Atticus on the Status of Platonic Ideas
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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). -
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. -
Automatic Action in Plotinus
Created on 26 November 2007 at 17.13 hours page 373 AUTOMATIC ACTION IN PLOTINUS JAMES WILBERDING 1. Introduction Plotinus scholars have recently called attention to a kind of action in the sensible world, which one could call ‘spontaneous’ or ‘automatic’ action, that is supposed to result automatically from the contemplation of the intelligible.1 Such action is meant to be opposed to actions that result from reason, calculation, and plan- ning, and has been put to work to provide a way for Plotinus’ sage to act, and in particular to act morally, without compromising his ã James Wilberding 2008 A version of this paper was presented at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 2006, where it received a helpful discussion. For comments and suggestions I am par- ticularly indebted to Peter Adamson, Julie Cassiday, Christoph Helmig, Christoph Horn, Jan Opsomer, David Sedley, and Carlos Steel. I have also profited greatly from a reading group held in autumn 2005 at King’s College London on Ennead 3. 8 with Peter Adamson, Verity Harte, M. M. McCabe, and others. I would like to thank Williams College and the Humboldt-Stiftung for funding the research leave during which this paper was written, and Andreas Speer for welcoming me into the Thomas-Institut for this period. 1 e.g. A. Schniewind, L’Ethique‹ du sage chez Plotin [L’Ethique‹ ] (Paris, 2003), 190 with n. 7: ‘les actions du sage sont l’expression (παρακολοýθηµα) de sa propre con- templation . Plotin evoque‹ deux possibilites:‹ d’une part, les actions par faiblesse (èσθÝνεια) de contemplation, pour ceux qui ne parviennent pas a› l’Un; d’autre part — et c’est la› ce qui correspond au sage — les actions en tant qu’activites‹ secondaires (παρακολοýθηµα), issues de la contemplation’; D. -
On the Nature of Heraclitus' Book Herbert Granger Wayne State University, [email protected]
Binghamton University The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB) The ocS iety for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter 4-24-2002 On the Nature of Heraclitus' Book Herbert Granger Wayne State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, and the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Granger, Herbert, "On the Nature of Heraclitus' Book" (2002). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 331. https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/331 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter by an authorized administrator of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. ON THE NATURE OF HERACLITUS’ BOOK Herbert Granger Wayne State University (Comments Welcome) THE DISPUTE OYER HERACLITUS’ BOOK Antiquity credits Heraclitus with a single book (D. L. 9.5-6), but the nature, even the existence, of this ‘book’ remain disputed.1 The orthodoxy takes it to be a collection of independent aphorisms that at most Heraclitus grouped into loose associations under a few headings.2 Heraclitus did not lay out his thoughts sequentially or develop them in a continuous fashion, and thus he did not build one statement upon the other and drive steadily towards a conclusion or conclusions. Because Diels despaired of discerning any intrinsic order among Heraclitus’ fragments, he printed them largely in an alphabetical arrangement based on the names of the authors who preserved them. -
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. -
On the Nature of Heraclitus' Book
Binghamton University The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB) The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter 4-24-2002 On the Nature of Heraclitus' Book Herbert Granger Wayne State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, and the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Granger, Herbert, "On the Nature of Heraclitus' Book" (2002). The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter. 331. https://orb.binghamton.edu/sagp/331 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter by an authorized administrator of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. ON THE NATURE OF HERACLITUS’ BOOK Herbert Granger Wayne State University (Comments Welcome) THE DISPUTE OYER HERACLITUS’ BOOK Antiquity credits Heraclitus with a single book (D. L. 9.5-6), but the nature, even the existence, of this ‘book’ remain disputed.1 The orthodoxy takes it to be a collection of independent aphorisms that at most Heraclitus grouped into loose associations under a few headings.2 Heraclitus did not lay out his thoughts sequentially or develop them in a continuous fashion, and thus he did not build one statement upon the other and drive steadily towards a conclusion or conclusions. Because Diels despaired of discerning any intrinsic order among Heraclitus’ fragments, he printed them largely in an alphabetical arrangement based on the names of the authors who preserved them. -
Conditions for Proclus's Allegorical Reading of Plato's Parmenides
"Ciarifications" of Obscurity: Conditions for Proclus's Allegorical Reading of Plato's Parmenides Florin George Cäl ian Exegetical work on philosophical systems requires not only that one give an account of the structure of a system's assumptions and arguments, but also of its forms, such as the form of expression (or genre: dialogue, poem, aphorisms, and so on), or its form of argumentation (clear cut dis cursive exposition, logical forma lization, metaphorical, allegorical dis course, and so forth). These formal considerations may seem to be sec ondary, merely ornamental issues, but they can raise unexpected ques tions. The literal reading of a text has its counter-part in allegorical interpretation. This way of reading, which must have Started with the first readers of Homer and found a fertile ground in Philo's allegorical commentaries on the Bible, was amazingly natural for Proclus (c. 411- 485), whose writings and commentaries represent the last phases of late antique philosophy, and particularly of the relation between philosophy and rhetoric. Proclus was a major systemic philosopher of late Neoplatonism. Be side his fame as one of the last notable heads of the Platonic Academy, he was also known in his youth as a rhetorician with a profound curiosity about divination and theurgy. He was a practitioner of magic and it is said that he knew how to bring rain and that, through a particular rite, he saved Attica from a dreadful drought.1 Proclus was devoted to the Greek gods, especially Athena, whom he invokes at the beginning of his com mentary on the Parmenides: I pray to all the gods and goddesses to guide my mind ...to kindie in me a shining light of truth .. -
Pythagorean, Predecessor, and Hebrew: Philo of Alexandria and the Construction of Jewishness in Early Christian Writings
Pythagorean, Predecessor, and Hebrew: Philo of Alexandria and the Construction of Jewishness in Early Christian Writings Jennifer Otto Faculty of Religious Studies McGill University, Montreal March, 2014 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Jennifer Otto, 2014 ii Table of Contents Abstracts v Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations viii Introduction 1 Method, Aims and Scope of the Thesis 10 Christians and Jews among the nations 12 Philo and the Wisdom of the Greeks 16 Christianity as Philosophy 19 Moving Forward 24 Part I Chapter 1: Philo in Modern Scholarship 25 Introducing Philo 25 Philo the Jew in modern research 27 Conclusions 48 Chapter 2: Sects and Texts: The Setting of the Christian Encounter with Philo 54 The Earliest Alexandrian Christians 55 The Trajanic Revolt 60 The “Catechetical School” of Alexandria— A Continuous 63 Jewish-Christian Institution? An Alternative Hypothesis: Reading Philo in the Philosophical Schools 65 Conclusions 70 Part II Chapter 3: The Pythagorean: Clement’s Philo 72 1. Introducing Clement 73 1.1 Clement’s Life 73 1.2 Clement’s Corpus 75 1.3 Clement’s Teaching 78 2. Israel, Hebrews, and Jews in Clement’s Writings 80 2.1 Israel 81 2.2 Hebrews 82 2.3 Jews 83 3. Clement’s Reception of Philo: Literature Review 88 4. Clement’s Testimonia to Philo 97 4.1 Situating the Philonic Borrowings in the context of Stromateis 1 97 4.2 Stromateis 1.5.31 102 4.3 Stromateis 1.15.72 106 4.4 Stromateis 1.23.153 109 iii 4.5 Situating the Philonic Borrowings in the context of Stromateis 2 111 4.6 Stromateis 2.19.100 113 5. -
Illinois Classical Studies
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.ukbrought to you by CORE provided by Illinois Digital Environment for... 12 Old Comedy, Menippean Satire, and Philosophy's Tattered Robes in Boethius' Consolation JOEL C. RELIHAN If one is convinced that Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy presents, in the face of death, a philosopher's heartfelt belief in the truths of the study to which he devoted his brief lifetime, then one is inclined, with Helm and Courcelle, to regard the Menippean form of the Consolation as something essentially irrelevant to its themes.^ The work would merely exemplify a prosimetric form, and not participate actively in the traditions of Menippus and Varro.2 But I am not convinced of this, and think that the Consolation questions the value of Classical philosophy in a debate that is inconclusive, never reaching its promised goal of telling the narrator, otherwise quite an adept in the definition of persons, who he really is.^ The Middle Ages, 'R. Helm, "Menippos 10." RE XV. 1 (1931) 893; P. Courcelle. La consolation de philosophie dans la tradition Utteraire: Antecedents et posterite de Boece (Paris 1967) 17-28. Courcelle relates the Consolation to the genre of the apocalypse; but F. Klingner. De Boethii Consolatione Philosophiae, Philologische Untersuchungen 27 (Berlin 1927) 155 is, I think, right when he suggests that apocalyptic became intertwined with the genre of Menippean satire before Boethius' time, so as to account for similarities between Julian's Caesares, Marlianus' De Nuptiis, and Boethius. I would claim that apocalypse has always been part of the genre, which relies heavily upon supernatural revelations of truth; consider Menippus* vision of judgement in iMcizn' s Necyomantia. -
Proceedings Ofthe Danish Institute at Athens IV
Proceedings ofthe Danish Institute at Athens IV Edited by Jonas Eiring and Jorgen Mejer © Copyright The Danish Institute at Athens, Athens 2004 The publication was sponsored by: The Danish Research Council for the Humanities Generalkonsul Gosta Enboms Fond. Proceedings of the Danish Institute at Athens General Editors: Jonas Eiring and Jorgen Mejer. Graphic design and production: George Geroulias, Press Line. Printed in Greece on permanent paper. ISBN: 87 7288 724 9 Distributed by: AARHUS UNIVERSITY PRESS Langelandsgade 177 DK-8200 Arhus N Fax (+45) 8942 5380 73 Lime Walk Headington, Oxford 0X3 7AD Fax (+44) 865 750 079 Box 511 Oakvill, Conn. 06779 Fax (+1)203 945 94 9468 Cover illustration: Finds from the Hellenistic grave at Chalkis, Aetolia. Photograph by Henrik Frost. The Platonic Corpus in Antiquity Jorgen Mejer Plato is the one and only philosopher particular edition which has determined from Antiquity whose writings have not only the Medieval tradition but also been preserved in their entirety. And our modern knowledge of Platonic dia not only have they been preserved, they logues, goes back to the Roman have been transmitted as a single col Emperor Tiberius' court-astrologer, lection of texts. Our Medieval manu Thrasyllus.2 Tarrant demonstrates rather scripts seem to go back to one particu convincingly that there is little basis for lar edition, an archetypus in two vol assuming that the tetralogical arrange umes, as appears from the subscript to ment existed before Thrasyllus, that it is the dialogue Menexenus, which is the possible to identify a philosophical posi last dialogue in the seventh tetralogy: tion which explains the tetralogies, that T8>iog toD JtQcbxou 6i6)dou. -
Herodes Atticus: World Citizen, AD 101-177
This dissertation has been microfilmed exectlv fl<; rp>rpivgcl Mic 60-4127 RUTLEDGE, Harry C arraci. HERODES ATTICUS: WORLD CITIZEN, A.D. 101-177. The Ohio State University, Ph. D., 1960 Language and Literature, classical University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan * • > . HERODES ATTICUS: WORLD CITIZEN A. D. 101 - 177 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By HARRY CARRACI RUTLEDGE, B .S c. in Edu., M.A. The Ohio State University I960 Approved by .ser Department of Classical Languages PREFACE Herodes Atticus has frequently been designated as the orator noblllsslmus of the Second Sophistic, the well- known rhetorical movement of the second century A.D. Although his prominence in the Second Sophistic is undoubted, Herodes is scarcely one of the major figures of antiquity; the Second Sophistic itself, because of its lack of recognized literary masterpieces, engages the interest of few but specialists. No literary works at all are extant from the hand of Herodes Atticus; but he has never suffered the artistic eclipse that time has imposed on men like Cornelius Gallus, for example, since Flavius Philostratus, fascinated by the extraordinary variety in Herodes' life, saw fit to give him the paramount position in his Vitae Sophlstarum. Furthermore, Herodes1 name, i f not h is 1 if e - s to r y , has ever been w ell known to archaeologists and historians of ancient art because of the survival of so many traces of his architectural philan thropies. Herodes was the most prominent millionaire of the second century; his lavish gift to Athens of the Odeum at the foot of the Acropolis has been a familiar landmark for c e n tu r ie s . -
Curriculum Vitae JEREMY M
Curriculum Vitae JEREMY M. SCHOTT Professor of Religious Studies Department of Religious Studies Indiana University, Bloomington ——————————————————————————————————————————— EDUCATION Duke University 1999-2005 Ph.D. Graduate Program in Religion, May 2005 M.A. Graduate Program in Religion, December 2002 University of Rochester 1995-1999 B.A. (summa cum laude) Majors: Religion (with highest distinction); English Minor: Classical Greek POSITIONS HELD Director of Medieval Studies, Indiana Univesrity, Bloomington (2020- ) Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington (2019- ) Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington (2013 - 2019) Associate Professor of Religious Studies, UNC-Charlotte (2011-2013) Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, UNC-Charlotte (2005-2011) PUBLICATIONS Books Schott, Jeremy M., Eusebius of Caesarea, The History of the Church: A New Translation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2019. Schott, Jeremy M. and Mark J. Edwards, Macarius, Apocriticus: Introduction Translation, and Notes. Translated Texts for Historians. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015. Schott, Jeremy M. and Aaron Johnson, Eusebius of Caesarea: Tradition and Innovations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press/Center for Hellenic Studies, 2013. Schott, Jeremy M., Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Edited Collection Guest Editor for special issue “Origenist Textualities.” Journal of Early Christian Studies