Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy
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Early Pyrrhonism As a Sect of Buddhism? a Case Study in the Methodology of Comparative Philosophy
Comparative Philosophy Volume 9, No. 2 (2018): 1-40 Open Access / ISSN 2151-6014 www.comparativephilosophy.org EARLY PYRRHONISM AS A SECT OF BUDDHISM? A CASE STUDY IN THE METHODOLOGY OF COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY MONTE RANSOME JOHNSON & BRETT SHULTS ABSTRACT: We offer a sceptical examination of a thesis recently advanced in a monograph published by Princeton University Press entitled Greek Buddha: Pyrrho’s Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. In this dense and probing work, Christopher I. Beckwith, a professor of Central Eurasian studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, argues that Pyrrho of Elis adopted a form of early Buddhism during his years in Bactria and Gandhāra, and that early Pyrrhonism must be understood as a sect of early Buddhism. In making his case Beckwith claims that virtually all scholars of Greek, Indian, and Chinese philosophy have been operating under flawed assumptions and with flawed methodologies, and so have failed to notice obvious and undeniable correspondences between the philosophical views of the Buddha and of Pyrrho. In this study we take Beckwith’s proposal and challenge seriously, and we examine his textual basis and techniques of translation, his methods of examining passages, his construal of problems and his reconstruction of arguments. We find that his presuppositions are contentious and doubtful, his own methods are extremely flawed, and that he draws unreasonable conclusions. Although the result of our study is almost entirely negative, we think it illustrates some important general points about the methodology of comparative philosophy. Keywords: adiaphora, anātman, anattā, ataraxia, Buddha, Buddhism, Democritus, Pāli, Pyrrho, Pyrrhonism, Scepticism, trilakṣaṇa 1. INTRODUCTION One of the most ambitious recent works devoted to comparative philosophy is Christopher Beckwith’s monograph Greek Buddha: Pyrrho’s Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia (2015). -
Adiaphora, Luther and the Material Culture of Worship Andrew Spicer
Adiaphora, Luther and the Material Culture of Worship Andrew Spicer During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, English merchants and travellers to Germany and the Baltic were surprised by the pre-Reformation furnishings that remained in the Lutheran churches they visited, particularly commenting on the altarpieces, organs and statues.1 The survival of these aspects of late medieval worship has been attributed to the so-called ‘preserving power’ of Lutheranism. Significant numbers of images, ecclesiastical plate and vestments together with altarpieces remain even to this day through having been retained by Lutheran congregations.2 Recent scholarship, however, has acknowledged that this material culture has not always survived without some adaptation to accord with the needs of Lutheran worship.3 Furthermore, it has been questioned whether ‘preservation’ or ‘survival’ are the appropriate terms to refer to these items associated with pre-Reformation worship but with which the Lutheran faithful continued to engage.4 Adiaphora has become a convenient term to explain the retention of this ecclesiastical material culture, particularly in relation to religious art and images, within the Lutheran tradition.5 Adiaphora, a Greek term, had its origins in classical philosophy but had been adopted by the some of the Church Fathers. The meaning of the concept gradually evolved so that by the late middle ages, it had come to refer to things that were permitted because they had neither been divinely commanded nor prohibited, as determined by the New Testament. These were matters, which were not regarded as necessary for salvation. It was this understanding of the term that was applied by the Reformers in the early sixteenth century. -
The Limits Upon Adiaphoristic Freedom: Luther and Melanchthon1 Bernard J
THE LIMITS UPON ADIAPHORISTIC FREEDOM: LUTHER AND MELANCHTHON1 BERNARD J. VERKAMP Vincennes University, Indiana HEN LUTHER and his principal spokesman, Philip Melanchthon, Wlaunched their attack against the many ecclesiastical laws and regulations which had cropped up over the centuries, it was not so much a matter of attacking the traditions in themselves as it was an attempt to restore the doctrine of solafideism, which in their opinion the traditions had severely jeopardized. Once that doctrine was fully appreciated, Luther wrote, the Christian would "easily and safely find his way through those myriad mandates and precepts of popes, bishops, monas teries, churches, princes, and magistrates."2 As it turned out, that way, according to both Luther and Melanchthon, was an adiaphoristic via media. But whether such a path was as "easily and safely" to be discerned as Luther thought, may be doubted; for, as a matter of fact, the adiaphoristic freedom championed by the two Wittenberg Reformers was closely circumscribed by "limits" from without and within, which, because of their subtlety and complexity, could be and not infrequently were overlooked. In what follows, it will be my intention to show exactly what those limits are. I will begin by trying to establish the outer boundaries, or, in other words, the precise locus of the adiaphorism proffered by Luther and Melanchthon. At its sixth session the Council of Trent declared: "Si quis dixerit, nihil praeceptum esse in Evangelio praeter fidem, cetera esse indifferentia, ñeque praecepta, -
Kant's Doctrine of Religion As Political Philosophy
Kant's Doctrine of Religion as Political Philosophy Author: Phillip David Wodzinski Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/987 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2009 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of Political Science KANT’S DOCTRINE OF RELIGION AS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY a dissertation by PHILLIP WODZINSKI submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2009 © copyright by PHILLIP DAVID WODZINSKI 2009 ABSTRACT Kant’s Doctrine of Religion as Political Philosophy Phillip Wodzinski Advisor: Susan Shell, Ph.D. Through a close reading of Immanuel Kant’s late book, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, the dissertation clarifies the political element in Kant’s doctrine of religion and so contributes to a wider conception of his political philosophy. Kant’s political philosophy of religion, in addition to extending and further animating his moral doctrine, interprets religion in such a way as to give the Christian faith a moral grounding that will make possible, and even be an agent of, the improvement of social and political life. The dissertation emphasizes the wholeness and structure of Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason as a book, for the teaching of the book is not exhausted by the articulation of its doctrine but also includes both the fact and the manner of its expression: the reader learns most fully from Kant by giving attention to the structure and tone of the book as well as to its stated content and argumentation. -
Melanchthon Versus Luther: the Contemporary Struggle
CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY Volume 44, Numbers 2-3 --- - - - JULY 1980 Can the Lutheran Confessions Have Any Meaning 450 Years Later?.................... Robert D. Preus 104 Augustana VII and the Eclipse of Ecumenism ....................................... Sieg bert W. Becker 108 Melancht hon versus Luther: The Contemporary Struggle ......................... Bengt Hagglund 123 In-. Response to Bengt Hagglund: The importance of Epistemology for Luther's and Melanchthon's Theology .............. Wilbert H. Rosin 134 Did Luther and Melanchthon Agree on the Real Presence?.. ....................................... David P. Scaer 14 1 Luther and Melanchthon in America ................................................ C. George Fry 148 Luther's Contribution to the Augsburg Confession .............................................. Eugene F. Klug 155 Fanaticism as a Theological Category in the Lutheran Confessions ............................... Paul L. Maier 173 Homiletical Studies 182 Melanchthon versus Luther: the Contemporary Struggle Bengt Hagglund Luther and Melanchthon in Modern Research In many churches in Scandinavia or in Germany one will find two oil paintings of the same size and datingfrom the same time, representing Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, the two prime reformers of the Church. From the point of view of modern research it may seem strange that Melanchthon is placed on the same level as Luther, side by side with him, equal in importance and equally worth remembering as he. Their common achieve- ment was, above all, the renewal of the preaching of the Gospel, and therefore it is deserving t hat their portraits often are placed in the neighborhood of the pulpit. Such pairs of pictures were typical of the nineteenth-century view of Melanchthon and Luther as harmonious co-workers in the Reformation. These pic- tures were widely displayed not only in the churches, but also in many private homes in areas where the Reformation tradition was strong. -
Index Locorum
Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85937-0 - The Virtuous Life in Greek Ethics Edited by Burkhard Reis Index More information Index locorum Aeschylus 2.3, 1220b21–3: 104 Agamemnon 2.3, 1221a15–17: 123 218: 239 2.5, 1222a22–b4: 110 Aetius¨ 2.10, 1126b29–30: 176 De placitis reliquiae 2.11, 1228a5–7: 160 4.4.6: 199 3.1, 1230a26–33: 168 Anaximenes 3.1, 1230a31–2: 169 Rhetorica ad Alexandrum 7.2, 1236b39–1237a2: 181 7.5: 194 7.12, 1245a29–30: 186 7.14: 194 Ethica Nicomachea Antiphon Orat. 1: 102, 104, 175 2.213: 155 1.2, 1094a22–6: 149 Antiphon Soph. 1.2, 1094a23–5: 176 DK 87 B 44: 135 1.2, 1094b7–11: 182 Apollodorus 1.2, 1094b10–11: 127 Bibliotheca 1.3, 1094b11–27: 128 3.70–2: 234 1.3, 1094b13–27: 149 Aristotle 1.3, 1094b21: 111 Analytica posteriora 1.3, 1095a5–6: 129 1.4: 159 1.4, 1095a17–20: 181 De anima 1.4, 1095a31–b8: 129 1.1, 403a23–4: 204 1.4, 1095b4–7: 130 2.2, 413b10–13: 131 1.5: 132, 178 2.3, 414b19–415a13: 131 1.5, 1095b26–1096a2: 184 3.3: 195 1.6: 176 3.7, 430a26–431a8: 195 1.6, 1096b8–19: 175 3.9–10: 103 1.7: 176, 190 Categoriae 1.7, 1097a25–b6: 175 10, 11b38–12a9: 10 1.7, 1097a33–b6: 181 Ethica Eudemia 1.7, 1097b1–6: 181 1.2, 1214b6–11: 176 1.7, 1097b4–6: 176 1.2, 1214b10–11: 140 1.7, 1097b8–11: 131 1.2, 1214b11–27: 181 1.7, 1097b20–1: 181 1.4, 1215b3–4: 184 1.7, 1098a10–15: 101 1.5, 1216a24–6: 184 1.7, 1098a16–18: 101, 131 1.7, 1217a20–2: 181 1.7, 1098a17: 102 2: 126 1.7, 1098a26–32: 149 2.1, 1219a38–9: 101, 126 1.8–10: 181 2.1, 1219b32–6: 103 1.9, 1099a11–21: 181 2.2, 1220b12–13: 194 1.13, 1102a5–15: 182 2.3: 106 1.13, 1102a5–6: -
A Study of Alterity and Influence in the Literary and Philosophical Neighbourhood of Jean Genet and Emmanuel Levinas
A study of alterity and influence in the literary and philosophical neighbourhood of Jean Genet and Emmanuel Levinas Thomas F. Newman University College London A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2008 UMI Number: U593B63 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U593363 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Declaration I declare that the work presented in this PhD is my own. This thesis is the one on which I wish to be examined. Thomas F. Newman 29 January 2008 2 Thesis Abstract The dissertation is a chiasmic reading of the works of Jean Genet and Emmanuel Levinas, examining the way they each address the relation to the Other in terms of ethics and subjectivity. Whereas a straightforward association between the two writers might seem paradoxical because of the differences in their approaches and rhetoric, a chiasmic reading allows intricate approaches, moments of proximity and departures to be read both conceptually and aesthetically. We show that these two writers share a tightly-woven discursive neighbourhood, and examine that neighbourhood through detailed analysis of various textual encounters. -
PROCEEDINGS Table of Contents Basanizein
PROCEEDINGS Table of Contents Basanizein. Practical Experience as the Touchstone of Platonic Education ................................................. 1 Francisco Benoni (University of Verona) Concealment, Compulsion, and the Educated Citizen of the Protagoras .................................................... 8 Ryan Drake (Fairfield University) Imag(in)ing Nature and Art in Plato’s Phaedrus......................................................................................... 20 Marina McCoy (Boston University) Aristotle, Philosophêmata, and Aristotle’s Disciplinary History of Philosophy .......................................... 25 Chris Moore (Pennsylvania State University) Aristotle on Pleonexia, Proper Self-Love and the Unity of Justice.............................................................. 32 Marta Jimenez (Emory university) Philodemus and the Peripatetics on the Role of Anger in the Virtuous Life .............................................. 42 David Kaufmann (Transylvania University) Among the Boys and Young Men: Philosophy and Masculinity in Plato’s Lysis ......................................... 50 Yancy Dominick (Seattle University) The Dis-Community of Lovers: Kinship in the Lysis ..................................................................................... 58 Benjamin Frazer-Simser (DePaul University) How to Speak Kata Phusin: Magico-religious Speech in Heraclitus ............................................................ 71 Jessica Elbert Decker (California State University) Heraclitus and the Riddle -
Transformations Class Discussions
TRANSFORMATIONS CLASS DISCUSSIONS FOR THE TEACHERS The Excellence Through Classics Resource Committee wants to provide you with some resources that you can use in your classroom to help foster a deeper understanding of the myths present in our exam. There is a debate currently occurring in classrooms about how to approach teaching myths that have underlying violence against women in them. Excellence Through Classics acknowledges that the way the D’Aulaires presented their stories erases these violent actions. Many myths about transformations are about how one character (god or human) breaks societal rules and expectations and often acts with hubris. These stories serve as warnings about how not to act in ancient Mediterranian society, like La Llorona of the Southwest, or the Boy Who Cried Wolf for children today. We should remember that the ancient Mediterranian had different rules of conduct than the modern world. So while these stories may have told a Greek boy, a Roman Girl, an Egyptian teenager or a Celtic baby how to act in their world, it does not always tell us how to act in ours. Poetry and mythology can also be seen as a way for the reader to understand and discuss problematic modern situations. Many of these stories in D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths are to Greek Mythology like the Disney version are to the German Fairy Tales, and some of the darker elements are masked or ignored completely. The Little Mermaid ends on a happy note in the Disney movie while Hans Christian Andersen’s original tale has a darker tone. -
Fate and Death Through a Daimonic Lens
FATE AND DEATH THROUGH A DAIMONIC LENS FATE AND DEATH THROUGH A DAIMONIC LENS By JASON SOLOMON BINDER, B.A.Sc., B.A. Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University © Copyright by Jason Solomon Binder, September 2014 MA Thesis – J. Binder; McMaster University – Classics. McMaster University MASTER OF ARTS (2014) Hamilton, Ontario (Classics) TITLE: Fate and Death through a Daimonic Lens AUTHOR: Jason Solomon Binder, B.A.Sc., B.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Sean Corner NUMBER OF PAGES: vi, 101 ii MA Thesis – J. Binder; McMaster University – Classics. Abstract This thesis is concerned with the ancient Greek conceptualization of fate and death, as explored through the figure of the daimon in literature from Homer and Hesiod to Plato and Euripides. Filling a gap in scholarship, I elucidate the spectrum of meaning inherent in the word daimon, and how it shifts over time. From the Archaic to the Classical period the word daimon is found as a synonym for theos, “god”, as a vocative address, or in reference to “fate” and the generalized “will of heaven.” At the same time, a particular group of divine personifications, including Thanatos, Moira, Ker, and Erinys are counted as daimones. We also find the term used to designate unnamed but individuated lesser divinities, guardian spirits, and demonic possessors, and even as the divine aspect of the self. In the early Archaic poets these latter categories are only nascent. The individuated daimon becomes the focus of the lyric poets and pre-Socratic philosophers; in the later pre-Socratics the daimon begins to be internalized, moving from possessive spirit to psychic force. -
Philosophy and the Passions Literature and Philosophy
Philosophy and the Passions Literature and Philosophy A. J. Cascardi, General Editor This series publishes books in a wide range of subjects in philosophy and literature, including studies of the social and historical issues that relate these two fields. Drawing on the resources of the Anglo-American and Continental traditions, the series is open to philosophically informed scholarship covering the entire range of contemporary critical thought. Already published: J. M. Bernstein, The Fate of Art: Aesthetic Alienation from Kant to Derrida and Adorno Peter Bürger, The Decline of Modernism Mary E. Finn, Writing the Incommensurable: Kierkegaard, Rossetti, and Hopkins Reed Way Dasenbrock, ed., Literary Theory After Davidson David Haney, William Wordsworth and the Hermeneutics of Incarnation David Jacobson, Emerson’s Pragmatic Vision:The Dance of the Eye Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Narcissus Transformed: The Textual Subject in Psycho- analysis and Literature Robert Steiner, Toward a Grammar of Abstraction: Modernity, Wittgenstein, and the Paintings of Jackson Pollock Sylvia Walsh, Living Poetically: Kierkegaard’s Existential Aesthetics Michel Meyer, Rhetoric, Language, and Reason Christie McDonald and Gary Wihl,eds.,Transformation in Personhood and Culture After Theory Charles Altieri, Painterly Abstraction in Modernist American Poetry: The Contem- poraneity of Modernism John C. O’Neal, The Authority of Experience: Sensationist Theory in the French Enlightenment John O’Neill, ed., Freud and the Passions Sheridan Hough, Nietzsche’s Noontide Friend:The Self as Metaphoric Double E. M. Dadlez, What’s Hecuba to Him? Fictional Events and Actual Emotions Hugh Roberts, Shelley and the Chaos of History: A New Politics of Poetry Charles Altieri, Postmodernisms Now: Essays on Contemporaneity in the Arts Arabella Lyon, Intentions: Negotiated, Contested, and Ignored Jill Gordon, Turning Toward Philosophy: Literary Device and Dramatic Structure in Plato’s Dialogues Michel Meyer, Philosophy and the Passions: Towards a History of Human Nature. -
Early Pyrrhonism As a Sect of Buddhism? a Case Study in the Methodology of Comparative Philosophy
Comparative Philosophy Volume 9, No. 2 (2018): 1-40 Open Access / ISSN 2151-6014 / www.comparativephilosophy.org https://doi.org/10.31979/2151-6014(2018).090204 EARLY PYRRHONISM AS A SECT OF BUDDHISM? A CASE STUDY IN THE METHODOLOGY OF COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY MONTE RANSOME JOHNSON & BRETT SHULTS ABSTRACT: We offer a sceptical examination of a thesis recently advanced in a monograph published by Princeton University Press entitled Greek Buddha: Pyrrho’s Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. In this dense and probing work, Christopher I. Beckwith, a professor of Central Eurasian studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, argues that Pyrrho of Elis adopted a form of early Buddhism during his years in Bactria and Gandhāra, and that early Pyrrhonism must be understood as a sect of early Buddhism. In making his case Beckwith claims that virtually all scholars of Greek, Indian, and Chinese philosophy have been operating under flawed assumptions and with flawed methodologies, and so have failed to notice obvious and undeniable correspondences between the philosophical views of the Buddha and of Pyrrho. In this study we take Beckwith’s proposal and challenge seriously, and we examine his textual basis and techniques of translation, his methods of examining passages, his construal of problems and his reconstruction of arguments. We find that his presuppositions are contentious and doubtful, his own methods are extremely flawed, and that he draws unreasonable conclusions. Although the result of our study is almost entirely negative, we think it illustrates some important general points about the methodology of comparative philosophy. Keywords: adiaphora, anātman, anattā, ataraxia, Buddha, Buddhism, Democritus, Pāli, Pyrrho, Pyrrhonism, Scepticism, trilakṣaṇa 1.