDESCHI University of Wisconsin–Madison ROBERT M. KINGDON Institute for Research in the Humanities THOMAS F. TORRANCE University of Wisconsin–Madison University of Edinburgh DIARMAID MACCULLOUGH JOHN VISSERS St. Cross College, Oxford University The Presbyterian College, Montreal ALISTER E. MCGRATH CESARE VASOLI Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University Università de Firenze The Peter Martyr Library Volume Nine COMMENTARY ON Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics Peter Martyr Vermigli Edited by Emidio Campi and Joseph C. McLelland with introduction and annotations by Joseph C. McLelland VOLUME LXXIII SIXTEENTH CENTURY ESSAYS & STUDIES KIRKSVILLE, MISSOURI USA ◆ 2006 Title Page PML9_NicoEth_Prelim Page iv Wednesday, February 22, 2006 12:54 PM Copyright 2006 by Truman State University Press, Kirksville, Missouri All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • The Concept of Cosmos in Milesian Philosophy
    The Concept of Cosmos in Milesian Philosophy Viivi Lähteenoja 19 July 2017 Tiedekunta/Osasto – Fakultet/Sektion – Laitos – Institution – Department Faculty Humanistinen tiedekunta Filosofian, historian, kulttuurin ja taiteiden tutkimuksen laitos Tekijä – Författare – Author Viivi Esteri Lähteenoja Työn nimi – Arbetets titel – Title The Concept of Cosmos in Milesian Philosophy Oppiaine – Läroämne – Subject Teoreettinen filosofia Työn laji – Arbetets art – Aika – Datum – Month and Sivumäärä– Sidoantal – Number of pages Level year Pro gradu -tutkielma 19 heinäkuuta 2017 83 Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract Tämä tutkielma käsittelee kreikan sanan kosmos käyttöä aikaisessa esisokraattisessa filosofiassa, eli miletoslaisten Thaleen, Anaksimandroksen, sekä Anaksimeneen ajattelussa. Tutkielman tavoite on haastaa nykyään yleinen ajatus siitä, että miletoslaiset olisivat olleet puhtaita luonnonfilosofeja, tutkimalla moniselitteisen kosmos-sanan käyttöä. Tämä saavutetaan kokoamalla kaikki näitä ajattelijoita koskevat tekstit, joissa kyseinen sana esiintyy. Ensin tekstit käännetään alkukielestä ja ne analysoidaan filologisesti. Filologisten havaintojen perusteella tekstit asetetaan seuraavaksi niiden filosofiseen kontekstiin, jolloin voidaan osallistua kirjallisuudessa käytävään keskusteluun näiden ajattelijoiden kokonaisfilosofiasta. Lopuksi esitetään vielä excursus liittyen kahteen muuhun keskeiseen esisokraattiseen termiin, phusis ja arkhê. Taustalla tässä työtavassa on ajatus siitä, että esisokraattisen filosofian tutkimuksessa on vuosisatojen
    [Show full text]
  • From Logos to Bios: Hellenic Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology
    From Logos to Bios: Hellenic Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology by Wynand Albertus de Beer submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of D Litt et Phil in the subject Religious Studies at the University of South Africa Supervisor: Prof Danie Goosen February 2015 Dedicated with grateful acknowledgements to my supervisor, Professor Danie Goosen, for his wise and patient guidance and encouragement throughout my doctoral research, and to the examiners of my thesis for their helpful comments and suggestions. From Logos to Bios: Hellenic Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology by W.A. de Beer Degree: D Litt et Phil Subject: Religious Studies Supervisor: Prof Danie Goosen Summary: This thesis deals with the relation of Hellenic philosophy to evolutionary biology. The first part entails an explication of Hellenic cosmology and metaphysics in its traditional understanding, as the Western component of classical Indo-European philosophy. It includes an overview of the relevant contributions by the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonists, focussing on the structure and origin of both the intelligible and sensible worlds. Salient aspects thereof are the movement from the transcendent Principle into the realm of Manifestation by means of the interaction between Essence and Substance; the role of the Logos, being the equivalent of Plato’s Demiurge and Aristotle’s Prime Mover, in the cosmogonic process; the interaction between Intellect and Necessity in the formation of the cosmos; the various kinds of causality contributing to the establishment of physical reality; and the priority of being over becoming, which in the case of living organisms entails the primacy of soul over body.
    [Show full text]
  • Arethas of Caesarea and the Scholia On
    Ryan Bailey ARETHAS OF CAESAREA AND THE SCHOLIA ON PHILOSTRATUS’ VITA APOLLONII IN LAUR. 69.33 MA Thesis in Medieval Studies Central European University CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2012 ARETHAS OF CAESAREA AND THE SCHOLIA ON PHILOSTRATUS’ VITA APOLLONII IN LAUR. 69.33 by Ryan Bailey (USA) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ CEU eTD Collection Examiner Budapest May 2012 ii ARETHAS OF CAESAREA AND THE SCHOLIA ON PHILOSTRATUS’ VITA APOLLONII IN LAUR. 69.33 by Ryan Bailey (USA) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2012 iii ARETHAS OF CAESAREA AND THE SCHOLIA ON PHILOSTRATUS’ VITA APOLLONII IN LAUR. 69.33 by Ryan Bailey (USA) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ________________________ Supervisor ____________________________________________ External Supervisor CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2012 iv I, the undersigned, Ryan Bailey , candidate for the MA degree in Medieval Studies, declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography.
    [Show full text]
  • 162 Aristotle on Practical Inference, the Explanation of Action, And
    Aristotle on Practical the Inference, Explanation of Action, and Akrasia GERASIMOS SANTAS n his edition of the Nicomachean Ethics John Burnet added two as relevant to Aristotle's discussion of appendices particularly akrasia (weakness). The first appendix, De Anima, I I I , 10, contains Aristotle's discussion of how practical reason and want combine to cause movement for the sake of something and how explanations of action can be constructed in terms of these two elements; in the other appendix, De Motu 7, Aristotle casts explanations of actions in the form of practical inferences. The relevance of these passages to Aris- totle's discussion of akrasia is beyond dispute: Aristotle explicitly employs practical inferences to represent the motivations of the akrates (weak man), and he clearly regards the behavior of the akrates as a case of movement for the sake of something, a case of action. Bumet's appendices suggest what seems to me the only sound strategy for unraveling and understanding Aristotle's explanation of akrasia. We must place this explanation within Aristotle's general theory of the explanation of action and the role of practical inference in such explanation. Akrasia is a difficult case with problems peculiar to it, but all the same it is a case of movement for the sake of something, and in explaining it Aristotle follows his paradigm of the explanation of action. In this paper I wish to take full advantage of this strategy in an attempt to reconstruct in detail and take a fresh look at Aristotle's account of akrasia. The dividends of this strategy will show them- selves, I hope, as I try along the way to resolve some of the textual and philosophical difficulties in Aristotle's account, difficulties traditionally 1 and recently raised by commentators.
    [Show full text]