Ancient Philosophy Commons^™

The Influence Of Hellenism On The Literary Style Of 1 And 2 Maccabees, Dimitra S. Fellman

Young Historians Conference

The Jewish people living within Hellenistic Greece experienced great freedoms, and many assimilated into the non-Jewish societies around them. Yet, under the Seleucid King Antiochus IV in the 2nd century BCE, the Jewish people experienced oppression and persecution, which has been chronicled in the books 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. At a glance, these books appear opposed to the blending of Hellenistic culture and society into surrounding Jewish communities, but a deeper analysis of both texts reveals that the authors depended on Hellenistic constructs to effectively tell their story. This paper explores the degree to which the authors of 1 …

Beauty Speaking: Beauty And Language In Plotinus And Augustine Of Hippo, Anthony J. Thomas Iv

Theses and Dissertations--Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures

Much has been said about the influence of Plotinus, the Platonist philosopher, on the ideas of Augustine of Hippo, the Western Church Father whose writings had the largest impact on Western Europe in the Middle Ages. This thesis considers both writers’ ideas concerning matter, evil, and language. It then considers the way in which these writers’ ideas influenced their style of writing in the Enneads and the Confessions. Plotinus’ more straightforward negative attitude towards the material word and its relationship to the One ultimately makes his writing more academic and less emotionally powerful. Augustine’s more complicated understanding of the …

The Hellenistic Ideal Of The Good Or Virtuous Life., Bernadette Monaco

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper explores the Hellenistic Ideal of the good or virtous life by looking at historical backround, the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle, and the literary works of Euripides.

Neutrosophic Interpretation Of Tao Te Ching, Florentin Smarandache, Fu Yuhua

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The purpose of this book is to extend the foundation and application range of 'Tao Te Ching'. The reasons for this are as follows. Firstly, we are willing to point out that 'Tao Te Ching' already has some limitation, because many questions we are interested in cannot be answered within 'Tao Te Ching'. For example, 'Tao Te Ching' basically discussed the matters in China, however considering all possible situations it should matter in foreign countries as well, i.e. the “global village”. This was impossible in Lao Tzu’s time. Secondly, if the original “Tao Te Ching” is regarded as “Positive Tao …

Τρυφη And Υβρισ In The Περι Βιων Of Clearchus, Vanessa B. Gorman, Robert J. Gorman

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Recent discussions of the fragments of the Περι Βίων have seen the concept of pernicious luxury as a key to understanding aspects of this work of Clearchus. In particular, it is thought that Clearchus reflects a moralizing historiographical schema according to which wealth leads to an effeminate luxury (τρυφή), eventually producing satiety (κόρος), which in turn provokes the afflicted to violence (υβρις), ultimately bringing the subject’s destruction. We maintain, in contrast, that it is anachronistic to attribute this pattern of thought to Clearchus, and further, that the state of the evidence does not permit …

Neoplatonism In The Liber Naturalis And Shifā: De Anima Or Metaphysica Of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā), John Shannon Hendrix

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

Avicenna or Ibn Sīnā was born circa 980 in Afshna, near Bukhara, in Persia. He worked briefly for the Samanid administration, but left Bukhara, and lived in the area of Tehran and Isfahan, where he completed the Shifā (Healing [from error]) under the patronage of the Daylamite ruler, ‘Ala’-al Dawla, and wrote his most important Persian work, the Dānish-nāma, which contains works on logic, metaphysics, physics, and mathematics.

Philosophy Of Intellect And Vision In The De Anima Of Themistius, John Shannon Hendrix

Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Publications

Themistius (317–c. 387) was born into an aristocratic family and ran a paripatetic school of philosophy in Constantinople in the mid-fourth century, between 345 and 355. He made use of Alexander’s De anima in his commentary on the De anima of Aristotle, which is considered to be the earliest surviving commentary on Aristotle’s work, as Alexander’s commentary itself did not survive. Themistius may also have been influenced by Plotinus, and Porphyry (232–309), whom he criticizes. Themistius refers often to works of Plato, especially the Timaeus, and attempts a synthesis of Aristotle and Plato, a synthesis which was continued in …

Greek Bronze: Holding A Mirror To Life, Expanded Reprint From The Irish Philosophical Yearbook 2006: In Memoriam John J. Cleary 1949-2009, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

To explore the ethical and political role of life-sized bronzes in ancient Greece, as Pliny and others report between 3,000 and 73,000 such statues in a city like Rhodes, this article asks what these bronzes looked like. Using the resources of hermeneutic phenomenological reflection, as well as a review of the nature of bronze and casting techniques, it is argued that the ancient Greeks encountered such statues as images of themselves in agonistic tension in dynamic and political fashion. The Greek saw, and at the same time felt himself regarded by, the statue not as he believed the statue divine …

Poetic To Platonic AlēTheia Orality, Literacy, And The Development Of Truth In Greek Poetry And Philosophy, Justin B. Cecil

Institute for the Humanities Theses

In recent years many scholars have dedicated much research to the development of the Orality Problem. In its most general form, the Orality Problem is grounded in the following two questions: 1) is there a difference between spoken and written language and 2) if there is a difference between these two forms of communication what exactly is this difference and how does it operate. Research into these questions has two major sources to draw upon: cross-cultural research between literate and non-literate cultures and textual analysis of written oral records from ancient Greece. According to the mounting research, many scholars now …

Found In Transition: Orality-Literacy Cues Discovered In A Rhetorical Examination Of Platonic Dialogues, Barbara Jane Clopton-Blackwell

English Theses & Dissertations

The shift from an oral society to a literate one occurred in Ancient Greece with the advent of the alphabet (Ong, Orality 90). The Greek culture is generally considered to be a unique example of a culture which developed literacy internally (Havelock Muse 1), Details of the cultural transformation remain unclear, just as the history of the development of the Greek alphabet is rife with rumors of foreign influence and predecessors. The shift was, nevertheless, a strongly internal process, an evolution of culture as much as of technology.

The transition from orality to literacy brought many conflicts. As a philosopher …

The Psychopolitics Of Sexual Scandal: Can Gorgias Of Leontini Help?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the political implications of sexual scandal, considering the advice of Georgias of Leontini in his “Ecomium of Helen” that was written sometime after 427 B.C.E.

Utopian And Dystopian Theories On Property, Cheryl Cowles Poe

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The selected works of Plato, Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell revealed intriguing political theories on property (liberty) from a utopian and dystopian point of view. The theorists formed new social orders by abolishing various kinds of property. For the most part, their arguments for destroying property were defended by presenting a cure for an existing problem and then sustained through education, psychological conditioning, social and genetic engineering and so on. Common themes and differences were found between the utopian and dystopian theories and among the individual societies as well.

The Phaedo: A Painting In Three Parts, Sharon Parker

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

This paper argues that Plato’s Phaedo might be interestingly viewed as a painting: a landscape in three parts. This triptych is unified through the central question of the immortality of the human soul. This paper traces this conception of the Phaedo through an interrogation of the textual markers that might lead to an understanding of the whole. In the end, The Phaedo is seen as ascending from the corporeal to the ethereal.

The Protagoras: An Explication, Victorya Khary

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

The paper explores themes of Athenian life, Socratic philosophy, and the theme of Knowledge leading to power in the Protagoras. The setting of the Protagoras is primarily a portico at Callias’s home and Socrates debates Protagoras on numerous subjects. This paper shows that those possessing the most knowledge, Protagoras and Socrates, have the most power by invoking a pyramid structure where both Protagoras and Socrates are at the peak and give the lengthiest speeches. All of the speeches, whether by those at the top of the pyramid or the bottom, provide a glimpse into the unique nature of Athenian intellectual …

The Argonautica: Apollonius' New Epic, Christopher Frank

Anthós Journal (1990-1996)

Apollonius’ Argonautica takes as its general form the epic tradition of Homer, but often diverges from traditional paths in order to show trends in Hellenistic life. The poem is generally thought of as an Imitation, but its complex imitations do not perfectly follow the Homeric epic tradition. This paper points out the influences that led to these differences and then suggests that ultimately Apollonius is making a concrete and interesting statement about his own culture.

Plato's Crito: A Speech Act And Structuralist Analysis For Performance, Gary Gerard Gute

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Although scholars recognize many of Plato's early dialogues as works of significant dramatic merit, few attempts have been made to either systematically analyze them for performance or to dramatize them in their entirety. A traditional Aristotelian analysis does not facilitate bringing the dialogues to fruition in theatrical performance because of their lack of physical, external action. This study, recognizing the dramatic potential of Plato's Crito, undertakes an analysis of the dialogue for the purpose of performance . Two methodologies are applied: Speech Act and Structuralist Analyses. The study culminates in a dramatic production of the Crito.

According to speech act …

All The World's A Stage And All The Men And Women Merely Rhetoricians, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Manuscript submitted by Edna Saffy to Dr. Carpenter, June 1, 1974, the paper includes a gold seal and notes in red. This paper will examine the similarities that exist between the POETICS and the RHETORIC, especially in the areas of (1) the evocation of pity and fear, (2) artistic and inartistic proofs, (3) metaphor and strange usage, (4) division, (5) past, present, future, and the probable and, (6) length in an effort to show that the dramatic overtones which pervade both these works (i.e., the RHETORIC and the POETICS) have as their common basis the drama of the period.