Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy

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Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy ≥ Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy Edited by Dorothea Frede and Burkhard Reis Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York Țȍ Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability. ISBN 978-3-11-020236-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie. Kongress (2nd : 2007 : University of Hamburg) Body and soul in ancient philosophy / edited by Dorothea Frede and Burkhard Reis. p. cm. “This volume contains a collection of papers presented at the Second International Conference of the Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie e.V. (GANPH) at the University of Hamburg from 18 to 21 July 2007” - Pref. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-3-11-020236-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Mind and body - Congresses. 2. Soul - Congresses. 3. An- cient philosophy - Congresses. I. Frede, Dorothea, 1941- II. Reis, Burkhard. III. Title. B105.M53G47 2007 1281.1093-dc22 2009027593 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Ą Copyright 2009 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without per- mission in writing from the publisher. Printed in Germany Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Laufen Cover picture: “Vase painting on white-grounded lekythos by the ‘Sabouroff-painter’, ca. 450 BC” W. Rietzler, Weißgrundige attische Lekythen. Nach Adolf Furtwänglers Auswahl, München 1914, Taf. 44 a. Printing and binding: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen Preface This volume contains a collection of papers presented at the Second In- ternational Conference of the Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie e.V. (GANPH) at the University of Hamburg from 18 to 21 July 2007. The relationship between the body and soul was chosen as the theme for this conference because this issue was a key topic in the debates among philosophers from the Archaic period to the beginnings of early Christianity, and has not ceased to be of interest since antiquity. In recent decades, however, discussion of the so-called mind-body problem has intensified enormously due to the rapid progress of the neurosciences, which has led to a more differentiated understanding of the connections and relationship between physiological and cognitive processes. The question of the unity or duality of mind and brain has therefore become one of the most controversial topics within and be- tween the fields of philosophy, psychology, neurophysiology, and relat- ed disciplines. Even if the philosophers in antiquity had no conception of the complex processes underlying neurophysiology, they did antici- pate key questions that are still at the center of attention nowadays. The conference was made possible thanks to the financial contribu- tions of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the University of Ham- burg, the ZEIT-Stiftung, and of the Hamburgische Stiftung für Wissen- schaften, Entwicklung und Kultur Helmut und Hannelore Greve. The staff of the office of the Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie provided or- ganizational and planning assistance in preparing for the conference. The fact that the conference itself progressed not only without a break-down, but also to the participants’ expressed satisfaction, is due to the careful planning and supervision of Dr. Burkhard Reis at all stages, and also to the initiative and untiring support provided by the conference assistants on the spot. Profound thanks are extended to all organisations and persons who contributed to the success of the confer- ence, not least to the speakers and to the faithful and attentive audience. Regrettably, due to page limitations, not all of the presentations de- livered at the conference could be included in this volume. The neces- sary limitations did not permit the inclusion of contributions by the fif- teen younger scholars who were selected as speakers via a ‘call for pa- pers’. Since the omitted presentations constituted valuable additions to VI Preface the program and were well received by the audience, it is to be hoped that these contributions will be published in some other form. This volume does not follow the program of the conference, where the various sections were organized according to specific themes. This is due not only to the fact that there are no firm boundaries between the various topics anyway, but also because readers who are interested in tracing the influence of individual philosophers and their schools will undoubtedly regard a chronological order of presentation as more use- ful. Special thanks are due to all of the authors whose papers are includ- ed in this collection, not only for their individual contributions to the success of the conference, but also for agreeing to revise their papers for publication and making the extra effort to add bibliographical infor- mation and indices. The editorial work for this volume was shouldered by Stella Haffmans and Dr. Burkhard Reis; it is a pleasure to acknowl- edge the care and conscientiousness with which they went about this task. Lastly, I wish to thank the publishing company, Walter de Gruyter, for turning the collection of manuscripts into a published volume. Unless indicated otherwise ancient authors and works are referred to according to the abbreviations listed in the Greek-English Lexicon of Liddell, Scott & Jones, the Oxford Latin Dictionary and the Patristic Greek Lexicon of Lampe. Berkeley, March 2009 Dorothea Frede Contents Introduction . .................................... 1 I. Presocratics Carl Huffman The Pythagorean conception of the soul from Pythagoras to Philolaus . ........................................ 21 Christian Schäfer Das Pythagorasfragment des Xenophanes und die Frage nach der Kritik der Metempsychosenlehre . ...................... 45 Brad Inwood Empedocles and metempsychôsis: The critique of Diogenes of Oenoanda . ........................................ 71 Anthony A. Long Heraclitus on measure and the explicit emergence of rationality 87 Georg Rechenauer Demokrits Seelenmodell und die Prinzipien der atomistischen Physik ............................................ 111 II. Plato David Sedley Three kinds of Platonic immortality . .................. 145 Michael Erler „Denn mit Menschen sprechen wir und nicht mit Göttern“. Platonische und epikureische epimeleia tÞs psychÞs ........... 163 Gyburg Radke-Uhlmann Die energeia des Philosophen – zur Einheit von literarischem Dialog und philosophischer Argumentation in Platons Phaidon. 179 VIII Contents jan Szaif Die aretÞ des Leibes: Die Stellung der Gesundheit in Platons Güterlehre . ........................................ 205 III. Aristotle Günther Patzig Körper und Geist bei Aristoteles – zum Problem des Funktionalismus ...................... 249 Christopher Shields The priority of soul in Aristotle’s De anima: Mistaking categories? . ........................................ 267 David Charles Aristotle on desire and action .......................... 291 Friedemann Buddensiek Aristoteles’ Zirbeldrüse? Zum Verhältnis von Seele und pneuma in Aristoteles’ Theorie der Ortsbewegung der Lebewesen .... 309 Ursula Wolf Aporien in der aristotelischen Konzeption des Beherrschten und des Schlechten . .................................... 331 IV. Academy john Dillon How does the soul direct the body, after all? Traces of a dispute on mind-body relations in the Old Academy . ............. 349 V. Hellenism Keimpe Algra Stoics on souls and demons: Reconstructing Stoic demonology 359 Tad Brennan Stoic souls in Stoic corpses . ........................... 389 Contents IX Christopher Gill Galen and the Stoics: What each could learn from the other about embodied psychology ........................... 409 Martha C. Nussbaum Philosophical norms and political attachments: Cicero and Seneca ............................................ 425 VI. Philosophers of Early Christianity jonathan Barnes Anima Christiana .................................... 447 Therese Fuhrer Der Geist im vollkommenen Körper. Ein Gedankenexperiment in Augustins De civitate dei 22 .......................... 465 Theo Kobusch Die Auferstehung des Leibes ........................... 493 Bibliography . .................................... 511 Introduction 1 The topic The body-soul problem is not an invention of modernity, but has a long history that can be traced back to the early age of Greek culture. The problem is also not confined to Greek culture: ever since humankind has been able to think at all it has been confronted by the question of what happens at the moment of death, when life is extinguished with the last breath. Whether the ‘exhalation’ of life means the end of human existence, or something remains that becomes separate from the body at the moment of death, is therefore an existential question that has received and still receives different answers in different cultures. In Greek as well as Latin the association of the word ‘soul’ with the breath of life is already clear from etymology: the Greek word for soul, psychÞ, just like its Latin counterpart, anima, originally meant ‘breath/breeze’ or ‘wind’. The notion that
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