Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Gifted Beggars In The Metaxu: A Study Of The Platonic And Augustinian Resonances Of Porosity In "God And The Between", Renee Köhler Ryan

Renée Köhler-Ryan

This essay explores William Desmond’s concept of porosity, especially as developed in God and the Between. The author analyses Desmond’s imagery of the clogging and unclogging of pores in relation to the ability to sense signs of the transcendent, and thus one’s givenness, in the between. The origins of Desmond’s concept of porosity in Plato’s Symposium are then explored, particularly the significance of the dual parentage of Eros (Poros and Penia) in the myth of Diotima. Finally, Desmond’s understanding of porosity is related to St. Augustine’s philosophy of prayer. In conclusion, the significance of the relation between thought and …

Friendship In Kallipolis, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

That friends form some sort of unity is one of the remarkable facts about friendship. We identify with our friends in a way in which we do not identify with non-friends. This identification forms the foundation for the distinction that we make between friends and non-friends. Many other facts about friendship are grounded in it - such as the fact that we are willing to help friends in a way that goes beyond what is otherwise demanded by morality or custom. When our friends need someone to help them move to a new apartment, for example, we will help them …

Thinking About Friendship: Historical And Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives, Damian Caluori

Damian Caluori

It is hard to imagine a good life without friendship. But what precisely makes friendship so valuable? And what is friendship at all? What unites friends and distinguishes them from others? Is the preference we give to friends rationally and morally justifiable? This collection of thirteen new essays on the philosophy of friendship considers such questions. In particular, it offers new interpretations of the answers given by famous classic philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Kant and provides fresh answers by leading contemporary philosophers. It is organized around five topics: the nature of friendship, the unity of friendship, friendship and …

Platonic Love (Ideas Of The West: Book 2), Raoul Mortley

Raoul Mortley

The Role Of Optimality In Aristotle's Natural Science, Devin Henry

Devin Henry

In this paper I examine the role of optimality reasoning in Aristotle’s natural science. By “optimality reasoning” I mean reasoning that appeals to some conception of “what is best” in order to explain why things are the way they are. We are first introduced to this pattern of reasoning in the famous passage at Phaedo 97b8-98a2, where (Plato’s) Socrates invokes “what is best” as a cause (aitia) of things in nature. This passage can be seen as the intellectual ancestor of Aristotle’s own principle, expressed by the famous dictum “nature does nothing in vain but always what is best for …

A Sharp Eye For Kinds: Collection & Division In Plato's Late Dialogues, Devin Henry

Devin Henry

No abstract provided.