DOCSLIB.ORG

JEREMIAH 9:22–23 in PHILO and PAUL Arkady Kovelman The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
JEREMIAH 9:22–23 in PHILO and PAUL Arkady Kovelman The RRJ 10,2_f3_162-175IIIII 11/14/07 6:41 PM Page 162 JEREMIAH 9:22–23 IN PHILO AND PAUL Arkady Kovelman Lomonosov Moscow State University Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD who exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. Jer. 9:22–23 The continuity of Jewish culture can be seen in two forms: first, in the chain of tradition (e.g., “midrashic process”); second, in the essen- tiality that would create the same phenomena in the absence of any visible connection. The philosophical exegesis of Jer. 9:22–23 may be the most striking example of the latter. Starting with Abraham bar Hiyya, Jewish philosophers construed this pericope via the Greek theory of “the good” (to agathon, summum bonum).1 Maimonides extracted four values from the saying of Jeremiah. In his opinion, these four values coincide with the classes of human perfection. The “might” and the “riches” are equivalent to Aristotle’s “goods of the body” and “external goods,” while the ”wisdom” and the “understand- ing of God” are equivalent to Aristotle’s “goods of the soul” (i.e., the exercise of moral virtue and the activity of contemplation). The knowl- edge and imitation of God would represent the final telos of human life. Abraham bar Hiyya and Abraham ibn Daud derived the three human values (wisdom, might, and richness) from the three parts of the human soul: rational, vegetative, and animal. According to A. Altmann, Maimonides based his reasoning on the elaborate discussion of the four kinds of perfection found in Ibn Bajja’s “Letter of Farewell.”2 1 See a general review of the problem in A. Melamed, “‘Let Not a Man Glory.’ Philosophical Exegesis of Jeremiah 9:22–23 in Medieval and Renaissance Jewish Thought,” in Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 4 (1985), pp. 31–82, in Hebrew. 2 A. Altmann, “Maimonides ‘Four Perfections’,” in Essays in Jewish Intellectual History (Hanover and London, 1981), pp. 65–76. On the exegesis of Jer. 9:22–23 © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 Review of Rabbinic Judaism 10.2 Also available online – www.brill.nl RRJ 10,2_f3_162-175IIIII 11/14/07 6:41 PM Page 163 jeremiah 9:22–23 in philo and paul 163 Medieval Jewish thinkers did not refer to Philo the Alexandrian on this exegesis of Jeremiah. Nor could these thinkers acquire the ideas of Philo from their Moslem colleagues, as the latter were not conducting biblical exegesis in order to understand Aristotelian sum- mum bonum. Yet the similarities between Philo and medieval philo- sophical tradition are striking. To the best of my knowledge, the only one of Philo’s allusions to Jeremiah’s saying that has been noticed by scholars is Spec. Leg. I, 311–312. Klaus Berger referred to that exegesis while commenting on the paraphrase of Jer. 9:22–23 in the Wisdom Treatise from Cairo Geniza.3 The Treatise, written in the form of traditional Wisdom literature either in the second century C.E. (according to Berger) or between the sixth and twelfth centuries (according to Rügers),4 gives five (not three) values a man should not glory in: beauty, might, wis- dom, riches, and family size. Berger pointed out that beauty (while absent in Jer. 9) also appears in Philo’s allusion to Jer. 9 in the Special Laws I, 311–312. Yet there is much more to find in this frag- ment. In paragraphs 311–312 Philo writes: Let God alone be thy boast (aukhema sou) and thy chief glory... and pride thyself neither on riches nor on reputation nor dominion nor comeliness nor strength of body, nor any such thing, whereby the hearts of the empty-minded are wont to be lifted up. Consider in the first place that these things have nothing in them of the nature of the true good; secondly, how quickly comes the hour of their passing, how they in Maimonides see also D.H. Frank, “The End of the Guide: Maimonides on the Best Life for Man,” in Judaism 34, 4 (1985), pp. 485–495; W.Z. Harvey, “Maimonides on Human Perfection, Awe, and Politics,” in The Thought of Moses Maimonides (Livingstone, 1990), pp. 1–15; U. Gershowitz, “The End of the ‘Guide for the Perplexed,’ Persistence of Structural Correspondence in Mediaeval Philosophical Exegesis,” in Vestnik Yevreyskogo Universiteta (The Journal of Jewish University) 25 (2002), pp. 67–90, in Russian. 3 K. Berger, Die Weisheitschrift aus der Kairoer Geniza: Erstedition, Kommentar und Übersetzung (Tübingen, 1989), p. 306. 4 H.P. Rügers, Die Weisheitsschrift aus der Kairoer Genisa. Text, Übersetzung und philologischer Kommentar, WUNT 53, 1991, p. 15. According to Rügers the treatise is a product of medieval Jewish Neo-Platonism (p. 17). Rügers noticed connections between the Treatise and the famous maxim of Ben Zoma in M. Abot 4:1 (“Who is a sage? He who learns from everybody. Who is strong? He who overcomes his desire. Who is rich? He who is happy in what he has. Who is honored? He who honors every- body”). In the Treatise 9:16 we read “Let the mighty man not glory in his might if he does not overcome his desire.” Interestingly, it was Don Isaac Abarvanel who believed the sayings of Ben Zoma in Abot 4:1 and the answers of the Elders of the South to Alexander Macedon in Bavli Tamid to be a commentary on Jer. 9.22–23 (Melamed, op. cit., pp. 60–80)..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Plato, Philo, and the Author of Hebrews
    Plato, Philo, and the Author of Hebrews BY JAMES H. BURTNESS INCE the first centuries of the Christian church, there have been serious ques­ S tions concerning the origin of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is primarily to the modern period, however, that we owe the view that the author of this epistle was deeply influenced by Platone idealism and by the philosophy of the Alexandrian School, particularly the writings of Philo. Hugo Grotius was perhaps the first, in 1644, to point out the close connection between Philo and Hebrews 4:10. In 1750, Carpzov published a volume of Sacrae Exercitationes in S. Paulli Epistolam ad Hebraeos ex Philone Alexandrine. J. J. Wettstein, in his Novum Testamentum Graecum of 1752, also pointed out these parallels. The rationalistic critics of the nineteenth century saw Alexandrianism written all over the epistle. Baur regarded it as a Judeo-Christian product inter­ mixed with Paulinism and spiritualized by an Alexandrian mentality. Ménégoz, in his La Theologie de L'Epitre aux Hébreux of 1894, concluded that the author was a Philonian converted to Christianity. At the end of the last century the de­ pendence of the epistle upon the religious philosophy of Philo was considered to be a secured result of literary criticism. Typical of this period are the following statements by Pfleiderer and von Soden: The Hellenistic basis of the Epistle to the Hebrews, its dependence in thought and word upon the Book of Wisdom, and especially upon Philo, is so obvious that there is not the smallest room for doubt upon the matter.1 It marks the definite entrance of Alexandrianism into the sphere of Christianity.
    [Show full text]
  • Origen in the Likeness of Philo: Eusebius of Caesarea's Portrait Of
    SCJR 12, no. 1 (2017): 1-13 Origen in the Likeness of Philo: Eusebius of Caesarea’s Portrait of the Model Scholar JUSTIN M. ROGERS [email protected] Freed-Hardeman University, Henderson, TN 38340 The name of Philo of Alexandria occurs more in the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea than in those of any other ancient author. Philo’s name can be located over 20 times in the surviving literary corpus of Eusebius,1 and there is strong ev- idence that Eusebius’ Caesarean library is the very reason Philo’s works exist today.2 In all probability, the core of this library can be traced to the personal col- lection of Origen when he settled in Caesarea in 232 CE.3 Eusebius’ own teacher Pamphilus expanded the library, and took great pains to copy and preserve Ori- gen’s own works. What we have, then, is a literary union between Philo and Origen, Alexandrians within the same exegetical tradition. But we can go further. Ilaria Ramelli has argued that Eusebius’ accounts of Philo and Origen in the Ecclesiastical History are strikingly similar, picking up Robert Grant’s stress on the similarity between Origen and the Philonic Therapeutae.4 Here, I further Ramelli’s work by noting additional similarities in the Eusebian biographical presentations. I also point to the tension Eusebius felt between Philo Christianus and Philo Judaeus, a tension detectible in his presentation of the Therapeutae, a group about whom Philo reported and whom Eusebius considered to be the first Egyptian Christians.5 The result is that Eusebius recognized Philo to be exegeti- cally closer to Christianity, and religiously closer to Judaism.
    [Show full text]
  • A Discussion of the Theological Implications of Free Will in the Biblical Story of the Exodus from Egypt
    Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Senior Theses and Projects Student Scholarship Spring 2012 A Discussion of the Theological Implications of Free Will In the Biblical Story of the Exodus From Egypt Michelle Okun Trinity College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, and the Other Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Okun, Michelle, "A Discussion of the Theological Implications of Free Will In the Biblical Story of the Exodus From Egypt". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2012. Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/194 A Discussion of the Theological Implications of Free Will In the Biblical Story of the Exodus From Egypt Michelle Okun Jewish Studies Thesis Professor Seth Sanders 12/20/11 Okun 2 Introduction Humans have always been acutely aware of their place in time and space, wondering what control they have over their lives. We ask questions such as: what do I, as an individual, control in my life? To what extent does a supreme being know what I will do? Jews and Jewish philosophers have grappled with these questions for centuries, looking to the Torah for advice and clues. Human intellect greatly influences how we view ourselves and our experiences in the context of our relationship with God. Human intellect and how it is aquired emerges first in the Genesis story, after man and woman have been created. The following passage is
    [Show full text]
  • Augustine of Hippo's Philosophy of Time Meets General Relativity
    Augustine of Hippo’s philosophy of time meets general relativity∗ E. Minguzzi† Abstract A cosmological model is proposed which uses a causality argument to solve the homogeneity and entropy problems of cosmology. In this model a chronology violating region of spacetime causally pre- cedes the remainder of the Universe, and a theorem establishes the existence of time functions precisely outside the chronology vio- lating region. This model is shown to nicely reproduce Augustine of Hippo’s thought on time and the beginning of the Universe. In the model the spacelike boundary representing the Big Bang is replaced by a null hypersurface at which the gravitational de- grees of freedom are almost frozen while the matter and radiation content is highly homogeneous and thermalized. 1 Introduction In this work I shall present a cosmological model allowed by general rela- tivity which can be regarded as a mathematical representation of previous ideas by Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430) on time and the creation of the Universe. This model provides also some novel and natural solutions to the homogeneity and entropy problems of cosmology. arXiv:0909.3876v3 [physics.gen-ph] 26 Mar 2014 Instead of introducing the model directly, in order to clarify the cor- respondence with Augustine’s thought, we shall first investigate whether ∗This version includes the proof of Theorem 3.4 which is not included in the version published in Kronoscope 14 (2014) 71-89. Previous title: Can God find a place in physics? St. Augustine’s philosophy meets general relativity. †Dipartimento di Matematica Applicata “G. Sansone”, Universit`adegli Studi di Firenze, Via S.
    [Show full text]
  • Averroes on Psychology and the Principles of Metaphysics Richard C
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications Philosophy, Department of 10-1-1998 Averroes on Psychology and the Principles of Metaphysics Richard C. Taylor Marquette University, [email protected] Published version. Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 36, No. 4 (October, 1998): 507-523. DOI. Copyright © 1998 Journal of the History of Philosophy, Inc. This article first appeared in Journal of the History of Philosophy 36:4 (1998), 507-523. Reprinted with permission by The oJ hns Hopkins University Press. Averroes on Psychology and the Principles of Metaphysics I RICHARD C. TAYLOR FIRST TRANSLATED FROM Arabic into Latin in the early thirteenth century, the philosophical works of Averroes were initially respected as valuable aids to understanding the true philosophy of Aristotle. William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris and author of a philosophically astute theological synthesis of Greek and Arabic thought with Christian doctrine, openly expressed his appreciation with praise for Averroes. But by the mid-thirteenth century many of Averroes' teachings were under attack with his conceptions of human nature and separate immaterial intellect the subject of sharply focussed and heated argumentative assaults by Aquinas, Albert and others3 Their arguments were not primarily theological but rather philosophical criticisms which charged that Averroes, Drafts of this paper were presented at a conference sponsored by the International Society for the History of Arabic and Islamic Science and Philosophy at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, March 28, 1996, and at the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America in Toronto, Canada, April 19, 1997. I benefited from discussions of this article with Alfred Ivry, my colleagues, David B.
    [Show full text]
  • William of Ockham
    Handout 25 William of Ockham (1280–1349) 1. Life • also spelled Occam • born in central England, died in Munich • Franciscan, nominalist, and ”doctor invincibilis” • William of Baskerville in U. Eco's The Name of the Rose • He received his bachelor's degree at Oxford, and his mas- ter's at Paris, where he taught from a date between 1315 and 1320. • The question of poverty which so deeply agitated his order determined the later course of his life. • Their common ground of opposition to the pope drew the extreme Franciscans together with the Emperor Louis the Bavarian, the opponent of John XXII. • In December, 1323, he was summoned with some others to appear before the pope at Avignon, and was imprisoned there for over four years. He then escaped. • Ockham became one of the emperor's principal advisers and literary defenders. • The belief that John XXII was a heretic and no true pope, that the poverty of Christ and the apostles was an article of faith, were as much a part of his fixed belief as that the State and the rights of the emperor were independent of pope and Church. 2 William of Ockham • He taught that the Roman people have the right to elect their bishop (the pope). • According to him every people has the right to elect its leader, if it wishes to. • He went to Munich in Feb., 1330, where most of his political writings were composed. 2. Writings • Expositio aurea et admodum utilis super totam artem veterem • Quaestiones et decisiones in quatuor libros sententiarum • Centiloquium theologicum • Quodlibeta septem • De Sacramento altaris and De corpore Christi 3.
    [Show full text]
  • 5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism Robert L
    Contemporary Civilization (Ideas and Institutions Section XII: The osP t-Enlightenment Period of Western Man) 1958 5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism Robert L. Bloom Gettysburg College Basil L. Crapster Gettysburg College Harold A. Dunkelberger Gettysburg College See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/contemporary_sec12 Part of the European Languages and Societies Commons, History Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Bloom, Robert L. et al. "5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism. Pt XII: The osP t-Enlightenment Period." Ideas and Institutions of Western Man (Gettysburg College, 1958), 53-69. This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ contemporary_sec12/5 This open access book chapter is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism Abstract The ideas of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) are significant enough to be compared to a watershed in Western thought. In his mind were gathered up the major interests of the Enlightenment: science, epistemology, and ethics; and all of these were given a new direction which he himself described as another Copernican revolution. As Copernicus had shown that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than the sun around the earth, so Kant showed that the knowing subject played an active and creative role in the production of his world picture, rather than the static and passive role which the early Enlightenment had assigned him.
    [Show full text]
  • Proof for the Existence of God Developed by Saint Augustine
    Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1948 The "Psychological" Proof For the Existence of God Developed By Saint Augustine Patrick J. Kremer Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Kremer, Patrick J., "The "Psychological" Proof For the Existence of God Developed By Saint Augustine" (1948). Master's Theses. 250. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/250 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1948 Patrick J. Kremer THE 11 PSYCHOLOGI CAL" PROOF FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD DEVELOPED BY SAINT AUGUSTINE BY PATRICK J. KREMER, S.J. • A THESIS SUmiTTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQ.UIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE 01<' MASTER OF ARTS IN LOYOLA UNIVERSITY DEC:D.1BER 1948 VITA AUCTORIS Patrick J. Kremer, S.J., was born in Detroit, Michigan, June 25, 1919. He attended Visitation Grammar School, and in June, 1935, was graduated from Visitation High School, Detroit, Michigan. In September, 1935, he entered the University of Detroit, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in June, 1939. He entered the Milford Novitiate of the Society of Jesus in September, 1939, and spent three years there. He studied at West Baden College Branch of Loyola University from 1942 to 1944, and has been enrolled in the Loyola University Graduate School since September, 1942.
    [Show full text]
  • Analysis of Justice in St. Augustine's Political Philosophy and Nigerian
    International Journal of Education and Human Developments, Vol. 6 No 2; July 2020 ISSN 2415-1270 (Online), ISSN 2415-1424 (Print) Published by Center for Global Research Development Analysis of Justice in St. Augustine’s Political Philosophy and Nigerian Political System ONUCHE, Joseph PhD. Department of Philosophy Kogi State University Anyigba, Kogi State Nigeria Abstract St Augustine of Hippo (354-430CE) is the most influential Christian philosopher in western Christianity after Paul the Apostle. This paper analyses justice in Augustine‟s political philosophy as contained in His „City of God‟. It will be argued that, we could learn from his answers to bad politicking which resulted in destruction of State. His answers on various theological and philosophical issues have continued to be relevant in modern theological and philosophical debate. A lot can still be learnt from him even in the area of Church‟s response to bad governance. Augustine‟s argument is that Kingdoms (Countries, nations) without justice are robberies, as Kings (Governors) of such are robbers. This supposition is illustrated with three historical allusions namely: the encounter of Alexander the Great with a Pirate, the establishment of Roman Empire by Romulus, and the establishment of Assyrian Empire by Ninus. Contextually, Nigeria as it is today falls into this category of robberies as the British colonial masters forced this unequal union for their personal, self-seeking and self-interest, to satisfy their libido dominandi. An analysis of what Augustine meant by justice will be carried out. Philosophically, Augustine evaluated justice from Neo-Platonic background and theologically from Pauline concept of justice.
    [Show full text]
  • Spinoza's Ethics Beth Lord
    EDINBURGH PHILOSOPHICAL GUIDES Spinoza's Ethics Beth Lord Spinoza’s Ethics Edinburgh Philosophical Guides Series Titles in the series include: Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason Douglas Burnham with Harvey Young Derrida’s Of Grammatology Arthur Bradley Heidegger’s Being and Time William Large Plato’s Republic D. J. Sheppard Spinoza’s Ethics Beth Lord Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy Kurt Brandhorst Husserl’s The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology Katrin Joost Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra Martin Jesinghausen and Douglas Burnham Spinoza’s Ethics An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide Beth Lord Edinburgh University Press © Beth Lord, 2010 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh www.euppublishing.com Typeset in 11/13pt Monotype Baskerville by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 3449 1 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 3450 7 (paperback) The right of Beth Lord to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Contents Series Editor’s Preface vi Acknowledgements vii List of Figures viii Introduction 1 1. A Guide to the Text 15 Part I: Being, Substance, God, Nature 15 Part II: Minds, Bodies, Experience and Knowledge 49 Part III: The Affects 83 Part IV: Virtue, Ethics and Politics 103 Part V: Freedom and Eternity 136 2. Study Aids 159 Glossary 159 Further Reading 167 Types of Question you will Encounter 168 Tips for Writing about Spinoza 169 Bibliography 173 Index 179 Series Editor’s Preface To us, the principle of this series of books is clear and simple: what readers new to philosophical classics need fi rst and foremost is help with reading these key texts.
    [Show full text]
  • Pythagorean, Predecessor, and Hebrew: Philo of Alexandria and the Construction of Jewishness in Early Christian Writings
    Pythagorean, Predecessor, and Hebrew: Philo of Alexandria and the Construction of Jewishness in Early Christian Writings Jennifer Otto Faculty of Religious Studies McGill University, Montreal March, 2014 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Jennifer Otto, 2014 ii Table of Contents Abstracts v Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations viii Introduction 1 Method, Aims and Scope of the Thesis 10 Christians and Jews among the nations 12 Philo and the Wisdom of the Greeks 16 Christianity as Philosophy 19 Moving Forward 24 Part I Chapter 1: Philo in Modern Scholarship 25 Introducing Philo 25 Philo the Jew in modern research 27 Conclusions 48 Chapter 2: Sects and Texts: The Setting of the Christian Encounter with Philo 54 The Earliest Alexandrian Christians 55 The Trajanic Revolt 60 The “Catechetical School” of Alexandria— A Continuous 63 Jewish-Christian Institution? An Alternative Hypothesis: Reading Philo in the Philosophical Schools 65 Conclusions 70 Part II Chapter 3: The Pythagorean: Clement’s Philo 72 1. Introducing Clement 73 1.1 Clement’s Life 73 1.2 Clement’s Corpus 75 1.3 Clement’s Teaching 78 2. Israel, Hebrews, and Jews in Clement’s Writings 80 2.1 Israel 81 2.2 Hebrews 82 2.3 Jews 83 3. Clement’s Reception of Philo: Literature Review 88 4. Clement’s Testimonia to Philo 97 4.1 Situating the Philonic Borrowings in the context of Stromateis 1 97 4.2 Stromateis 1.5.31 102 4.3 Stromateis 1.15.72 106 4.4 Stromateis 1.23.153 109 iii 4.5 Situating the Philonic Borrowings in the context of Stromateis 2 111 4.6 Stromateis 2.19.100 113 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Cicero's Philosophical Position in Academica and De Finibus
    Cicero’s Philosophical Position in Academica and De Finibus Submitted by Hoyoung Yang to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classics in November 2013 I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. 1 Hoyoung Yang University of Exeter Cicero’s Philosophical Position in Academica and De Finibus This thesis aims to examine the extent of consistency between Cicero’s epistemological position in Academica and his method of approaching ethics in De Finibus. I consider whether in both works he expresses a radically sceptical view or a more moderate one. I suggest that Cicero’s scepticism is best understood when we understand his dialectical inquiry as being, in both works, a positive procedure designed to find the most persuasive view by arguing for and against every opinion. In Chapter 1, I examine Cicero’s mode of writing in his later philosophical dialogues, distinguishing two levels of ‘Cicero’ (that is, Cicero the author and the persona in the dialogues). In Chapter 2, I examine how Cicero himself understands the key principles of scepticism (akatalēpsia and epochē) and whether his epistemological position in Academica is a consistent one. Chapters 3 and 4 form a bridge between the epistemological debate in Academica and the ethical debate in De Finibus by examining in detail two applications by Cicero of Carneades’ ethical division. In Chapter 3, I discuss the original philosophical context of Carneades’ division, and consider how Cicero applies it to the epistemological debate at Ac.
    [Show full text]