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Aristotle On Sense Perception: The Enemy Of My Enemy Is Not My Friend: A Reply To Martha Nussbaum And Hilary Putnam, Anthony Crifasi

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Among the many contributions to twentieth century philosophical scholarship by Martha Nussbaum and Hilary Putnam was their 1992 essay, “Changing Aristotle’s Mind,” in which they appealed to “the Aristotelian form - matter view as a happy alternative” between Cartesian dualism and materialistic reductionism. On the one hand, they argued, Aristotle’s view escapes Cartesian mind-body dualism because for Aristotle, there can be no description of animal functions “without making these functions ... embodied in some matter...” On the other hand, Aristotle does not reduce psychological functions to matter, because the Aristotelian psuche or soul is not identified with the matter of …

Sagp Newsletter 2006/7.1 (December), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Sagp Ssips 2006 List Of Papers, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Alphabetical list of the participants in the 2006 SAGP SSIPS conference at Fordham University.

Is 'Part Of Justice' Just At All? Reconsidering Aristotle's Politics Iii.9, Steven Skultety

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Here is a summary of my argument: if partisan groups like oligarchs and democrats successfully achieve some degree of justice, it must be the case that they exhibit some degree of that virtue as it is analyzed in Nicomachean Ethics Book V (=Eudemian Ethics Book IV). Justice there is divided into two types: justice as lawfulness (which I will often refer to as “justice in the broad sense”), and justice as the equal (or, alternatively, “justice in the narrow sense”). The former type of justice is complete virtue with respect to others; it is the virtue that allows individuals to …

Eudaimonism And The Demands Of Justice, Andrew Payne

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The ancient eudaimonists were not misguided when they gave a prominent place to the human function in their ethical theory. Most modern reconstructions of eudaimonism do not employ the human function in this way. Though this gives them the appearance of being more streamlined and plausible, they fail to unify a life which respects the demands of justice. It is evident that in the Republic and other ancient ethical works humans are presented as acting out of concern for the good of others. They show respect for justice and act from altruistic motivation, and this is one source of value …

Antisthenes' Theory Of Unique Enunciation: Similarities, Differences, And Possible Influences, Fouad Kalouche

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In this paper I will focus on Antisthenes’ theory of unique enunciation, and will then discuss its similarities and differences with, and/or possible influences on, other theories on language that flourished around the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. I showed elsewhere that Antisthenes’ theory of language is a practical application or a strategy that has direct implication for his ethical project. My aim here is merely to highlight the originality and relevance of Antisthenes’ theory by presenting it and contextualizing it, before assessing relevant similarities and differences between certain positions of Antisthenes and those of some Skeptics, Sophists, Cyrenaics, and …

The Concept Of Abstraction, Allan Bäck

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Philosophers deal with abstractions. Being reflective, they also have come up with theories about what these abstractions are. Aristotle is no exception, and indeed gave what came to be a canonical account of abstraction. Here I shall investigate what Aristotle thinks abstraction is. I shall conclude that Aristotle views abstraction as selective attention.

As its very name suggests, abstracting (ἀφαιρέω) consists in taking away something from an object. The root verb, αἱρέω, suggests additionally a sense of grasping or of choosing, of taking for oneself something of what lies ready to hand.

These lexical meanings leave open a wide range …

Sagp Newsletter 2005/6 March Pacific, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Των Λογων Ο Πρωτος Τε Και Σμικροτατος, Sph. 262c6-7: The First And Littlest Of Sentences, John J. Mulhern

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In this paper I show that the orthodox syntax suggested in Sophistes 262C6-7 and the surrounding text is not adhered to in the dialogues. Within the limited universe of monadic atomic sentence syntax extended with constants for existence and unity, in fact, all but three of the 14 possible irregular forms are used in one or other of the three dialogues instanced here. Self-predication, which, in the mid-twentieth-century, fascinated so many scholars, turns out to be just one among the many varieties of irregular syntax in the dialogues.

The nonadherence of other interlocutors to the Eleatic Stranger’s description of monadic …

Courage And Knowledge At Protagoras 349e1-351b2, David Wolfsdorf

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

At Protagoras 349E1-350C5 Socrates argues for the identity of courage and knowledge, and at 350C6- 351B2 Protagoras objects to Socrates’ argument. Between 1961 and 1985, a few valuable contributions in English were made to the interpretation of these passages. None, however, is entirely satisfactory. And in the last twenty years, among some cursory treatments in studies not particularly focused on these passages, no notable progress has been made.

The objective of this paper is to present a more satisfactory interpretation of Socrates’ argument and Protagoras’ objection, in particular by engaging with a set of problems with which previous commentators have …

Self-Knowledge, Tyranny, And The Delphic Oracle In Plato's Charmides, Alan Pichanick

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

My focus here is the discussion between Critias and Socrates regarding the message of the oracle at Delphi: “Know yourself”. This is the only substantive discussion of the oracle outside the Apology, so we should give it careful attention, if we are at all interested in the philosophy of Socrates and those who in any way follow or depart from him. For though sôphrosunê may be elusive, the dialogue makes it clear that it is deeply connected, whatever its nature is, to the philosophical outlook of Socrates, tying together his ethical and epistemological stances. The task of understanding sôphrosunê is …