Heraclitus' Rebuke of Polymathy
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Aristotle's Methods
3 History and Dialectic Metaphysics A 3, 983a24-4b8 Rachel Barney In Metaphysics A 3, Aristotle undertakes to confirm his system of the four causes as a framework for inquiry into first principles, the knowledge of which will constitute wisdom. His strategy will be to survey his philosophical predecessors, in order to establish that none has supplied a cause which cannot be subsumed under his own canonical four. Thus A 3 inaugurates a project not completed until the end of A 6—or, taken more inclusively, A 10, since A 7 summarizes its results, chapters 8 and 9 develop criticisms of some of the views discussed, and chapter 10 reads as a summation of the whole.1 (Much of Metaphysics α also reads, appropriately enough, like a series of reflections on this project: I will note its relevance on occasion below.) Our concern here is with the opening phase of this project. Here Aris- totle discusses the steps taken by the earliest philosophers and their successors towards determining the material cause, which led in turn to recognizing its inadequacy as sole first principle [archê]. I divide the text of A 3, 983a24-4b8 into five moves: (1) the introduction of the project (983a24-3b6); (2) the account of the reasoning of the first philosophers (983b6-20); (3) a discussion of Thales, with an excursus on his putative predecessors among the poets (983b20-4a5); (4) * I would like to thank all the participants in the Symposium Aristotelicum meeting for discussion of this paper, as well as Victor Caston, Nathan Gilbert, Phillip Horky, Brad Inwood, Stephen Menn, and Robin Smith for their comments. -
The Death of Heraclitus Fairweather, Janet Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Fall 1973; 14, 3; Proquest Pg
The Death of Heraclitus Fairweather, Janet Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Fall 1973; 14, 3; ProQuest pg. 233 The Death of Heraclitus Janet Fairweather ECENTLY there has been a revival of interest in a theory, Roriginally put forward by A. Gladisch,l about one ancient ac count of the death of Heraclitus. According to Neanthes of Cyzicus 2 Heraclitus, suffering from dropsy, attempted to cure him self by covering his body with manure and lying out in the sun to dry, but he was made unrecognizable by the dung covering and was finally eaten by dogs. Gladisch and others have seen in this anecdote a veiled allusion to a certain Zoroastrian ritual, described in the Videvdat (8.37f), in which a man who has come into contact with a corpse which has not been devoured by scavengers is supposed to rid himself of the polluting demon, Nasu the Druj, by lying on the ground, covering himself with bull's urine, and having some dogs brought to the scene. The fact that we find both in Neanthes' tale and in this ritual the use of bovine excreta, exposure of a man's body in the sun, and the inter vention of dogs has seemed to some scholars too remarkable to be coincidental. Gladisch and, following him, F. M. Cleve3 have seen in Neanthes' anecdote an indication that Heraclitus might have ordered a Zoroastrian funeral for himself. M. L. West,4 more cautiously and subtly, has suggested that the story of the manure treatment and the dogs could have originated as an inference from some allusion Hera clitus may have made to the purification ritual in a part of his work now lost, perhaps in connection with his sneer (fr.86 Marcovich=B 5 D/K) at people who attempt to rid themselves of blood pollution by spilling more blood. -
The Heraclitus Anecdote: De Partibus Animalium I 5.645A17-23
Ancient Philosophy 21 (2001) ©Mathesis Publications 1 The Heraclitus Anecdote: De Partibus Animalium i 5.645a17-23 Pavel Gregoric Chapter 5 of the first book of Aristotle’s De Partibus Animalium contains a short self-contained treatise (644b22-645a36) which has been characterised as a ‘protreptic to the study of animals’ (Peck in Aristotle 1937, 97). Such a charac- terisation of the treatise may be misleading, because Aristotle does not seem to have composed it in order to motivate his audience to go out in the field and study animals, but rather to kindle their interest in the scientific account of ani- mals which he is about to provide. It is reasonable to suppose that Aristotle’s audience, eager to learn something valuable and dignified, needed an explanation of why they should like to hear, amongst other animals, about sponges, snails, grubs, and other humble creatures which are displeasing even to look at, not to mention witnessing the dissections that might have accompanied Aristotle’s lec- tures on animals (cf. Bonitz 1870, 104a4-17; Lloyd 1978). Aristotle explains why such ignoble animals deserve a place in a scientific account of animals and he illustrates that with an anecdote about Heraclitus. So one must not be childishly repelled by the examination of the humbler animals. For in all things of nature there is some- thing wonderful. And just as Heraclitus is said to have spoken to the visitors who wanted to meet him and who stopped as they were approaching when they saw him warming himself by the oven (e‰don aÈtÚn yerÒmenon prÚw t“ fipn“)—he urged them to come in without fear (§k°leue går aÈtoÁw efisi°nai yarroËntaw), for there were gods there too (e‰nai går ka‹ §ntaËya yeoÊw)—so one must approach the inquiry about each animal without aversion, since in all of them there is something natural and beautiful. -
The Presocratics in the Doxographical Tradition. Sources, Controversies, and Current Research*
THE PRESOCRATICS IN THE DOXOGRAPHICAL TRADITION. SOURCES, CONTROVERSIES, AND CURRENT RESEARCH* Han Baltussen Abstract In this paper I present a synthetic overview of recent and ongoing research in the field of doxography, that is, the study of the nature, transmission and interrelations of sources for ancient Greek philosophy. The latest revisions of the theory of Hermann Diels (Doxographi Graeci 1879) regarding the historiography ought to be known more widely, as they still influence our understanding of the Presocratics and their reception. The scholarly study on the compilations of Greek philosophical views from Hellenistic and later periods has received a major boost by the first of a projected three-volume study by Mansfeld and Runia (1997). Taking their work as a firm basis I also describe my own work in this area and how it can be related to, and fitted into, this trend by outlining how two important sources for the historiography of Greek philosophy, Theo- phrastus (4th–3rd c. BCE) and Simplicius (early 6th c. AD) stand in a special relation to each other and form an important strand in the doxographical tradition. Introduction In this paper I present a review of recent research on the study of the Presocratics in the doxographical tradition, and how my own work in progress is connected to this area of research. By setting out recent, ongoing and forthcoming research I hope to make a con- tribution to mapping out some important characteristics of the field by way of a critical study of its main sources, since it is quite important that these new insights are more widely known. -
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). -
The Natural Philosophers
The Natural Philosophers For us, the most interesting part is actually not what solutions these earliest philosophers arrived at, but The earliest Greek philosophers are sometimes which questions they asked and what type of answer called natural philosophers because they were mainly they were looking for. We are more interested in how concerned with the natural world and its processes. they thought than in exactly what they thought. We have already asked ourselves where everything We know that they posed questions relating to the comes from. Nowadays a lot of people imagine that at transformations they could observe in the physical some time something must have come from nothing. This world. They were looking for the underlying laws of idea was not so widespread among the Greeks. For one nature. They wanted to understand what was happening reason or another, they assumed that “something” had around them without having to turn to the ancient always existed. myths. And most important, they wanted to understand How everything could come from nothing was the actual processes by studying nature itself. This was therefore not the all-important question. On the other quite different from explaining thunder and lightning or hand the Greeks marveled at how live fish could come winter and spring by telling stories about the gods. from water, and huge trees and brilliantly colored So philosophy gradually liberated itself from flowers could come from the dead earth. Not to mention religion. We could say that the natural philosophers took how a baby could come from its mother’s womb! the first step in the direction of scientific reasoning, The philosophers observed with their own eyes thereby becoming the precursors of what was to become that nature was in a constant state of transformation. -
Plutarch and Parmenides HERSHBELL, JACKSON P Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1972; 13, 2; Proquest Pg
Plutarch and Parmenides HERSHBELL, JACKSON P Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1972; 13, 2; ProQuest pg. 193 Plutarch and Parmenides Jackson P. Hershbell LTHOUGH PLUTARCH is not a major source for interpretation of A Parmenides' poem, he preserves several fragments: B1.29-30; B8.4; B13, B14 and B15, the last two of which would otherwise be lost.1 He also makes observations on Parmenides' style and thought, and relates one biographical incident.2 Scholars of Plutarch and Parmenides are divided, however, on at least two problems: (1) What was the extent of Plutarch's knowledge ofParmenides, e.g. did he possess a copy of the complete poem, or was he working with second-hand sources such·as compendia 13 (2) How reliable and worth while is his interpretation of Parmenides 1 Among those denying Plutarch extensive knowledge of Parmen ides are Fairbanks, Ziegler and Taran. According to Ziegler, Plutarch gave more attention to Parmenides than to Xenophanes, "aber doch nicht eingehender studiert."4 Taran also remarks, "Plutarch's knowledge of Parmenides' text does not appear to have been extensive."5 H. Martin Jr and R. Westman, however, take a positive view. According to Mar tin, "Plutarch must have known Parmenides well, though he inter preted him anachronistically from a Platonicviewpoint."6 On Martin's latter point there seems to be no scholarly disagreement, though Westman's remark that Plutarch's conception of the relationship be tween 'A'\~O€ta; and Lloga in Parmenides' poem "war fur einen, der in 1 The list of quotations in W. C. Helmbold and E. -
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 -
Heraclitus on Pythagoras
Leonid Zhmud Heraclitus on Pythagoras By the time of Heraclitus, criticism of one’s predecessors and contemporaries had long been an established literary tradition. It had been successfully prac ticed since Hesiod by many poets and prose writers.1 No one, however, practiced criticism in the form of persistent and methodical attacks on both previous and current intellectual traditions as effectively as Heraclitus. Indeed, his biting criti cism was a part of his philosophical method and, on an even deeper level, of his selfappraisal and selfunderstanding, since he alone pretended to know the correct way to understand the underlying reality, unattainable even for the wisest men of Greece. Of all the celebrities figuring in Heraclitus’ fragments only Bias, one of the Seven Sages, is mentioned approvingly (DK 22 B 39), while another Sage, Thales, is the only one mentioned neutrally, as an astronomer (DK 22 B 38). All the others named by Heraclitus, which is to say the three most famous poets, Homer, Hesiod and Archilochus, the philosophical poet Xenophanes, Pythago ras, widely known for his manifold wisdom, and finally, the historian and geog rapher Hecataeus – are given their share of opprobrium.2 Despite all the intensity of Heraclitus’ attacks on these famous individuals, one cannot say that there was much personal in them. He was not engaged in ordi nary polemics with his contemporaries, as for example Xenophanes, Simonides or Pindar were.3 Xenophanes and Hecataeus, who were alive when his book was written, appear only once in his fragments, and even then only in the company of two more famous people, Hesiod and Pythagoras (DK 22 B 40). -
Master Essay Question List, Exam #1
PHIL 320: HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY STUDY QUESTIONS FOR MID-TERM EXAM Milesians 1. What ideas do Thales and Anaximander have in common? Where do they disagree? What, do you suppose, accounts for their disagreement? 2. Explain the role of the apeiron in Anaximander’s system. Discuss at least two possible interpretations of what Anaximander means by ‘apeiron’. 3. Discuss and amplify, if you can, the claim (made by Bertrand Russell) that “the Milesian school is important, not for what it achieved, but for what it attempted.” 4. What was Anaximander’s objection to making a common element (such as water, as Thales had proposed) the archê? How did Anaximenes, who proposed air as the archê, avoid this objection? 5. It is often claimed that Anaximenes attempted to account for qualitative differences in quantitative terms. What can be said in favor of this claim? What can be said against it? 6. Compare the role of the traditional Greek elements in the theories of Anaximander and Anaximenes. Discuss the importance of the notion of opposition in each of the theories. 7. Compare the role of the notion of opposition in the theories of Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Heraclitus. Heraclitus 1. The notion of logos plays an important role in Heraclitus’s thought. Explain, in as much detaill as you can, what the notion is and what role it plays. 2. According to Plato, Heraclitus said that it is impossible to step into the same river twice. Heraclitus’s own words, in fragment 12, read as follows: “Upon those that step into the same rivers different and different waters flow . -
The Fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes, but Having an Important
,1(70 THE FRAGMENTS OF ZENO AND CLEANTHES. ftonton: C. J. CLAY AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. ambriDse: DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. ltip>ifl: F. A. BROCKHAUS. #tto Hork: MACMILLAX AND CO. THE FRAGMENTS OF ZENO AND CLEANTHES WITH INTRODUCTION AND EXPLANATORY NOTES. AX ESSAY WHICH OBTAINED THE HARE PRIZE IX THE YEAR 1889. BY A. C. PEARSON, M.A. LATE SCHOLAR OF CHRIST S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: C. J. CLAY AND SONS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE. 1891 [All Rights reserved.] Cambridge : PBIXTKIi BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS, AT THK UNIVERSITY PRKSS. PREFACE. S dissertation is published in accordance with thr conditions attached to the Hare Prize, and appears nearly in its original form. For many reasons, however, I should have desired to subject the work to a more under the searching revision than has been practicable circumstances. Indeed, error is especially difficult t<> avoid in dealing with a large body of scattered authorities, a the majority of which can only be consulted in public- library. to be for The obligations, which require acknowledged of Zeno and the present collection of the fragments former are Cleanthes, are both special and general. The Philo- soon disposed of. In the Neue Jahrbticher fur Wellmann an lofjie for 1878, p. 435 foil., published article on Zeno of Citium, which was the first serious of Zeno from that attempt to discriminate the teaching of Wellmann were of the Stoa in general. The omissions of the supplied and the first complete collection fragments of Cleanthes was made by Wachsmuth in two Gottingen I programs published in 187-i LS75 (Commentationes s et II de Zenone Citiensi et Cleaitt/ie Assio). -
On the Nature of Heraclitus' Book
Binghamton University The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB) The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter 4-24-2002 On the Nature of Heraclitus' Book Herbert Granger Wayne State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, and the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Granger, Herbert, "On the Nature of Heraclitus' Book" (2002). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 331. https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/331 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]. ON THE NATURE OF HERACLITUS’ BOOK Herbert Granger Wayne State University (Comments Welcome) THE DISPUTE OYER HERACLITUS’ BOOK Antiquity credits Heraclitus with a single book (D. L. 9.5-6), but the nature, even the existence, of this ‘book’ remain disputed.1 The orthodoxy takes it to be a collection of independent aphorisms that at most Heraclitus grouped into loose associations under a few headings.2 Heraclitus did not lay out his thoughts sequentially or develop them in a continuous fashion, and thus he did not build one statement upon the other and drive steadily towards a conclusion or conclusions. Because Diels despaired of discerning any intrinsic order among Heraclitus’ fragments, he printed them largely in an alphabetical arrangement based on the names of the authors who preserved them.