Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Ancient Philosophy
Making Room For Matter, David Ebrey
Making Room For Matter, David Ebrey
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
Socrates rejects material causes in the Phaedo, in sharp contrast to Aristotle, who gives them a fundamental role in his account of the natural world. Why do they disagree about this? It is sometimes suggested that Socrates rejects material causation because he requires causes to be rational or to be teleological. You might think, then, that Aristotle can have material causes because he does not have any such requirement. In this paper I argue for a different explanation. Plato and Aristotle ultimately disagree about material causation because of a difference in their causal frameworks: Socrates thinks that each change has …
Ceaselessly Testing The Good Of Death, Danielle A. Layne
Ceaselessly Testing The Good Of Death, Danielle A. Layne
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
The hope Socrates invokes during his defence becomes a statement to be tested and corroborated, and thus a catalyst for discovery rather than a valueless rejection of all arguments, beliefs or in Socratic terms “hopes.” In his prison cell Socrates tests the propositions in the Apology that death may be a good and in the Phaedo these arguments affirm Socrates’ hope, making it the more valuable belief. Thus since no man willing chooses evil, a valueless not knowing, over the good, the value-laden hope regardless of not-knowing, Socrates commits himself to the “great perhaps” of the immortality of the soul. …
Change And Contrariety: Problems Plato Set For Aristotle, Charles Young, James Bogen
Change And Contrariety: Problems Plato Set For Aristotle, Charles Young, James Bogen
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
Plato's views on change and contrariety arise from concerns about definition and explanation in the aporetic Socratic dialogues that find more systematic analysis and resolution in the more constructive dialogues that follow. After developing these concerns, analyses, and solutions, we sketch Aristotle's quite different treatment of the same and other related issues.
Plato's Reply To The 'Worst Difficulty' Argument Of The Parmenides: Sophist 248a-249d, Mark L. Mcpherran
Plato's Reply To The 'Worst Difficulty' Argument Of The Parmenides: Sophist 248a-249d, Mark L. Mcpherran
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
I offer a plausible reading of Sophist 248a-249d and its relation to Parmenides 133a-135a. My thesis supports the reconstruction of the 'worst difficulty' as a valid argument, thus allowing it to live up to its description in the text. This view contributes to a portrait of Plato who developed a sophisticated theory of relations, who then had the honesty and insight to see and record the 'worst difficulty' that the theory had for the hard-won theory of Forms, and who then tenaciously worked out a viable and integrated solution to that difficulty. It should come as no surprise - and …
The Argument For Immortality In Plato's Phaedrus, Thomas M. Robinson
The Argument For Immortality In Plato's Phaedrus, Thomas M. Robinson
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
The Phaedrus seems to be saying that soul is the cause of all movement in an organized world, a world measurable by Time. In a non-organized world not measurable by Time one can wonder whether the movement in question has anything to do with this. At this stage words start to break down under the strain. Plato is compelled to give some description of the pre-cosmic chaos, and talk of movement in such a world is no more and no less intelligible than phrases like 'before this' (53a8) in the same passage, when Time has been admitted to be absent. …