DOCSLIB.ORG

Stoic Unformed Substance and Old Academic Ontology

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Stoic Unformed Substance and Old Academic Ontology Martin Skipper University College London 2009 PhD. 1 Stoic Unformed Substance and Old Academic Ontology I, Martin Skipper, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Stoic Unformed Substance and Old Academic Ontology Abstract: This thesis examines the influences on the Stoics‟ development of their material principle. The thesis argues that the reasons for the Stoics‟ conceiving of a material principle as they did actually have their origins in metaphysical speculation rather than physics. While the natural philosophy of the Ionians, as interpreted by Aristotle and his followers, no doubt furnished the intellectual background for a persisting material substrate of all sensible change, it is in fact the concerns of Plato and his early followers with the non-sensible that exert the strongest influence on the Stoics. The thesis examines the concepts of space and matter in the Timaeus ultimately rejecting this work of physics as central to the development of Stoic thought on matter. Rather it is the metaphysical doctrines of Plato and his successors, and the use they make of an incorporeal matter, that exerted the greatest influence on the Stoics and their material principle. The interpretation of Platonic metaphysics argued for in the thesis, based on the Unwritten Doctrines and the Old Academy‟s teachings, challenges the majority opinion of the English speaking community; and as a result offers a novel understanding of the relationship of Stoicism to Platonic metaphysics. The thesis concludes that it is likely that the early Stoics developed their doctrine of a material substrate in the particular way they did because of the tendency in the Old Academy to simplify the doctrines of Plato. This simplifying tendency comes to a head in the early Stoics with the ultimate reduction of the Old Academic system of hypostases, making use of active and passive principles at various levels of reality, finally ending in one level of reality and a simple two principle system. 3 Stoic Unformed Substance and Old Academic Ontology Acknowledgements: I would like to take this space to offer my thanks to all those who have made the completion of this thesis possible. There are too many friends and colleagues to mention who have so kindly offered their time and support to me over the past four years. However special mention must of course be reserved by supervisor Professor Robert W. Sharples who has committed so much time and energy to mentoring me in the production of this thesis. It is not too dramatic to say that without his input this thesis would not have seen the light of day. I am deeply indebted to his wisdom and patience. I would also like to thank my brother, Richard, and his wife Megan for being a source of support and encouragement throughout this time and bringing a source of welcome distraction with the birth of my niece Mair. Of all the friends who have selflessly, and unwittingly, lent their ears to convoluted arguments about Greek metaphysics I must mention Mark Nayler, who has sat through innumerable readings of this topic, and Julian Hudson who has always unflinchingly offered his support of this endeavour. I of course cannot end any acknowledgements without mentioning my parents Richard and Maria who have been a source of constant support and inspiration. Despite the input of all these people it goes without saying that any errors contained within these pages are entirely my own. 4 Stoic Unformed Substance and Old Academic Ontology Contents Introduction 7 Chapter One: 1.1 Matter 24 1.2.1 The Stoic Apoios Ousia 31 1.2.2 Apoios Ousia and its Relation to the Active Principle 45 1.2.3 Blending Through and Through 65 Chapter Two: 2.1 The Timaeus 78 2.1.1 The Elements 80 2.1.2 The Receptacle of Becoming 90 2.1.3 Concluding Remarks about the Timaeus 95 2.2 Aristotle and Matter 99 Chapter Three: 3.1 Plato‟s Late Ontology 109 3.1.1 The Parmenides 112 3.1.2 The Philebus 121 3.1.3 The Metaphysics as it Stands 128 3.2 The Unwritten Doctrines 132 3.2.1 The Written and Unwritten Doctrines 139 3.3 The Old Academy 145 3.3.1 Formal Level 149 3.3.2 Intermediate Levels 154 3.3.3 The Sensible Level 162 3.4 The Stoics 171 3.5 Polemo 178 5 Stoic Unformed Substance and Old Academic Ontology Chapter Four: 4.1 The Intellectual Climate of the Time 184 4.1.1 Heraclitus 185 4.1.2 Ekpyrosis 188 4.1.3 Fire, Matter and God 194 4.2 Biology and the Mythic Account 199 4.3 The Impact of the Natural Philosophers and Medical Theory 208 Conclusion 214 Bibliography 220 List of Abbreviations 233 6 Stoic Unformed Substance and Old Academic Ontology Introduction: The purpose of this thesis is two-fold: firstly to examine and explain the influence of Old Academic ontology on the early Stoics - Zeno, Cleanthes and Chrysippus – and its relationship to their particular understanding of the material principle – the apoios ousia. Secondly, and in order to achieve the first aim, to re-examine Plato‟s late physics in light of the teachings of two of his students (Speusippus and Xenocrates) and in light of the Unwritten Doctrines as reported by Aristotle. In answering the question of what is responsible for the world‟s materiality and corporeality I will look at the interpretations and uses made by the Stoics‟ predecessors of the concept of a material principle as an “out of which”. In looking at matter it is impossible to avoid discussions of the Stoics‟ other principle –the active, or god. The two are closely related and so while the focus of the thesis is matter there will necessarily be discussion of matter‟s concomitant in the analysis of Chrysippus‟ predecessors‟ philosophies and the nature of this relationship will prove key to our understanding. It will be shown that it is likely that the main influence on the Stoics for their development and characterisation of prime matter, so familiar to our minds, can be found primarily in the teachings of Speusippus and Xenocrates; hence matter, as conceived by the Stoics, will be shown to be the culmination of a legacy starting with the mathematical metaphysics of the Pythagoreans and reaching them via the incorporeal principles of Plato. There are numerous candidates for the main influence on the Stoics‟ development of their two principles, the active and passive bodies that constitute the universe and all that is in it, and the relationship that holds between them: 1) The pre-Socratics, especially Heraclitus1. This is the influence the early Stoics themselves indicated most strongly but has been convincingly challenged by Long2. 2) The written teachings of Plato, especially the Timaeus – an influence accepted positively by Long and Sedley: “His (Chrysippus‟) borrowings from the Timaeus are obvious.3” 3) The Unwritten Doctrines and their interpretation in the Old Academy – specifically Speusippus and Xenocrates: the view to be argued for in this thesis. 4) Zeno‟s reported teacher at the Academy: Polemo. A position argued for strongly by Sedley 1 Aristotle is our main source of information about the pre-Socratics but there is no reason to suppose that this was the case in the Hellenistic period. The access the Stoics had to Heraclitus‟ work will be discussed in chapter four. 2 Long 1996a. 3 Cf. L&S vol. 1, p. 278. 7 Stoic Unformed Substance and Old Academic Ontology in his “The Origins of Stoic God.” 5) Aristotle‟s writings on the subject, especially the Metaphysics and Physics. This view is forcefully argued by Hahm4, and accepted to a lesser degree by Long5, but argued just as vociferously against by Sandbach6. There is also the suggestion of influence from the Near East and Semitic tradition, a possibility discussed by Hahm7 but in the end rejected through lack of evidence. I will not, therefore, entertain this possibility as it has already been sufficiently discussed and lacks any significant plausibility. The first option, that of influence through the pre-Socratic tradition, will be discussed at the end of the thesis as, while their materialistic theories undeniably have many resonances with Stoicism, the idea of them as a significant influence on the philosophical development of Stoicism seems unlikely. Not, though, for the reasons given by Curd8 that neither Plato nor Aristotle paid much attention to Heraclitus, since, on the contrary, he seems to have been a strong influence on Plato‟s epistemology and a major driving factor behind his ontology and was certainly seen as a significant thinker by Aristotle9; but rather because the relationship of early Stoicism to Heraclitus is more of retrograde ascription by them of their theories onto Heraclitus in order to support their theories by appeal to venerable antiquity10. However, since “influence” does not simply mean “adoption” the discussion of pre- Socratic theories, and Heraclitus in particular, will help to place the main theme of the thesis in the context of the intellectual development of philosophy in the post- Socratic environment11. Option two, that it is primarily through the written work of Plato and especially the Timaeus that the Stoics‟ physics developed, was championed indirectly in antiquity by Antiochus of Ascalon and in modern times, as noted above, by Long and Sedley. Since the Timaeus was probably the most influential work on cosmology from 4 Hahm 1977. 5 Long 1998. 6 Sandbach 1985. On pg.
Recommended publications
  • The Coherence of Stoic Ontology

    The Coherence of Stoic Ontology

    The Coherence of Stoic Ontology by Vanessa de Harven A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Prof. Dorothea Frede, Co-chair Prof. Klaus Corcilius, Co-chair Prof. A.A. Long Spring 2012 Abstract The Coherence of Stoic Ontology by Vanessa de Harven Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy University of California, Berkeley Professors Dorothea Frede and Klaus Corcilius, Co-chairs Any thoroughgoing physicalist is challenged to give an account of immaterial entities such as thoughts and mathematical objects. The Stoics, who eagerly affirmed that only bodies exist, crafted an elegant solution to this challenge: not everything that is Something (ti) exists. Rather, some things have a derivative mode of reality they call subsistence: these entities are non-existent in that they are not themselves solid bodies, but they are nonetheless Something physical because they depend on bodies for their subsistence. My dissertation uncovers the unifying principles of Stoic subsistence, and shows how they can account for thoughts and other immaterial entities without running afoul of their physicalist commitments. While all commentators agree that the Stoics posited Something as the highest category of being, they have failed to find a coherent physicalist account of Stoic ontology. For instance, (1) a canonical set of incorporeals (time, place, void, and what is sayable (lekton)) is well attested, but there is little agreement as to what these entities have in common as incorporeals, which makes the category look like an ad hoc collection of left-over entities.
  • Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosophorum, Book Five

    Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosophorum, Book Five

    Binghamton University The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB) The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter 12-1986 The Lives of the Peripatetics: Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosophorum, Book Five Michael Sollenberger Mount St. Mary's 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 Sollenberger, Michael, "The Lives of the Peripatetics: Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosophorum, Book Five" (1986). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 129. https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/129 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]. f\îc|*zx,e| lîâ& The Lives of the Peripatetics: Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosoohorum Book Five The biographies of six early Peripatetic philosophers are con­ tained in the fifth book of Diogenes Laertius* Vitae philosoohorum: the lives of the first four heads of the sect - Aristotle, Theophras­ tus, Strato, and Lyco - and those of two outstanding members of the school - Demetrius of Phalerum and Heraclides of Pontus, For the history of two rival schools, the Academy and the Stoa, we are for­ tunate in having not only Diogenes' versions in 3ooks Four and Seven, but also the Index Academicorum and the Index Stoicorum preserved among the papyri from Herculaneum, But for the Peripatos there-is no such second source.
  • A History of Cynicism

    A History of Cynicism

    A HISTORY OF CYNICISM Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com A HISTORY OF CYNICISM From Diogenes to the 6th Century A.D. by DONALD R. DUDLEY F,llow of St. John's College, Cambrid1e Htmy Fellow at Yale University firl mll METHUEN & CO. LTD. LONDON 36 Essex Street, Strand, W.C.2 Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com First published in 1937 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN Downloaded from https://www.holybooks.com PREFACE THE research of which this book is the outcome was mainly carried out at St. John's College, Cambridge, Yale University, and Edinburgh University. In the help so generously given to my work I have been no less fortunate than in the scenes in which it was pursued. I am much indebted for criticism and advice to Professor M. Rostovtseff and Professor E. R. Goodonough of Yale, to Professor A. E. Taylor of Edinburgh, to Professor F. M. Cornford of Cambridge, to Professor J. L. Stocks of Liverpool, and to Dr. W. H. Semple of Reading. I should also like to thank the electors of the Henry Fund for enabling me to visit the United States, and the College Council of St. John's for electing me to a Research Fellowship. Finally, to• the unfailing interest, advice and encouragement of Mr. M. P. Charlesworth of St. John's I owe an especial debt which I can hardly hope to repay. These acknowledgements do not exhaust the list of my obligations ; but I hope that other kindnesses have been acknowledged either in the text or privately.
  • The Nous: a Globe of Faces1

    The Nous: a Globe of Faces1

    THE NOUS: A GLOBE OF FACES1 Theodore Sabo, North-West University, South Africa ([email protected]) Abstract: Plotinus inherited the concept of the Nous from the Middle Platonists and ultimately Plato. It was for him both the Demiurge and the abode of the Forms, and his attempts at describing it, often through the use of arresting metaphors, betray substantial eloquence. None of these metaphors is more unusual than that of the globe of faces which is evoked in the sixth Ennead and which is found to possess a notable corollary in the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the four living creatures. Plotinus’ metaphor reveals that, as in the case of Ezekiel, he was probably granted such a vision, and indeed his encounters with the Nous were not phenomena he considered lightly. Defining the Nous Plotinus’ Nous was a uniquely living entity of which there is a parallel in the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel. The concept of the Nous originated with Anaxagoras. 2 Although Empedocles’ Sphere was similarly a mind,3 Anaxagoras’ idea would win the day, and it would be lavished with much attention by the Middle and Neoplatonists. For Xenocrates the Nous was the supreme God, but for the Middle Platonists it was often the second hypostasis after the One.4 Plotinus, who likewise made the Nous his second hypostasis, equated it with the Demiurge of Plato’s Timaeus.5 He followed Antiochus of Ascalon rather than Plato in regarding it as not only the Demiurge but the Paradigm, the abode of the Forms.6 1 I would like to thank Mark Edwards, Eyjólfur Emilsson, and Svetla Slaveva-Griffin for their help with this article.
  • Stoic Enlightenments

    Stoic Enlightenments

    Copyright © 2011 Margaret Felice Wald All rights reserved STOIC ENLIGHTENMENTS By MARGARET FELICE WALD A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in English written under the direction of Michael McKeon and approved by ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey October 2011 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Stoic Enlightenments By MARGARET FELICE WALD Dissertation Director: Michael McKeon Stoic ideals infused seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thought, not only in the figure of the ascetic sage who grins and bears all, but also in a myriad of other constructions, shaping the way the period imagined ethical, political, linguistic, epistemological, and social reform. My dissertation examines the literary manifestation of Stoicism’s legacy, in particular regarding the institution and danger of autonomy, the foundation and limitation of virtue, the nature of the passions, the difference between good and evil, and the referentiality of language. Alongside the standard satirical responses to the ancient creed’s rigor and rationalism, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century poetry, drama, and prose developed Stoic formulations that made the most demanding of philosophical ideals tenable within the framework of common experience. Instead of serving as hallmarks for hypocrisy, the literary stoics I investigate uphold a brand of stoicism fit for the post-regicidal, post- Protestant Reformation, post-scientific revolutionary world. My project reveals how writers used Stoicism to determine the viability of philosophical precept and establish ways of compensating for human fallibility. The ambivalent status of the Stoic sage, staged and restaged in countless texts, exemplified the period’s anxiety about measuring up to its ideals, its efforts to discover the plenitude of ii natural laws and to live by them.
  • Herakleitos (121.6Kb)

    Herakleitos (121.6Kb)

    The Reign of the Whirlwind 122 Chapter 7 Herakleitos ----------- 1. Life and book We have very little reliable information about the life of Herakleitos son of Bloson, of Ephesos. It is clear from the biographical accounts that survive, that the Alexandrian scholars could find little, even though they were not fussy about reliability. They made up anecdotes to fit some of the more striking sayings of this paradox-loving writer; and as a result, “Herakleitos the Dark” became even more obscure. We have to guess, first, at his dates. He knows something about Pythagoras and Xenophanes; and Parmenides seems to know something about him. We can hazard the conjecture that his book was written by 500 BCE (when Xenophanes had still the last quarter of his long life to live, and Pythagoras was in his last years). This would make 545 BCE a reasonable guess for his birth date. He probably died before 480.i Herakleitos belonged to the ancient royal clan of Ephesos. He is said to have deposited his book in the great temple of Artemis for which his native city was famous (22 A 1).ii We can fairly suppose that it was in his eyes the worthy trophy of a greater victory than any triumph in arms. Whether he was actually melancholic (“the weeping philosopher” as he came to be called)iii we cannot say. He was certainly both an angry man, and an intellectual aristocrat. There are some The Reign of the Whirlwind 123 “sayings” of his that were not in the book. In one plausible story, he “upbraids the Ephesians .
  • Senecan Tragedy and Virgil's Aeneid: Repetition and Reversal

    Senecan Tragedy and Virgil's Aeneid: Repetition and Reversal

    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 10-2014 Senecan Tragedy and Virgil's Aeneid: Repetition and Reversal Timothy Hanford Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/427 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] SENECAN TRAGEDY AND VIRGIL’S AENEID: REPETITION AND REVERSAL by TIMOTHY HANFORD A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2014 ©2014 TIMOTHY HANFORD All Rights Reserved ii This dissertation has been read and accepted by the Graduate Faculty in Classics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Ronnie Ancona ________________ _______________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee Dee L. Clayman ________________ _______________________________ Date Executive Officer James Ker Joel Lidov Craig Williams Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract SENECAN TRAGEDY AND VIRGIL’S AENEID: REPETITION AND REVERSAL by Timothy Hanford Advisor: Professor Ronnie Ancona This dissertation explores the relationship between Senecan tragedy and Virgil’s Aeneid, both on close linguistic as well as larger thematic levels. Senecan tragic characters and choruses often echo the language of Virgil’s epic in provocative ways; these constitute a contrastive reworking of the original Virgilian contents and context, one that has not to date been fully considered by scholars.
  • Calcidius's Commentary on Plato's Timaeus in Latin Astronomy of the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries

    Calcidius's Commentary on Plato's Timaeus in Latin Astronomy of the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries

    BRUCE S. EASTWOOD CALCIDIUS'S COMMENTARY ON PLATO'S TIMAEUS IN LATIN ASTRONOMY OF THE NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES Prior to the twelfth-century recovery of Greek and discovery of Arabic astronomical (and astrological) texts, the character of European astronomy derived from three traditions: computus, classical texts, and observation (including instruments). By the ninth century each of these was involved with the others, producing an increasing variety of ideas and investigations. While the computistical and observational traditions combined in certain ways to bring about more practical and mathematical understanding of solar, lunar, and occasionally stellar motions, generally in the context of reckoning time intervals, the classical tradition led scholars to expand their frameworks for understanding the order and regularity of the heavens created by God.1 More speculative or theoretical and quite unmathematical in nature, the classical Latin materials that offered astronomical information and doctrines tested the wits of early medieval investigators in quite different ways than did the problems of the other traditions. Among these Roman astronomical works—the writings of Aratus (in translation), Pliny the Elder, Calcidius, Macrobius, and Martianus Capella were predominant—the translation of and commentary upon Plato's Timaeus by Calcidius has received the least attention by modern students of early medieval astronomy. Yet the work of Calcidius, especially his commentary, offers us a revealing field for the display of bold exploration, limits of comprehension, and successful innovation in medieval astronomical study more than half a century before the influx of Greco-Arabic works from ca. 1100 onward. Here I present examples of the boldness, the limits, and the successes from three manuscripts of Calcidius from the ninth to early eleventh centuries.
  • Pythagorean Music in Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy

    Pythagorean Music in Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy

    32 RAMIFY 8.1 (2019) “How Pythagoras Cured by Music”: Pythagorean Music in Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy KIMBERLY D. HEIL Interpretive schemata for reading Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy are plentiful. Some of the more popular of those schema read the work along the divided line from Plato’s Republic, taking as programmatic the passage from Book Five in which Boethius discusses the ways in which man comes to know through sensation first, then imagination, then reason, and finally understanding.1 Others read the work as Mneppian Satire because of its prosimetron format. Some scholars study character development in the KIMBERLY D. HEIL is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas; she received a BA in Philosophy from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and an MA in Philosophy from the University of South Florida. She is currently a Wojtyła Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University of Dallas, where she teaches core curriculum philosophy classes. She is writing a dissertation on the relationship between philosophy and Christianity in Augustine of Hippo’s De Beata Vita. The title of this piece is taken from a section subtitle in the work The Life of Pythagoras by the second-century Neopythagorean Iamblichus. 1 See, for instance, McMahon, Understanding the Medieval Meditative Ascent, 215. He references two other similar but competing interpretations using the same methodology. “How Pythagoras Cured by Music” : HEIL 33 work as it echoes Platonic-style dialogues. Still others approach the work as composed of several books, each representing a distinct school of philosophy.2 Furthermore, seeing it as an eclectic mixture of propositions from various schools of philosophy re-purposed and molded to suit Boethius’s own needs, regardless of the literary form and patterns, is commonly agreed upon in the secondary literature.
  • Constantine the Great and Christian Imperial Theocracy Charles Matson Odahl Boise State University

    Constantine the Great and Christian Imperial Theocracy Charles Matson Odahl Boise State University

    Boise State University ScholarWorks History Faculty Publications and Presentations Department of History 1-1-2007 Constantine the Great and Christian Imperial Theocracy Charles Matson Odahl Boise State University Publication Information Odahl, Charles Matson. (2007). "Constantine the Great and Christian Imperial Theocracy". Connections: European Studies Annual Review, 3, 89-113. This document was originally published in Connections: European Studies Annual Review by Rocky Mountain European Scholars Consortium. Copyright restrictions may apply. Coda: Recovering Constantine's European Legacy 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 Constantine the Great and Christian Imperial Theocracy Charles Matson Odahl, Boise State University1 rom his Christian conversion under the influence of cept of imperial theocracy was conveyed in contemporary art Frevelatory experiences outside Rome in A.D. 312 until (Illustration I). his burial as the thirteenth Apostle at Constantinople in Although Constantine had been raised as a tolerant 337, Constantine the Great, pagan polytheist and had the first Christian emperor propagated several Olympian of the Roman world, initiated divinities, particularly Jupiter, the role of and set the model Hercules, Mars, and Sol, as for Christian imperial theoc­ di vine patrons during the early racy. Through his relationship years of his reign as emperor
  • 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 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).
  • Simplicius on the Reality of Relations and Relational Change

    Simplicius on the Reality of Relations and Relational Change

    Created on 24 June 2009 at 9.31 hours page 245 SIMPLICIUS ON THE REALITY OF RELATIONS AND RELATIONAL CHANGE ORNA HARARI the ancient commentators’ approach to Aristotle’s account of relatives in Categories 7 is shaped by the conception that prevailed in later antiquity, in which relatives are composites of a substrate, i.e. an attribute that belongs to the other categories, and a relation.1 Simplicius shares this conception with the other commentators, but he formulates it in di·erent terms. He calls the substrate on which relational attributes supervene a di·erence (διαφορ) or a character (χαρακτρ) and the supervening relational attribute an inclination (πνευσις).2 In this study I attempt to clarify the significance of this terminology, arguing that through the notion of inclination Simplicius answers the question of the unity of Aristotle’s category of relatives, as formulated in Plotinus’ Ennead 6. 1. 6–9. To ex- ã Orna Harari 2009 1 Porph. In Cat. 114. 13–14; Ammon. In Cat. 69. 24–6; Olymp. In Cat. 98. 21–2; and Elias, In Cat. 205. 9–11 (all references to these commentators are to Busse’s edition in CAG 4/1–3, 4/4, 12/1, and 18/1 respectively). This view goes back to Aristotle (Metaph. 1088A21–B4) and is held by other thinkers, such as Andronicus of Rhodes (ap. Elias, In Cat. 201. 18–23) and Galen (Di·. puls. 2. 6, viii. 594. 10–17 Kuhn).• 2 Simpl. In Cat. 167. 29–35 Kalbfleisch (all further references are to Kalbfleisch’s edition in CAG 8).