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The Transformation Of The Investigation Of F In Plato's Dramas Of Definition, David Wolfsdorf

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In this paper I consider which formal characteristics, if any, occur in the investigations. In addition, I am interested in whether there is a transformation of formal characteristics among the dramas of definition.

Methodologically, the paper focuses on what I call the surface claims and arguments of the text. By that I mean the explicit claims and arguments Socrates and his interlocutors make about the identity of F. This aspect of the texts is distinguished from their literary or dramatic aspects as well as any indirect claims and arguments about F, however these might occur. The neglect of the literary …

Division And Explanation In Aristotle's Parts Of Animals, Allan Gotthelf

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The nature and proper methods of logical division, διαίρεσις, are important concerns in at least four of Plato’s later dialogues, and reflections on the process may even have led Plato to a revised conception of the very nature of a Form. The place of division in Aristotle’s Topics - both in the organization of some of its materials and as the method for seeking definitions which many of the topoi are designed to regulate - suggests the importance διαίρεσις must have had in the Academy, as does the Epicrates fragment and Aristotle’s criticism of alternative views of the nature or …

Aristotle And The Functions Of Reproduction, James G. Lennox

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I shall argue that the function of the reproductive capacity is not to perpetuate the kind (or species), but to allow the individual reproducer to be eternal: not eternal without qualifications, but in a way. The basic premise in the arguments which establish this conclusion distinguishes between things which are numerically eternal and those which are formally eternal. This of this latter sort must be members of an everlasting series of individuals which are one-in-form (ἕν εἴδει, in Aristotle's usage). The full understanding of these passages, therefore, requires a proper interpretation of the distinction between numerical and formal unity. with …

Forms And Explanation In The Phaedo, Charlotte Stough

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In coming to grips with what are essentially logical and conceptual problems Plato doubtless had in mind and followed the example set by the natural philosophers. It seems very likely, therefore, that he thought of his Forms as causes of certain puzzling facts in a manner initially not wholly unlike that in which others had believed air or fire to be causes of various physical phenomena. Plato's language suggests that his own explanatory formula, though strikingly different in function from any other, was fashioned after those of his precursors.

Aristotle And Plato's Theory Of Transcendent Ideas, Chung-Hwan Chen

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.