Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons^™

Plotinus On The Articulation Of Being, Steven K. Strange

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Ennead Vi.2 presents itself as Plotinus' official account of the structure of the second Hypostasis, i.e. Intellect (νοῦς) or Being, what corresponds in his metaphysical universe to Plato's realm of Ideas or Forms. Having refuted the Peripatetic and Stoic theories in VI.1, he turns to developing his own view of Being, which he intends to be in agreement with Plato's. Indeed, the account of the 'genera of being' that he give in VI.2 is closely modeled on Plato's discussion of the so-called 'greatest kinds' or megista gene in the Sophist.

Heraclitus: The River Fragments, Leonardo Taran

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Heraclitus was known in antiquity for the obscurity and the ambiguity of his expression, and there can be little doubt .that he purposely made use of ambiguity to emphasize the paradoxical character of some of his doctrines. For us who so many centuries later wish to understand his thought, these characteristics are increased and magnified by the very way his thought has been transmitted: citations and paraphrases by others whose interests were in most cases alien to his. Yet many ancient authors cited him to find authority and corroboration for their views in such an archaic thinker. Other writers, among …

Sagp Newsletter 1989/90.2 (November), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Programs of the meeting of the Society with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association December 28, 1989, in Atlanta, and with the American Philological Association, December 28, 1989, in Boston.

Unity And Logos: A Reading Of Theaetetus 201c-210a, Mitchell Miller

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Abstract for “Unity and Logos” (Anc Phil 12.1:87-111):

A close reading of Socrates' refutation of the final proposed definition of knowledge, "true opinion with an account." I examine the provocations to further thinking Socrates poses with his dilemma of simplicity and complexity and then by his rejections of the three senses of "account," and I argue that these provocations guide the responsive reader to that rich and determinate understanding of the sort of 'object' which knowledge requires that the Parmenides and the Eleatic dialogues will go on to explicate.

This paper is available at http://pages.vassar.edu/mitchellmiller/.

Failure And Expertise In The Ancient Conception Of An Art, James Allen

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The ancient notion of an art (τέχνη) embraced a wide range of pursuits from handicrafts like shoemaking and weaving to more exalted disciplines not excluding philosophy (cf. Plato Gorgias 486b; Hippolytus Refutatio. 570,8 DDG; Sext. Emp. Μ II13). Nevertheless, there was a sufficient amount of agreement about what was expected of an art to permit debates about whether different practices qualified as arts. According to the conception which made these debates possible, an art is a body of knowledge concerning a distinct subject matter which enables the artist to achieve a definite type of beneficial result. Obviously, the failure of …

The Good As Unity: Its Role In The Good Life In Plato's Later Thought, Cynthia Hampton

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In the sixth book of the Republic. Socrates begins leading his interlocutors down the 'longer road' that leads to the Form of the Good which is to complete the earlier account of virtue given in Book IV. The end of this road in the Republic is reached via the sketch of the Good portrayed in the famous Sun, Line, and Cave passages. In this paper, I wish to suggest that the road does not, in fact, end here, but extends to the account of the Good offered in one of Plato's latest dialogues, the Philebus . This account, like the …

Does Aristotle's Political Philosophy Rest On A Contradiction?, David J. Depew

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Critique of David Keyt. 1987. "Three Fundamental Theorems in Aristotle's Politics." Phronesis, 32.1:54-79. Keyt claims that Aristotle is committed to these three propositions: 1. The polis is a natural entity, coming to be and existing by nature. 2. A polis comes to be when a legislator imposes constitutional form on social matter by political art. 3. Nothin can come to be both as a natural entity and as a product of rational art. This paper surveys previous attempts to resolve the dilemma, then argues that Keyt relies too much on the idea that the polis is the consequence of an …

Sagp Newsletter 1988/9.4 (March), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Program of the meeting of the Society with the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association April 28, 1989, in Chicago.

Sagp Newsletter 1988/9.3 (February), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Program of the meeting of the Society with the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association March 24, 1989, in Oakland, CA.

Organic Models In The Poetics, David Gallop

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

According to Aristotle, art (technë) imitates nature. This celebrated doctrine is not limited to what we call the 'fine arts', or to works of 'art' in any narrow modern sense; and it does not mean that such art-works copy things in the natural order. It means, more generally, that craftsmen adopt means to produce ends; and that in doing so, they follow a pattern found throughout organic nature. The crafts, in their respective domains, do what nature does everywhere. This parallel often provides Aristotle with analogies from the crafts to illuminate the workings of nature. ,The Poetics is uniquely interesting …

Listing Of The 1988-1989 Sagp Content, Society For Ancient Greek Philosophy

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

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