Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Volume 50
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Created on 1 March 2016 at 9.58 hours page i OXFORDSTUDIESINANCIENTPHILOSOPHY Created on 1 March 2016 at 9.58 hours page ii page - is blank Created on 1 March 2016 at 9.58 hours page iii OXFORDSTUDIES INANCIENT PHILOSOPHY EDITOR:VICTORCASTON VOLUMEL 3 Created on 1 March 2016 at 9.58 hours page iv 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, , United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Except where otherwise stated, Oxford University Press, The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in Impression: 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, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press Madison Avenue, New York, NY , United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Oxford studies in ancient philosophy.— Vol. l ().—Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, – v.; cm. Annual. Philosophy, Ancient—Periodicals. B.O .′—dc. – AACR MARC-S ISBN –––– (hbk.) ISBN –––– (pbk.) Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work Created on 1 March 2016 at 9.58 hours page v ADVISORYBOARD Professor Julia Annas, University of Arizona Professor Rachel Barney, University of Toronto Professor Susanne Bobzien, All Souls College, Oxford Professor Riccardo Chiaradonna, Università degli Studi Roma Tre Professor Alan Code, Stanford University Professor Dorothea Frede, Universität Hamburg Professor Brad Inwood, Yale University Professor A. A. Long, University of California, Berkeley Professor Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago Professor David Sedley, University of Cambridge Professor Richard Sorabji, King’s College, University of London, and Wolfson College, Oxford Professor Gisela Striker, Harvard University Professor Christopher Taylor, Corpus Christi College, Oxford Contributions and books for review should be sent to the Editor, Professor Victor Caston, Department of Philosophy, University of Michigan, South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI -, USA (e-mail [email protected]). Contributors are asked to observe the ‘Notes for Contributors to Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy’, printed at the end of this volume. Up-to-date contact details, the latest version of Notes for Con- tributors, and publication schedules can be checked on the Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy website: www.oup.co.uk/philosophy/series/osap Created on 1 March 2016 at 9.58 hours page vi page - is blank Created on 1 March 2016 at 9.58 hours page vii EDITORIAL With this volume of Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, the baton has passed again and a new editorship begun. The first thing I would like to do is warmly thank the outgoing editor, Brad Inwood, for making the transition as smooth as it could be and for all his help and encouragement. Throughout the process, he has been the very model of good judgement, taste, and remarkable efficiency, in every way an ideal to aspire towards. If I am able to replicate even some of his virtues, I will be well satisfied. I would also like to thank the Advisory Board for their con- tinuing support and advice and to welcome several new members. In addition to Brad Inwood, who as outgoing editor will join the Board, there will be three new members: Rachel Barney (University of Toronto), Riccardo Chiaradonna (Università degli Studi Roma Tre), and Alan Code (Stanford University). I look forward to work- ing together with the Board in the coming years to maintain the high standards that have become the hallmark of the series. Less visible, but no less essential, are the contributions of people who work behind the scenes, above all our anonymous readers, who are the true unsung heroes of this endeavour. In my career, I have rarely seen reports of this kind: expert, rigorous, and tough- minded, as one might expect, yet also remarkably constructive and aimed at improving the submission, whether for our pages or for those ultimately in another series. It is a privilege to work with col- leagues with such a strong sense of professionalism. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude for the generous support, moral as well as material, provided by the Departments of Philosophy and Classical Studies at the University of Michigan, and by Peter Momtchiloff and his staff at Oxford University Press, who have always worked to achieve the highest standards in the pro- duction of our volumes. Created on 1 March 2016 at 9.58 hours page viii page - is blank Created on 1 March 2016 at 9.58 hours page ix CONTENTS Parmenides’ Likely Story THOMASKJELLERJOHANSEN The Moral and Literary Character of Hippias in Plato’s Hippias Major FRANCOV.TRIVIGNO Why the Philosopher Kings Will Believe the Noble Lie CATHERINEROWETT Aristotle on Truth-Bearers DAVIDCHARLESANDMICHAILPERAMATZIS The Stoic Argument from oikeiōsis JACOBKLEIN Alexander against Galen on Motion: A Mere Logical Debate? ORNAHARARI Rational Assent and Self-Reversion: A Neoplatonist Response to the Stoics URSULACOOPE Common Sense and Extra Powers: A Discussion of Anna Marmodoro, Aristotle on Perceiving Objects KLAUSCORCILIUS Index Locorum Created on 1 March 2016 at 9.58 hours page x page x is blank Created on 1 March 2016 at 11.05 hours page 1 PARMENIDES’LIKELYSTORY THOMASKJELLERJOHANSEN T relationship between the way of Truth and the way of opinion (doxa) in Parmenides continues to exercise scholars. At its crudest the problem is this: the way of Truth tells us that being is one and changeless, and the only thing that can be thought and talked about, yet the way of doxa develops a cosmology premissed on change and plurality. How can Parmenides do both? This paper has another go at the question. It argues that being and the cosmos are related as model to likeness in a way that al- lows the cosmos to have some degree of being and intelligibility. Parmenides lays out criteria of intelligible discourse which are paradigmatically met by being. By partially fulfilling those cri- teria the cosmos comes to resemble being and thereby achieves a degree of intelligibility and reality. The cosmology reads in signi- ficant ways like a precursor to the likely story of Plato’s Timaeus. This idea is not new. Indeed, already Proclus in his commen- tary on the Timaeus ( ) quotes Parmenides (B and B ) as saying the same thing, only ‘being obscure because of his poetic © Thomas Kjeller Johansen I am most grateful to Edward Hussey, James Lesher, and Richard McKirahan for their generous comments and criticisms, as well as to the Editor, Victor Caston, and two anonymous readers. In the words of W. K. C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy, ii. The Preso- cratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus (Cambridge, ), : ‘Why should Parmenides take the trouble to narrate a detailed cosmogony when he has already proved that opposites cannot exist and there can be no cosmogony because plurality and change are inadmissible conceptions?’ Procl. In Tim. i. – Diehl. Works that make the connection with the Ti- maeus without developing it include U. von Wilamowitz-Möllendorf, ‘Lesefrüchte’, Hermes, (), –; J. A. Palmer, Plato’s Reception of Parmenides [Reception] (Oxford, ), ; D. W. Graham, The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy: The Com- plete Fragments and Selected Testimonies of the Major Presocratics, pt. (Cambridge, ), . A. Finkelberg, ‘Being, Truth and Opinion in Parmenides’ [‘Being’], Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, (), – at n. , draws the ana- logy with Platonic myths in the Republic which have some truth in them. Palmer’s valuable study Reception, in particular, has done much to show the fruitfulness of Plato’s readings of Parmenides, but does not discuss how a notion of ‘likely account’ might find purchase in Parmenides. J. Bryan, Likeness and Likelihood in the Pre- socratics and Plato [Likeness] (Cambridge, ), like Proclus, sees a reference in Created on 1 March 2016 at 11.05 hours page 2 Thomas Kjeller Johansen expression’. The suggestion, however, has never been fully worked out or assessed. This is the task of the present paper. The programme The goddess first sets out her programme of instructing a young man (kouros) in B . –: χρεὼ δέ σε πάντα πυθέσθαι ἠμὲν Ἀληθείης εὐπειθέος ἀτρεμὲς ἦτορ ἠδὲ βροτῶν δόξας, ταῖς οὐκ ἔνι πίστις ἀληθής. ἀλλ᾿ ἔμπης καὶ ταῦτα μαθήσεαι, ὡς τὰ δοκοῦντα χρῆν δοκίμως εἶναι διὰ παντὸς πάντα περῶντα. It is right for you to learn all things, both the unshaken heart of persuasive Truth, and the opinions of mortals, in which there is no true conviction. But nevertheless you shall learn this too, how the things believed should have been believably, all pervading through everything. Almost everything about these lines is disputed, but this much seems initially clear. There is a contrast between Truth understood as unalterable and convincing, and the beliefs of human beings which carry no true conviction. Nonetheless, the goddess says the young man should learn how it would be (or was) necessary or right for things to be believed acceptably or believably (dokimōs).