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3 Arcesilaus and Carneades
C:/ITOOLS/WMS/CUP/552750/WORKINGFOLDER/BCP/9780521874762C03.3D 58 [58–80] 24.9.2009 7:15AM harald thorsrud 3 Arcesilaus and Carneades Arcesilaus initiated a sceptical phase in the Academy after taking over in c. 268 BCE. He was motivated in part by an innovative reading of Plato’s dialogues. Where his predecessors found positive doctrines to be systematically developed, he found a dialectical method of arguing and the sceptical view that nothing can be known (akatalêpsia, De Or. 3.67,seeDL4.28, 4.32). He also advanced this conclusion in opposition to the ambitious system of the Stoics, claiming further that the appropriate response to the pervasive uncertainty generated by his method is the suspension of judgement (epochê). Arcesilaus’ dialectical method was practiced without significant modification in the Academy until Carneades, who became head sometime before 155 BCE.1 Carneades both continued and strength- ened Arcesilaus’ method (ND 1.11, Acad. 2.16, see also Acad. 1.46, and Eusebius, Praep. evang. 14.7.15). Sextus marks the change by referring to Plato’s Academy as Old, Arcesilaus’ as Middle, and Carneades’ as New (PH 1.220). Since the main interpretative issues regarding both Arcesilaus and Carneades depend on the concepts of akatalêpsia and epochê,we must try to determine what they mean, how they are related, and what attitude the Academics take towards them – i.e. in what sense, if any, are these their sceptical doctrines? iarcesilaus The view that Arcesilaus derived from Plato’s dialogues might have taken one of two very different forms. He might have discovered some arguments that show knowledge is not possible. -
'The Supreme Principle of Morality'? in the Preface to His Best
The Supreme Principle of Morality Allen W. Wood 1. What is ‘The Supreme Principle of Morality’? In the Preface to his best known work on moral philosophy, Kant states his purpose very clearly and succinctly: “The present groundwork is, however, nothing more than the search for and establishment of the supreme principle of morality, which already constitutes an enterprise whole in its aim and to be separated from every other moral investigation” (Groundwork 4:392). This paper will deal with the outcome of the first part of this task, namely, Kant’s attempt to formulate the supreme principle of morality, which is the intended outcome of the search. It will consider this formulation in light of Kant’s conception of the historical antecedents of his attempt. Our first task, however, must be to say a little about the meaning of the term ‘supreme principle of morality’. For it is not nearly as evident to many as it was to Kant that there is such a thing at all. And it is extremely common for people, whatever position they may take on this issue, to misunderstand what a ‘supreme principle of morality’ is, what it is for, and what role it is supposed to play in moral theorizing and moral reasoning. Kant never directly presents any argument that there must be such a principle, but he does articulate several considerations that would seem to justify supposing that there is. Kant holds that moral questions are to be decided by reason. Reason, according to Kant, always seeks unity under principles, and ultimately, systematic unity under the fewest possible number of principles (Pure Reason A298-302/B355-359, A645- 650/B673-678). -
Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea Berit Van Neste University of South Florida
University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 4-12-2006 Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea Berit Van Neste University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, and the Religion Commons Scholar Commons Citation Neste, Berit Van, "Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea" (2006). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3782 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cicero and St. Augustine's Just War Theory: Classical Influences on a Christian Idea by Berit Van Neste A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Religious Studies College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: James F. Strange, Ph.D. Paul G. Schneider, Ph.D. Michael J. Decker, Ph.D. Date of Approval: April 12, 2006 Keywords: theology, philosophy, politics, patristic, medieval © Copyright 2006 , Berit Van Neste For Elizabeth and Calista Table of Contents Abstract ii Chapter 1 1 Introduction 1 Cicero’s Influence on Augustine 7 Chapter 2 13 Justice 13 Natural and Temporal Law 19 Commonwealth 34 Chapter 3 49 Just War 49 Chapter 4 60 Conclusion 60 References 64 i Cicero and St. -
On Unitarian Universalist Moral Duties: Looking Forward with Cicero and Kant
On Unitarian Universalist Moral Duties: Looking Forward with Cicero and Kant Myriam Renaud I. Why Moral Duties? Aren‟t We Done With That Conversation? For the purposes of this paper, I will rely on the following definition of moral duty (or obligation): an action which is required (imperative) and which is guided by certain moral rules and principles. In every day language, we capture the concept of duty or obligation when we say things like, “I should [or „ought‟] to do this because it‟s the right thing to do,” or “I want to do right by so and so.” These ordinary expressions reflect the view that awareness of the rightness of an action may be enough to provide the impetus to carry through that action—namely, that “in acting from a motive attached to a moral principle,”—in acting on what we take to be the right thing to do—“the moral rightness of the action gives the agent reason for action” [Herman, 30]. Admittedly, the word alone—duty—is likely to cause unpleasant shivers to course down the spines of most Unitarian Universalists. It brings to mind something we have to do, something we‟d rather not do, something we‟re made to do, probably at the expense of some activity we would actually enjoy. But, if we push past the unpleasant shiver, we recognize that duty, or obligation, is tied to the moral structure which governs our lives and which we try to impart to our children both at home and in the religious education classes offered in our congregations. -
Dirk Held on Eros Beauty and the Divine in Plato
Nina C. Coppolino, editor ARTICLES & NOTES New England Classical Journal 36.3 (2009) 155-167 Eros, Beauty, and the Divine in Plato Dirk t. D. Held Connecticut College ontemporary intellectual culture is diffident, perhaps hostile, towards the transcendent aspects of Plato’s metaphysics; instead, preference is given to the openness and inconclusiveness of CSocratic inquiry. But it is not possible to distinguish clearly between the philosophy of Socrates and Plato. This essay argues first that Socrates does more than inquire: he enlarges the search for truth with attention to erotics. It further contends that Plato’s transformative vision of beauty and the divine directs the soul, also through erotics, to truth not accessible to syllogisms alone. We must therefore acknowledge that Plato’s philosophy relies at times on affective and even supra-rational means. Debate over the function of philosophy for Socrates and Plato arose immediately following the latter’s death. The early Academy discussed the mode and intent of reason for Socrates and Plato in terms of whether it was best characterized as skepticism or dogmatism. The issue remains pertinent to the present discussion of how Plato intends mortals both to live a life of reason and strive for the divine which is beyond the normal grasp of reason. What we regard as the traditional “Socratic question” arose in the early nineteenth century from studies of Plato by the Protestant theologian and philosopher, Friedrich Schleiermacher. The phrase stands for the attempt to winnow out an historical figure from the disparate accounts of Socrates found in Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes. -
Ciceronian Business Ethics Owen Goldin Marquette University, [email protected]
Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications Philosophy, Department of 11-1-2006 Ciceronian Business Ethics Owen Goldin Marquette University, [email protected] Published version. Studies in the History of Ethics (November 2006). Publisher link. © 2006 HistoryofEthics.org. Used with permission. Studies in the History of Ethics Ciceronian Bu siness Ethics Owen Goldin (Mar quette University) The teaching and practice of business must resist ethical compartmentalization. One engaged in business ought not check moral principles at the door and say “business is business,” for this is to pretend that when one is engaged in business, one is no longer a human being, with the rational nature, emotional constitution, and social bonds that are at the root of our ethical nature. Ethical standards apply to business as they do all aspects of human life. Nonetheless, making money is the goal of business, and more often than not, one is trying to take money from another, at the least possible cost. Such action is necessarily self-centered, if not selfish, and requires acting in a way that we would not want to see people act in all of their dealings with others, especially in regard to family, friends, and others with whom they have special social bonds. Granting that business practices are not compartmentalized against all ethical considerations, the fact that business demands maximization of profit entails that special rules apply. Determining what these are, in what circumstances they are less demanding than the ethical principles of everyday life, and in what circumstances they are more demanding, is the domain of business ethics, as a special domain of ethical philosophy. -
The Stoics and the Practical: a Roman Reply to Aristotle
DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 8-2013 The Stoics and the practical: a Roman reply to Aristotle Robin Weiss DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd Recommended Citation Weiss, Robin, "The Stoics and the practical: a Roman reply to Aristotle" (2013). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 143. https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/143 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE STOICS AND THE PRACTICAL: A ROMAN REPLY TO ARISTOTLE A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August, 2013 BY Robin Weiss Department of Philosophy College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences DePaul University Chicago, IL - TABLE OF CONTENTS - Introduction……………………..............................................................................................................p.i Chapter One: Practical Knowledge and its Others Technê and Natural Philosophy…………………………….....……..……………………………….....p. 1 Virtue and technical expertise conflated – subsequently distinguished in Plato – ethical knowledge contrasted with that of nature in -
Cicero and Machiavelli: a Complex Relationship
Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics, XVI, 2014, 2, pp. 526-532 Realism, ontology, and the concept of reality Riccardo Martinelli Università di Trieste Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici [email protected] ABSTRACT This essay focuses on realism in ontology and on the problem of defining reality. According to the definition given by many realists, reality is independent of our thoughts, conceptual schemes, linguistic practices, etc. Yet, this merely negative definition of reality has some disadvantages: it implies a dualistic view, and it is incompatible with scientific realism. As an alternative, I introduce and discuss the traditional definition of reality as effectiveness, or capability of acting. I then attempt to determine to what extent this definition can be helpful in the debate concerning ontological realism. KEYWORDS Realism, new realism, ontology, effectiveness I. In the last decades, philosophers have been involved in an extensive and animated discussion about realism. As it is well known, the word ‘realism’ appears in various philosophical contexts, e.g. in semantics, metaphysics, epistemology, morals, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of art, political theory, etc.1. Remarkably, in each of these fields, the word ‘realism’ assumes different, heterogeneous meanings. Being a realist in morals, for instance, has little or no influence over one’s attitude towards realism in science, and so on. Accordingly, realism cannot be considered an all-embracing philosophical position2. To a certain extent, some forms of realism might show a certain “family resemblance”, and the various realists possibly use certain specific sets of keywords more frequently than non-realists. But still, different realisms cannot be unified within a single doctrine. -
Augustine's Contribution to the Republican Tradition
Grand Valley State University ScholarWorks@GVSU Peer Reviewed Articles Political Science and International Relations 2010 Augustine’s Contribution to the Republican Tradition Paul J. Cornish Grand Valley State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/pls_articles Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Cornish, Paul J., "Augustine’s Contribution to the Republican Tradition" (2010). Peer Reviewed Articles. 10. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/pls_articles/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Political Science and International Relations at ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Peer Reviewed Articles by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. article Augustine’s Contribution to the EJPT Republican Tradition European Journal of Political Theory 9(2) 133–148 © The Author(s), 2010 Reprints and permission: http://www. Paul J. Cornish Grand Valley State University sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav [DOI: 10.1177/1474885109338002] http://ejpt.sagepub.com abstract: The present argument focuses on part of Augustine’s defense of Christianity in The City of God. There Augustine argues that the Christian religion did not cause the sack of Rome by the Goths in 410 ce. Augustine revised the definitions of a ‘people’ and ‘republic’ found in Cicero’s De Republica in light of the impossibility of true justice in a world corrupted by sin. If one returns these definitions ot their original context, and accounts for Cicero’s own political teachings, one finds that Augustine follows Cicero’s republicanism on several key points. -
From Cicero to Augustine: Three Styles in Augustine's Enarrationes in Psalmos 69
From Cicero to Augustine: Three Styles in Augustine's Enarrationes in Psalmos 69 It is debated whether and to what extent Augustine uses Cicero's rhetorical styles in his own preaching. In his chapter "Populus Dei," Brown (2000) acknowledges Augustine's use of an adapted version of Cicero's plain style, but he neglects the contributions which the middle and grand styles supply to Augustine's preaching. Based on a close reading of Augustine's de Doctrina Christiana IV and Enarrationes in Psalmos 69, this paper will demonstrate that Augustine adopts all three of Cicero's styles, adapting them to fit the context of his own speaking. In his discussion of styles in de Doctrina Christiana, Augustine addresses several aspects of different styles of prose, to which he refers as acute, ornate, and ardenter, corresponding with Cicero’s plain, middle, and grand styles. In describing these different styles, both Cicero and Augustine discuss elements of style such as subject matter of the oration, diction and rhetorical figures, purpose of the oration, and results produced in the listener. For Cicero, the level of the subject matter corresponds to the appropriate style. For Augustine, however, this is not the case, since he believes that every topic addressed by a Christian orator belongs to the category of “important matters,” but Christian orators ought not to speak in the grand style all of the time (de Doctrina Christiana IV.104). Therefore, Augustine must create new criteria upon which to define each of the three styles, but Augustine does not clearly resolve this question in de Doctrina Christiana, so it remains to be pondered further. -
Walter Nicgorski: Cicero on Aristotle and Aristotelians 35 and the Teachings of the Peripatetic School Founded by Aristotle
WALTER NICGORSKI Cicero on Aristotle and Aristotelians ABSTRACT: Set against tendencies in the Renaissance and later political theory to see Cicero in tension with Aristotle, this research essay reports the results of a close study of all of Cicero’s texts that bear on his reading, understanding and assessment of Aristotle and the Peripatetic school. The essay necessarily attends to Cicero’s sources for his encoun- ter with Aristotle and affirms, with some qualifications, Cicero’s overall continuity with the moral and political thought of Aristotle. KEYWORDS: Aristotle, Cicero, Socrates, Theophrastus, Peripatetic, New Academy, Rhetoric, Stoic, Dialogues, Virtue, Equality, Petrarch. [M]y philosophical writings differing very little from Peri- patetic teachings, for both I and those men wish to follow in the Socratic and Platonic tradition… (Cicero, De Officiis I. 2) cicero was rome’s “best Aristotelian”. (dante)1 The authority of the American Declaration of Independen- ce rests in part on its drawing from “elementary books of public right as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc.” (Tho- mas Jefferson, 1824/1973. 12) This research essay provides the basis, in cicero’s own writings, to see his moral and political thinking as a significant Roman manifestation of political Aristo- telianism. It examines closely his assessment of Aristotle’s political legacy and the necessary preliminary topic of cicero’s sources for understanding Aristotle 1 This was dante’s judgement according to A. E. Douglas (1965, 162) and Paul Renucci (1954, 331). A seemingly different claim made by the 20th century scholar Ernest Fortin (1996, 33) was that cicero and Varro are “Plato’s roman disciples.” WALTER NICGORSKI: CICERO ON ARISTOTLE AND ARISTOTELIANS 35 and the teachings of the Peripatetic school founded by Aristotle. -
The Rhetoric(S) of St. Augustine's Confessions
University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Communication Scholarship Communication 2008 The Rhetoric(s) of St. Augustine's Confessions James M. Farrell University of New Hampshire, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/comm_facpub Part of the Christianity Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, History of Christianity Commons, Medieval History Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation James M. Farrell, "The Rhetoric(s) of St. Augustine's Confessions," Augustinian Studies 39:2 (2008), 265-291. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Communication at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Scholarship by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Rhetoric(s) of St. Augustine’s Confessions. James M. Farrell University of New Hampshire Much of the scholarship on Augustine’s Confessions has consigned the discipline of rhetoric to the margins. Rhetoric was Augustine’s “major” in school, and his bread and bacon as a young adult. But in turning to God in the garden at Milan, Augustine also turned away from his profession. Rightly so, the accomplishment of Augustine’s conversion is viewed as a positive development. But the conversion story also structures the whole narrative of the Confessions and thus rhetoric is implicated in that narrative. It is the story of “Latin rhetorician turned Christian bishop.”1 Augustine’s intellectual and disciplinary evolution is mapped over a story of spiritual ascent.