Ancient Philosophy Commons^™

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

No abstract provided.

Sumptuary Guidelines In Clement Of Alexandria's Paedagogus And Seneca's Epistulae Morales, Stephen Crump

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis, Sumptuary Guidelines in Clement of Alexandria's Paedagogus and Seneca's Epistulae Morales, explores the similarities between the ethical outlooks of Clement of Alexandria and Seneca, as well as peculiar emphases of each writer. The thesis is introduced with a discussion of the Christian search for identity within the Roman world, and the influence of Stoicism in formulating this identity. The next two chapters provide the social and intellectual context within which Clement and Seneca respectively wrote. In establishing Clement's backdrop, the cultural, intellectual, and economic settings of Alexandria are examined. The argument is put forth that these various settings …

Paradox, Poetry, And Eternity: Socrates, Parmenides, And Nietzsche, Scott Austin

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Abstractly, some metalanguages and their allied languages are such that the metalinguistic truths cannot be put into the language itself without a (fruitful or devastating) paradox which breaks the very rules which the metalanguage itself enunciates for the language. Others are such that the transposition of metalanguage into language occurs without difficulty. The status of philosophy as a purported "science of all sciences" from classical times to the present hangs on this difference; for, unless there can be speech about speech in one’s own (however elaborated) natural language, the metaphysical enterprise sooner or later topples, to be replaced by faith, …

Ontological Structures In Aristotle, Donald Morrison

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

According to the traditional view of the Categories, the ten "categories" are the highest genera of beings. Each of them stands at the head of a tree-like division of the the items falling under it; this division is also sometimes called a "category". The metaphysical structure made up of these ten divisions is the "system of the categories". According to the traditional view, the system of the categories is very rigidly laid out. Not only is every being included in the structure, but every being has exactly one location. Each being is predicated essentially of those below it along the …

Sagp Newsletter 1988/9.2 (November), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Programs of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association December 28, 1988, in Washington DC, and with the American Philological Association January 7, 1989, in Baltimore, Maryland.

Sagp/Ssips Program 1988, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Persons, Community and the Good in Antiquity and in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Philosophy. 7th annual SAGP/SSIPS conference, at Baruch College. Program of papers presented.

A New Look At The Ergon Argument In The Nicomachean Ethics, Alfonso Gomez-Lobo

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

It is commonly assumed that the ergon argument consists in an inference which starts from the powers specific or peculiar to man and arrives at a definition of the human good. This would commit Aristotle to some form of naturalism which is either fallacious or at least not available to us because we cannot share his views about human nature. The purpose of the present paper is to show that this interpretation is unsatisfactory. Aristotle's argument is based on a general principle which may be reformulated as follows: "For any x, if x has an ergon y_, then x will …

Existence Claims In The Posterior Analytics, Richard D. Mckirahan Jr.

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Existence Claims in the Posterior Analytics

Richard McKirahan

This paper treats several questions about the place of existence claims in theory of science presented in the Posterior Analytics. On the basis of a close reading of the text it shows that Aristotle identifies existence claims as a distinct kind of scientific principles (alongside definitions and common principles), that what these principles declare to exist are the subjects as opposed to the attributes that the science studies (triangles, as opposed to the property of having angles equal to two right angles), and not all the subjects, but a subset of them, …

Aristotle On The Mechanics Of Thought: Abstract, Michae V. Wedin

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The submission is itself an abstract, not a complete paper. The revised (complete) paper is included in J. P. Anton & A. Preus, eds. Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy V. Aristotle's Ontology. SUNY Press. 245-272.

Sagp Newsletter 1987/8.4 (March), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Program for the meeting of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy with the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association in April, 1988, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Sagp Newsletter 1987/8.3 (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 March 24, 1988, in Portland Oregon.

Listing Of The 1987-1988 Sagp Content, Society For Ancient Greek Philosophy

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Dust To Dust: Aristotle's Account Of Generation And Desctruction, Mary Louise Gill

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I believe Aristotle could endorse God’s statement to Adam as reflecting his own theory of generation and destruction. Complex bodies, such as living organisms, are generated out of earth, and to earth they will ultimately return. In this paper I will argue that Aristotle defends a cyclical model of generation and destruction which starts and ends with some simple stuff. I will call the model the ''construction model." The construction model underlies many of Aristotle’s claims about substantial generation and destruction, but he presents the main theory in Metaphysics H.5, a text that is curiously neglected in recent discussions of …

Ethical Method In Aristotle: Setting Out The Phainomena, Daniel T. Devereux

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

My chief objective here is the task of setting out and clarifying the data that we need to consider in giving an account of Aristotle's method in ethics. These data are more complex than is usually supposed. I argue that it may be quite misleading to speak of the method of endoxa as the dialectical method, and that it is a mistake to think that there are close parallels between this method and the concept of dialectic discussed in the Topics.

Sagp Newsletter 1987/8.2 (November), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the meetings of the Society with the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association and with the American Philological Association for December 1987.

The Plotinian Reduction Of Aristotle's Categories, Christos C. Evangeliou

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I propose to consider the Plotinian reduction of Aristotle’s categories, especially as presented in the problematic VI. 3. 3. The following questions will be discussed: Which of the Aristotelian categories did Plotinus consider dispensable and for what specific reasons? Are there any non-Aristotelian categories in the Plotinian set and, if so, where do they come from and how do they function? By what method, if any, did Plotinus determine the number of his set of categories and why just five? Finally, why is it that Plotinus is the last, in a long series of Platonists, to sharply criticize Aristotle’s doctrine …

Ends And Intrinsic Goods In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Richard Kraut

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

(The attached paper is in fact a longish abstract. Here is a SHORT abstract)

This paper considers some connections between NE I and NE X.7-8. I argue that the two are consistent, and that Aristotle proposes two dominant ends, one for the philosophical life, another for the political life.

The Aporias Of De Anima Γ 4, 429b22-430a9., John Driscoll

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Aristotle introduces the assumption that mind is, as described by Anaxagoras, 'without mixture,' later restating it in his own terms as the view that mind is simple and ἀπαθές and without anything in common with anything else. This leads to two aporias: how, Aristotle asks, will thinking be possible under the assumptions stated, and how can mind itself be an object of thought? He then states two theses of his own: while mind is its objects potentially it is nothing in actuality until thinking occurs, and in the case of things without matter what thinks is the same as what …

Epicurus On Pleasure And Happiness, Julia Annas

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I concentrate on Epicurus' attempt to show that pleasure is complete, not just one aim we have for its own sake but ultimately the only non-instrumental aim we have. Epicurus tells us that we will be happy, have the best overall life, by having pleasure as our final aim, and that we shall achieve this by living according to the virtues, by becoming a certain kind of person.

Sagp Newsletter 1986/7.4 (March), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the meeting of the Society with the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association, May 1 1987.

Sagp Newsletter 1986/7.3 (February), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Announcement of the meeting of the Society with the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, March 1987.

Philosophical Lives: The Academics, Jorgen Mejer

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No modern account of the history of the Academy as a whole exists. For the early history of the Academy, the last 3 1/2 centuries BC, we are in an unusual situation, as compared with the other schools of philosophy, that two historical accounts are preserved: Papyrus Herculanensis 1021, the Index Academicorum, and Book 4 of Diogenes Laertius' Lives and Opinions of the Philosophers. Comparison of these two sources gives us a better possibility of determining what belongs to the main tradition and what is peculiar to each source.

Aristotle On Reason, Practical Reason, And Living Well, Deborah K.W. Modrak

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.