Classics Commons^™

Aristotle On Property Rights, Fred D. Miller Jr.

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The thesis is that a theory of private property rights can be reconstructed from the remarks about property scattered throughout Aristotle’s writings. His working concept is as follows: X has a property right in P if, and only if, X possesses P in such a way that the use of P is up to X and the alienation of P (giving P away or selling P) is up to X. It is argued that Aristotle provides clear answers to the important questions which should be answered by a theory of property rights: (1) What individuals can properly hold rights to …

Socrates' Evil Associates And The Motivation For His Trial And Condemnation, Thomas C. Brickhouse, Nicholas D. Smith

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

We argue against those who construe the charge made by Polycrates, that Socrates was the teacher of Alcibiades and Critias, to be a substantial feature of the prejudice that Socrates faced as he stood trial for impiety and corrupting the youth.

Sagp Newsletter 1985/6.3 (February), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the meetings of the Society with the Pacific and Central Divisions of the American Philosophical Association for Spring 1986.

On 'Essentially' (Hoper) In Aristotle, Alban Urbanas

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In this paper I shall examine the notion of ταὐτόν - commonly translated as 'same' or 'identical' - and its relevance to so-called essential predications, as effected through the use of ὅπερ in Aristotle. It will be shown that propositions of the type 'A is ὅπερ B' involve an essential predication where either a genus is affirmed of a species, or a species of an individual. The possibility of such predications will be founded upon the doctrine of the categories and the ontological distinction between essence and accident. Besides predications involving generic or specific identity, others effected through propositions of …

The Origin Of Aristotle's Metaphysical Aporiae, Edward Halper

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

That the fifteen aporiae to whose exposition Aristotle devotes all of Metaphysics B originate from Platonism is widely accepted. However, the text provides no account of how Aristotle constructed these aporiae, and the exact path by which they developed remains shrouded by our lack of knowledge of Aristotle's contemporaries and of the discussions in Plato's Academy. Book B has been a focal point for various, conflicting accounts of Aristotle's development, for scholars assume that the aporiae presented here are problems that troubled Aristotle and remained unsolved when he wrote Metaphysics B. In this paper I shall present an alternative account …

How Learning Mathematics Helps Us Be Virtuous, Joan Kung

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

A number of passages in the Timaeus make a connection that strikes us as odd, even bizarre perhaps. Who nowadays thinks that the study of geometry or number theory has anything to do with being a good person? Yet these passages emphasize the importance for human virtue and happiness of mathematical studies, especially the study of the ratios of numbers and the geometry of solids in motion, the harmonies and revolutions of the world or of the god. We are told, for example, that by learning to know and compute these rightly we shall bring our souls into order and …

Eudemian Ethical Method, Lawrence J. Jost

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Are there any distinctive contributions that the EE, as opposed to the NE, makes to the study of ethical method? The fact that the Eudemian environment is particularly hospitable to endoxic method by comparison with the NE is surely worthy of note, even extended examination. We look first at undoubtedly NE passages for methodological remarks, noting how spare such as can be found really are when compared with undoubtedly EE material. Eventually we shall be in position to suggest that it is the EE and not the NE which must be given the credit for containing the fullest account of …

Sagp Newsletter 1985/6.2 (November), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the panels of the Society with the Eastern Division and the American Philological Association in December 1985.

Sagp/Ssips Program 1985, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Episteme - Scientia - *Ilm

Scientific Knowledge in Antiquity and in Christian and Islamic Philosophy

Fourth Annual SAGP /SSIPS conference, at Baruch College

Program of papers presented

Sagp Newsletter 1985.2 (September), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the annual meeting of the Society with the Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science, at Baruch College CUNY, October 1985.

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 …

How Does Plato Solve The Paradox Of Inquiry In The Meno?, Michael Morgan

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In this paper I shall focus on a passage in Plato’s dialogue, the Meno, that has received wide and serious attention of late. It is that stretch of the Meno (80d-86c) that incorporates Meno’s eristic puzzle, the doctrine of recollection, Socrates’ interrogation of Meno’s slave-boy, and the sequel to that interrogation. I shall try to show that this text is transitional and doubly so, for, on the one hand, within the context of the Meno it marks the transition between the earlier elenchoi concerning the nature of arete and the employment of the method of hypothesis concerning whether arete is …

Aristotle On Temperance, Charles Young

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

A straightforward application on the Doctrine of the Mean to the case of temperance, such as Aristotle offers in Eudemian Ethics III.2, does not do justice to the problems the virtue raises, problems that he sees clearly and effectively addresses in Nicomachean Ethics III.10-12.

Plato's Refutation Of Thrasymachus: The Craft Argument, Edward Warren

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I argue that in Plato's view the nature and existence of knowledge refutes Thrasymachus and that in employing the craft argument to this end Plato presupposes that 1) knowledge is always of Form, 2) knowledge, being, and power are united, and 3) the Good confers value upon being.

Sagp Newsletter 1985.1 (February), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Program for the meeting of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy with the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, February 1985.

Substances, Accidents, And Kinds: Some Remarks On Aristotle's Theory Of Predication, Frank A. Lewis

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

A major feature of Aristotle's strategy against Plato in the Categories is to collapse the dichotomy that Plato's theory of (metaphysical) predication attempts to make between forms and sensibles. In Aristotle's theory, Socrates IS some of his predicables, but HAS others. He IS what is essential to him, and HAS the rest. These different relations between Socrates and his various predicables form a large part of the motivation for the further ontological distinctions that Aristotle draws in the Categories.

Parmenides On Naming By Mortal Men: Fr. B8.53ff. Vs, Leonard Woodbury

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

"They made up their minds to name two forms / Of which it is not right to name one, that is where they have erred." In the flickering of light and darkness that men recognise in what is the effect of their own actions there is discovered a kind of being, but one divided and turned against itself in contradiction.

Predication And Immanence: Anaxagoras, Plato, Eudoxus, And Aristotle, Russell M. Dancy

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

A theory of predication invokes immanence if it explains why snow is white by introducing something that is in snow that accounts for its being white. Aristotle's theory of predication in the Categories is partly immanentist, see Cat. 2, 1a24-25. My object here is to shed some indirect light on this passage. I suggest that the comment is a disclaimer responding to an immanentist theory of predication under discussion in the Academy, according to which the something that is immanent in snow that makes it white is a physical ingredient. This theory was an idea of Eudoxus'. Aristotle was sympathetic …

Sagp Newsletter 1984.3 (Nov), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the meetings of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association and with the American Philological Association, December 1984.

Sagp/Ssips 1984, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Program of the 1984 Meeting of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy with the Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science.

Is Αγαθον A Pros Hen Equivocal In Aristotle's Ethics?, Lawrence Jost

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Is agathon a pros hen equivocal? EN does not unambiguously endorse this idea, and it is difficult to defend. EE remains silent on the question.

Theophrastus On Emotion, William W. Fortenbaugh

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

While Aristotle's treatment of emotion has in recent years received considerable attention, Theophrastus' work on the same subject has been mostly ignored. The reason for this neglect is that the relevant material has not been readily accessible, but with the publication of my Quellen zur Ethik Theophrasts that obstacle has been largely removed. Texts whose primary focus is emotional response have been brought together under the heading "Affecte" (L1-L11) and other relevant texts are included elsewhere in the volume. My purpose here is to call attention to this material and to use it to advance our understanding of Peripatetic work …

Ideals And Obligations In Plato's Ethics, Julius M.E. Moravcsik

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

This paper has two main claims: First, it will argue that most of what is usually interpreted as Plato's ethics is concerned primarily with the establishing a Substantive Theory of the Good. Secondly, it will be shown that Plato's link between his STG and matters of obligation is a very close one, and cannot be analyzed along either utilitarian or Kantian lines.

Sagp Newsletter 1984.1 (Feb), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the meetings of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy with the Pacific and Central Divisions of the American Philosophical Association, Spring 1984.

On The Meaning Of Kategoria In Aristotle's Categories, John P. Anton

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

All the commentators who have suppressed the terminological difference between predicate and predication (κατηγορούμενον and κατηγορία) conclude that kategoria means 'predicate', thus lending their authority to a misreadng of the passages in which Aristotle uses the word κατηγορία to mean 'attributive proposition.' In this paper I take the position presented as an argument to support a different reading and with the hope that the established interpretation can be challenged through a fresh examination of the textual testimonies to accommodate the suppressed part of Aristotle's theory of categories as ultimate types of canonical propositions. The thesis that i seek to advance …

Hierocles: Theory And Argument In The Second Century Ad, Brad Inwood

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I propose a consideration of two important questions concerning the traditional Stoic doctrine of oikeiosis, in an attempt to see the sort of position Hierocles takes on these central questions, to determine something about the intellectual milieu in which he operated and about his philosophical style. The larger goal will be to present a partial picture of Stoic philosophical activity in this later period which, I hope, will justify the belief that phllosophically interesting Stoicism did not die out with Poseidonius. The two questions are these: why does Hierocles devote so much of what survives of the Stoicheiosis to …

Some Remarks On Some Neoplatonic Discussions Of Some Mathematical Concepts, Ian Mueller

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Despite their reverence for Plato, the Neoplatonists tended to associate mathematics very closely with the sensible. I here discuss two issues frequently raised in Neoplatonic discussions of the category of quantity. Both concern disputes about the relation of priority between two concepts, in one case quantity and quality, in the other the discrete and continuous.

Perception, Appearance And Kinesis: The Secret Doctrine Of Plato's Theaetetus, Veda Cobb-Stevens

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

At the end of the examination of the first definition of knowledge we find that both the definition and its (radical) ontological ground have been refuted. Yet in neither case have we been left with the mere negativity of the avoidance of error. For the refutations are not mere refutations. The overturning of the theory of Radical Flux leaves us free to return to the exposition with a clearer eye for the previously hidden truth of the theory of Mitigated Flux, and the destruction of the definition of knowledge as aisthesis by an appeal to the functioning of the soul …

What Plato's Demiurge Does, Richard D. Mohr

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The paper argues that the project of Plato’s craftsman-like god is directed to an epistemological end rather than an aesthetic one. The Demiurge is chiefly bent on improving the world’s intelligibility rather than its looks. Specifically, the paper argues that what the Demiurge does is to introduce standards or measures into the phenomenal realm by imaging as best he can the nature of Forms where Forms are construed as standards or measures. The two most spectacular examples of Demiurgic crafting on this model are: 1) his crafting the rational world-soul, which serves both as an object of human cognition, and …

Plato's Unwritten Dialectic Of The One And The Great And Small, John Niemeyer Findlay

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In this essay Findlay summarizes his position that the Unwritten Doctrines of Plato, as outlined by Proclus, are essential for understanding the ontological theories of Plato's major dialogues.

A. Preus