DOCSLIB.ORG

Ancient Greek Philosophy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Ancient Greek Philosophy HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY I: ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY PHILO 212(W) Dr. V. Adluri Sec. 001[2201] Office: Hunter West, 12th floor, Room 1242 Fall 2010 Telephone: 973 216 7874 Prof. Adluri Email: [email protected] Monday/Wednesday, 7:00-8:15pm Office hours: Wednesdays, 6:00 – 7:00 P.M and by appointment DESCRIPTION: Ancient Greek thought begins the tradition of Western philosophy and shapes it throughout history. This influence extends over various periods such as the Roman era, the Middle Ages, Renaissance and modernity, as well as across cultures including the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions. In recent history, thinkers as diverse as Freud, Darwin, Nietzsche, and Marx have borrowed heavily from their Greek predecessors. Finally, disciplines as varied as theology, political theory, aesthetics, ethics, and ontology develop as a series of responses to the way Greek philosophy sets up central problems. In this course we will begin with Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus and inquire into the origins of Greek philosophy in myth, tragedy, and epic. This will orient us towards some of the concerns of ancient Greek philosophy. Then we will discuss the Pre-Socratic philosophers (6 BCE) and how they help us understand Socratic philosophy. The bulk of this course will be devoted to the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, where we will inquire into how these philosophers investigated reality, knowledge, perception, art, ethics, city, universe, soul and God. Finally, we will conclude with a lecture on the legacy of ancient Greek thought. Required Texts: Waterfield, Robin. Ed. First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. $14.95. Meineck, Peter and Paul Woodruff. Oedipus Tyrannus. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2000. $5.30. Reeve, C. D. C. Trans. Plato: The Republic. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2004. $ 10.95. Ross, David. Trans. Aristotle. London: Routledge, 1995. $38.95. All textbooks are on order at Shakespeare & Co. Booksellers (939 Lexington Avenue between 68th and 69th streets; 212 570 0201). Shakespeare & Co. also has a limited number of used copies available at lower prices. COURSE OBJECTIVES: This course covers the major texts and thinkers of early Greek philosophy from the Pre- Socratics to Aristotle. It is intended as a survey course, but we shall also pursue thematic inquiries into the nature of Being, cosmology, and the relationship of Greek philosophy to Greek religion. We shall also look at Greek tragedy as a major influence upon Plato. In addition, the course will teach basic analytic and critical skills, especially how to read texts carefully paying attention to literary form, structure, context, and nuance. Students will learn how to interpret texts rigorously, to research secondary sources, and to reconstruct an argument in their own language. 1 of 4 Opportunities for class participation will allow students to develop the ability to formulate and discuss ideas, objections, and their own solutions to problems. Regular writing assignments will give students the opportunity to train their expository writing skills, i.e., organization, clarity, precision, and fluidity of expression. This is a writing-intensive course. GRADES AND REQUIREMENTS: 1. All students are responsible for a mid-term paper and a final paper (both 15 pages min.). 2. The mid-term paper focuses on any one Pre-Socratic philosopher. You must be able to reconstruct his main claims and locate him in the context of at least one other Pre- Socratic (e.g., if your paper is on Parmenides, you may compare his account of Being to Heraclitus’ view of flux). 3. The final paper will be either on Plato or Aristotle; it must relate these thinkers back to topics covered in the first half (e.g., you may discuss Plato’s criticisms of Heraclitus or Aristotle’s criticisms of Parmenides). 4. The final paper is due two weeks before the end of the semester and will be returned with your grade in the final week; you will have the option of rewriting your paper for a better grade if you hand it in on time. 5. Regular attendance is required; any student who misses more than two classes without notice will have to see me before he/she can continue attending. SPECIAL NEEDS: In compliance with the American Disability Act of 1990 (ADA) and with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Hunter College is committed to ensuring educational parity and accommodations for all students with documented disabilities and/or medical conditions. It is recommended that all students with documented disabilities (emotional, medical, physical and/ or learning) consult the Office of AccessABILITY located in Room E1124 to secure necessary academic accommodations. For further information and assistance please call (212- 772- 4857)/TTY (212- 650- 3230). ACADEMIC HONESTY: Hunter College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The College is committed to enforcing the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty according to the Hunter College Academic Integrity Procedures. A detailed statement about plagiarism is posted on Blackboard and will be distributed before papers are submitted. SECONDARY SOURCES: You do not need secondary sources for this course. Waterfield provides an adequate overview of the Pre-Socratics. However, for students interested in more advanced readings, I recommend the essays in Patricia Curd and Daniel Graham, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) ($44.80 from Amazon.com; you do NOT need to buy this book) and A.A. Long, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999) ($35.53 from Amazon.com; you do NOT need to buy this book). 2 of 4 CLASS SCHEDULE AND REQUIRED READING: This course is designed to fit 25 lectures. These do not exactly correspond to the calendar as discussion may extend beyond one class into the next. It is the student’s responsibility to attend every single class to note the necessary reading material for the next class. In case a student is absent, it is the student’s responsibility to find out what the assigned reading for the next class is. No. Text Required reading Introduction to course and requirements None A: Greek Tragedy 1. Introduction to tragic poets None 2. Philosophical knowing versus sensory knowledge Oedipus Tyrannus 3. Criticism of autodidactism; turn to self-knowledge Oedipus Tyrannus 4. Relationship of wisdom and piety Oedipus Tyrannus B: The Pre-Socratic Philosophers 5. Overview of the Pre-Socratics Waterfield, introduction 6. Heraclitus Waterfield, Heraclitus 7. Parmenides Waterfield, Parmenides 8. Empedocles Waterfield, Empedocles C: Platonic Philosophy 9. Plato in relation to the Pre-Socratics None 10. The structure of the Republic Handout: Divisions of the Republic 11. Desire and law in the Republic Republic 1 and 2 12. Construction of the city in speech Republic 2 and 3 13. Platonic psychology Republic 4 14. Women in the city Republic 5 15. Platonic epistemology; analogy of the divided line Republic 6 16. Justice in relation to self-knowledge; the analogy of the Republic 7 cave 17. The decline of the ideal city Republic 8 and 9 18. The ideal city in relation to cosmology Republic 10 (595a-608b) 19. Immortality of the soul; knowledge as a kind of Republic 10 (608c-614b) purification 20. Myth of Er; Plato’s eschatology Republic 10 (614b-621d) D: Aristotle 3 of 4 21. Overview of Aristotle’s philosophy Ross, Life and Works 22. The search for principles and causes Ross, Philosophy of Nature; Physics, bks. 1-2 23. Nature of highest science Ross, Metaphysics; Metaphysics bks. 1-3 (selections) 24. The life of contemplation Ross, Ethics; Nicomachean Ethics bks. 1, 6, 10 25. Plato and Aristotle in the history of philosophy None 4 of 4 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Oriental Foundations of Pythagorean Studies
    Annals of R.S.C.B., ISSN:1583-6258, Vol. 25, Issue 2, 2021, Pages. 479 - 489 Received 20 January 2021; Accepted 08 February 2021. Oriental Foundations of Pythagorean Studies Ruzmatova Gulnoz Miraxrarovna Doctor of Philosophy, Professor of the Department of Philosophy and Logic, Faculty of Social Sciences, National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Abstract:The article tried to cover in detail the socio-philosophical views of Pythagoras, the theory of knowledge, his teachings on the human psyche, oriental motives in the formation of his attitude to man. In the works of Pythagoras there are different interpretations of the myths about the afterlife of the human soul. The question of the eternity of the soul has been shown to be of great importance in the work of Pythagoras. Our goal is to analyze the socio-philosophical, moral views of Pythagoras, as well as the theory of knowledge, his views on man, based on sources. It is revealed that Pythagoras was influenced by ancient myths, the Upanishads, in creating his works. Keywords:Pythagorean philosophy, mythological cosmogony, soul eternity, soul migration, Samkhya philosophy, neo-Platonists, metampsychosis. Introduction It is well known that philosophy is an ancient branch of human spiritual life and knowledge. For almost three thousand years, people in all countries and regions have been in various forms, first in the form of myths, then in the form of certain systems of theoretical structures and whole concepts. crosses the question and tries to answer that question. Now, even at the beginning of the 21st century, there are many theoretical concepts that try to answer the questions posed in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • How Ancient Greek Philosophy Can Be Made Relevant to Contemporary Life James Duerlinger*
    Journal of Philosophy of Life Vol.1, No.1 (March 2011):1-12 How Ancient Greek Philosophy Can Be Made Relevant to Contemporary Life James Duerlinger* Abstract In this paper, I will explain how ancient Greek philosophy can be made relevant to our lives. I do this by explaining how an instructor of a course in ancient Greek philosophy can teach Greek philosophy in a way that makes its study relevant to how the students in the course live their lives. Since this is the most likely way in which its relevance to contemporary life might be realized in practice, I explain its relevance from this perspective. I contrast the different ways in which ancient Greek philosophy is taught, and give examples of how it can be taught that calls attention to the ways in which what the Greeks said are relevant to how students live their lives. In this paper, I will explain how ancient Greek philosophy can be made relevant to contemporary life. The form in which I will explain this is by discussing how an instructor of a course in ancient Greek philosophy can teach Greek philosophy in a way that makes its study relevant to how the students in the course live their lives, since this is the most likely way in which its relevance to contemporary life might be realized in practice. One of the ways in which many instructors of courses in ancient Greek philosophy attempt to make its study relevant to the interests of their students is to teach the course from the perspective of contemporary analytic philosophy.1 This way to teach the course makes it relevant to students who have a background in contemporary analytic philosophy or wish to pursue a career as a professional philosopher or to seek a historical background to contemporary philosophy.2 A more traditional way to make the course relevant is to teach it as * Professor, Philosophy Department, University of Iowa, 11 Woodland Hts.
    [Show full text]
  • Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece
    Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ancient Greek Philosophy but didn’t Know Who to Ask Edited by Patricia F. O’Grady MEET THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ANCIENT GREECE Dedicated to the memory of Panagiotis, a humble man, who found pleasure when reading about the philosophers of Ancient Greece Meet the Philosophers of Ancient Greece Everything you always wanted to know about Ancient Greek philosophy but didn’t know who to ask Edited by PATRICIA F. O’GRADY Flinders University of South Australia © Patricia F. O’Grady 2005 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, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Patricia F. O’Grady has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identi.ed as the editor of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East Suite 420 Union Road 101 Cherry Street Farnham Burlington Surrey, GU9 7PT VT 05401-4405 England USA Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Meet the philosophers of ancient Greece: everything you always wanted to know about ancient Greek philosophy but didn’t know who to ask 1. Philosophy, Ancient 2. Philosophers – Greece 3. Greece – Intellectual life – To 146 B.C. I. O’Grady, Patricia F. 180 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Meet the philosophers of ancient Greece: everything you always wanted to know about ancient Greek philosophy but didn’t know who to ask / Patricia F.
    [Show full text]
  • Saint Augustine's Synthesis: a Brief Study of Early Christianity's Debt to Greek Philosophy
    Western Oregon University Digital Commons@WOU Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History) Department of History 1999 Saint Augustine's Synthesis: A Brief Study of Early Christianity's Debt to Greek Philosophy Ross Mailhiot Western Oregon University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/his Part of the History of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Mailhiot, Ross, "Saint Augustine's Synthesis: A Brief Study of Early Christianity's Debt to Greek Philosophy" (1999). Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History). 283. https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/his/283 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at Digital Commons@WOU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Theses, Papers and Projects (History) by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@WOU. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Saint Augustine's Synthesis : A Brief Study of Early Christianity's Debt to Greek Philosophy Ross Mailhiot Senior Thesis Spring 1999 1 St. Augustine's Synthesis : A Brief Study of Early Christianity's Debt to Greek Philosophy "You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yoursel{, and our heort is restless until it rests inyou."l This is an often quoted line from the Confessions, written just before the close of the fourth century, and one of many passages pointed to by scholars as evidence of the influence of Greek philosophy in St. Augustine's numerous works. For those of us who need something a little less subtle, Augustine (354-430) spells it out for us by mentioning Plato (428-3478C) and Plotinus QA5-270) on numerous occasions in his wealth of writings.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Greek Ethics
    Comp. by: SatchitananthaSivam Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0004760437 Date:25/2/20 Time:13:07:47 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0004760437.3D Dictionary : NOAD_USDictionary 3 OUP UNCORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FIRST PROOF, 25/2/2020, SPi Early Greek Ethics Edited by DAVID CONAN WOLFSDORF 1 Comp. by: SatchitananthaSivam Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0004760437 Date:25/2/20 Time:13:07:47 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0004760437.3D Dictionary : NOAD_USDictionary 5 OUP UNCORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FIRST PROOF, 25/2/2020, SPi Table of Contents Abbreviations ix Chapter Abstracts and Contributor Information xiii Introduction xxvii David Conan Wolfsdorf PART I INDIVIDUALS AND TEXTS 1. The Pythagorean Acusmata 3 Johan C. Thom 2. Xenophanes on the Ethics and Epistemology of Arrogance 19 Shaul Tor 3. On the Ethical Dimension of Heraclitus’ Thought 37 Mark A. Johnstone 4. Ethics and Natural Philosophy in Empedocles 54 John Palmer 5. The Ethical Life of a Fragment: Three Readings of Protagoras’ Man Measure Statement 74 Tazuko A. van Berkel 6. The Logos of Ethics in Gorgias’ Palamedes, On What is Not, and Helen 110 Kurt Lampe 7. Responsibility Rationalized: Action and Pollution in Antiphon’s Tetralogies 132 Joel E. Mann 8. Ethical and Political Thought in Antiphon’s Truth and Concord 149 Mauro Bonazzi 9. The Ethical Philosophy of the Historical Socrates 169 David Conan Wolfsdorf 10. Prodicus on the Choice of Heracles, Language, and Religion 195 Richard Bett 11. The Ethical Maxims of Democritus of Abdera 211 Monte Ransome Johnson 12. The Sophrosynē of Critias: Aristocratic Ethics after the Thirty Tyrants 243 Alex Gottesman Comp. by: SatchitananthaSivam Stage : Proof ChapterID: 0004760437 Date:25/2/20 Time:13:07:48 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0004760437.3D Dictionary : NOAD_USDictionary 6 OUP UNCORRECTED AUTOPAGE PROOFS – FIRST PROOF, 25/2/2020, SPi vi 13.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy in Ancient Greek Biography. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016
    Revista Classica, v. 30, n. 2, p. 137-142, 2017 137 BONAZZI, Mauro; SCHORN, Stefan. Bios Philosophos: Philosophy in Ancient Greek Biography. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016. 313p. ISBN 978-2-503-56546-0 Gustavo Laet Gomes* * Mestre em Filosofia Bernardo C. D. A. Vasconcelos** pela Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. guslaet@ gmail.com Bios Philosophos. Philosophy in Ancient Greek Biography (Brepols, 2016), organized by Mauro Bonazzi and Stefan Schorn, delivers a ** Mestre em Filosofia pela both deep and wide tour through the philosophical aspects of Greek Universidade Federal biographical production. On one hand, it does not concentrate only in de Minas Gerais. the later periods of Greek philosophy, when biographical production bernardovasconcelos abounded, but goes all the way back to the fourth century BCE, when @gmail.com biographical texts were fragmentary and mingled with other styles. On the other, it tries to unveil the philosophical motives in the works of authors who tend to be disregarded as historians, biographers, hagiographers or even as mere fans of the most prominent figures of their own schools. In our review, we will attempt to give a brief account of the ten articles that make up this volume, which, in turn, will hopefully provide an overview of the different connections between the biographies and biographers and their philosophical motives. Thomas Bénatouïl’s Pythagore chez Dicéarque: anectodes biographiques et critique de la philosophie contemplative (p. 11-36) proposes an inversion of the traditional interpretation regarding the testimony of Dicaearchus of Messana about the life of Pythagoras. Since antiquity, Dicaearchus’ reports tend to be seen as positive, because they present a Pythagoras devoid of mysticism and apparently more interested in practical matters.
    [Show full text]
  • Ancient Greek Philosophy. Part 1. Pre-Socratic Greek Philosophers
    Ancient Greek Philosophy. Part 1. Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers. The pre-Socratic philosophers rejected traditional mythological explanations for the phenomena they saw around them in favor of more rational explanations. Many of them asked: From where does everything come? From what is everything created? How do we explain the plurality of things found in nature? How might we describe nature mathematically? The Milesian school was a school of thought founded in the 6th Century BC. The ideas associated with it are exemplified by three philosophers from the Ionian town of Miletus, on the Aegean coast of Anatolia: Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. They introduced new opinions contrary to the prevailing viewpoint on how the world was organized. Philosophy of nature These philosophers defined all things by their quintessential substance (which Aristotle calls the arche) of which the world was formed and which was the source of everything. Thales thought it to be water. But as it was impossible to explain some things (such as fire) as being composed of this element, Anaximander chose an unobservable, undefined element, which he called apeiron. He reasoned that if each of the four traditional elements (water, air, fire, and earth) are opposed to the other three, and if they cancel each other out on contact, none of them could constitute a stable, truly elementary form of matter. Consequently, there must be another entity from which the others originate, and which must truly be the most basic element of all. The unspecified nature of the apeiron upset critics, which caused Anaximenes to define it as being air, a more concrete, yet still subtle, element.
    [Show full text]
  • Pythagoras Him.Self Discovered the Pythagorean Theorem
    the Pythagorean theorem. I may as well break the news right away: there's no good literary character-a vessel for the ideas and imaginings of other people. And while evidence that Pythagoras him.self discovered the Pythagorean theorem. It was, we like to think we have some reasonably vivid idea of the real Socrates, thanks to however, known to his followers, the Pythagoreans. That rather sets the tone for Plato and other authors like the historian Xenophon, in the case of Pythagoras we the rest of our discussion of Pythagoras. We know a great deal about the tradition of are really just sifting through legends and myths. Not only is Pythagoras quite a Pythagoreans which takes its name fromhim, but we know hardly anything about bit earlier than Socrates, but his way of doing philosophy-if he did philosophy at the man himself. Among the Pre-Socratics, all of whom are surrounded by a good all-was a lot less public than Socrates'. Whereas Socrates would walk up to people deal of misinformation and legend, he stands out as the one figure who is more in the marketplace and harass them by askingthem to define virtue, Pythagoras and myth than man. But what a myth! He's credited with being the first to fuse his young students in Croton supposedly observeda code of silence, to prevent their philosophy and mathematics, with being a worker of miracles, being divine or secret teachings from being divulged to the uninitiated. Of course, maybe that code semi-divine, the son of either Apollo or Hermes.
    [Show full text]
  • Women in Early Pythagoreanism
    Women in Early Pythagoreanism Caterina Pellò Faculty of Classics University of Cambridge Clare Hall February 2018 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Alla nonna Ninni, che mi ha insegnato a leggere e scrivere Abstract Women in Early Pythagoreanism Caterina Pellò The sixth-century-BCE Pythagorean communities included both male and female members. This thesis focuses on the Pythagorean women and aims to explore what reasons lie behind the prominence of women in Pythagoreanism and what roles women played in early Pythagorean societies and thought. In the first chapter, I analyse the social conditions of women in Southern Italy, where the first Pythagorean communities were founded. In the second chapter, I compare Pythagorean societies with ancient Greek political clubs and religious sects. Compared to mainland Greece, South Italian women enjoyed higher legal and socio-political status. Similarly, religious groups included female initiates, assigning them authoritative roles. Consequently, the fact that the Pythagoreans founded their communities in Croton and further afield, and that in some respects these communities resembled ancient sects helps to explain why they opened their doors to the female gender to begin with. The third chapter discusses Pythagoras’ teachings to and about women. Pythagorean doctrines did not exclusively affect the followers’ way of thinking and public activities, but also their private way of living. Thus, they also regulated key aspects of the female everyday life, such as marriage and motherhood. I argue that the Pythagorean women entered the communities as wives, mothers and daughters. Nonetheless, some of them were able to gain authority over their fellow Pythagoreans and engage in intellectual activities, thus overcoming the female traditional domestic roles.
    [Show full text]
  • Neoplatonism, Then And
    NEOPLATONISM, THEN AND NOW Date: 2-11-2014 OPENING WORDS Earlier this year, I undertook a twelve-week philosophy course at Sydney Community College, in Rozelle. It was a fairly easy- going, yet exhaustive course that saw us cover everything from the pre-Socratic philosophers of ancient Greece, right up to the musings of Jürgen Habermas in the twentieth century. We covered Descartes and Spinoza, Hegel and the Hindus, amongst others – the span of time we examined stretched over more than 2,500 years. Not at all bad for a course that only lasted three months. Needless to say, I found a lot to think about in this time, and in the months since – not least of all, which philosophical traditions I find myself most agreeing with. In the months since the course concluded, I have worked out that I am much more a rationalist than an empiricist, certainly much more a virtue ethicist than a consequentialist, and almost certainly a monist, rather than a dualist (that is to say, in a metaphysical sense, I find myself agreeing more with Spinoza than Descartes, and notably more with Hinduism than Christianity in its view of God and the universe). Though, I must admit, I’m still not certain whether my own personal philosophy fits in more with the analytic or continental tradition – I’ll have to work that one out. Seriously, though, I find philosophy fascinating – it is, after all, the study of and attempt to make sense of the general and fundamental problems of all existence, problems that every human being (provided they’re bothered to think about it) has grappled with since time immemorial, and continues to do so today.
    [Show full text]
  • Sex, Sin and the Soul: How Galen's Philosophical Speculation Became
    Conversations: A Graduate Student Journal of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology Volume 1 | Number 1 Article 1 January 2013 Sex, Sin and the Soul: How Galen’s Philosophical Speculation Became Augustine’s Theological Assumptions Paul Anthony Abilene Christian University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/conversations Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Anthony, Paul (2013) "Sex, Sin and the Soul: How Galen’s Philosophical Speculation Became Augustine’s Theological Assumptions," Conversations: A Graduate Student Journal of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology: Vol. 1 : No. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/conversations/vol1/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Digital Commons @ ACU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Conversations: A Graduate Student Journal of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ ACU. Conversations Vol. 1 No. 1 May 2013 Sex, Sin and the Soul: How Galen’s Philosophical Speculation Became Augustine’s Theological Assumptions Paul A. Anthony Abilene Christian University Graduate School of Theology, History and Theology Abstract Augustine of Hippo may never have heard of Galen of Pergamum. Three centuries separated the two, as did an almost impassable geographic and cultural divide that kept the works of Galen and other Greek writers virtually unknown in the Latin west for a millennium. Yet Galenic assumptions about human sexuality and the materiality of the soul underlie Augustine’s signature doctrine of original sin. Galen’s influence was so widely felt in the Greek-speaking east that Christians almost immediately worked his assumptions into their own theologies.
    [Show full text]