Philosophy Commons^™

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 …

Did Jesus Really Claim To Be God?, Wayne Brindle

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

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.

British Hermeneutics And The Genesis Of Empiricism, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In an essay of 1961, "The History of Philosophy and Historicity," Paul Ricoeur has suggested that the narratives which we construct of the history of philosophy tend either toward excessive integration or disintegration. On the first alternative we tend to view the history of philosophy, or a segment of it, as a succession of systems understood from the perspective of that system closest to our own philosophical inclinations; on the second alternative we tend toward a dispersive attention toward specific problems, thinkers, and texts. Neither approach is satisfying, but Ricoeur maintains that in the history of philosophy, as contrasted to …

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 …

Review: Exodus, Donald L. Fowler

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Man Of Letters And The Author Of Nature: Hume On Philosophical Discourse, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Recent philosophy in the English language manifests a concern with the status and nature of the philosophical text which seems virtually unprecedented in Anglo-American thought. The very suggestion that the concept of the philosophical text ought to be taken seriously by philosophers (as opposed to publishers or literary historians) appears to be a recent addition to our world of discourse. For in the dominant tradition of Anglo-American philosophy, the philosophical enterprise has usually been construed as an open-ended inquiry, a posing and sharpening of questions, counter-questions, objections, and refutations in which the important thing is doing philosophy. So far this …

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.

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.

Advice From The Apostle Paul, Paul R. Fink

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nietzschean Aphorism As Art And Act, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Nietzsche is commonly said to be an aphoristic writer, perhaps the master of the aphorism. Yet it is not clear what is entailed by this stylistic designation or how far it takes us in understanding Nietzsche's thought and writing. It is a mistake to see Nietzsche's writings as exclusively aphoristic, if this is meant to imply that his writings lack philosophical and literary structure. Certainly sections of those books (conveniently numbered and titled) can be regarded as independent aphorisms (if aphorisms are ever independent, a question which must be assessed). In fact the long third essay of The Genealogy of …

Review: Soviet Evangelicals Since World War Ii, Donald L. Fowler

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Review: The Word Becoming Flesh, Donald L. Fowler

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

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.

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 …

Review: Recent Homiletical Thought: An Annotated Bibliography, V 2 (1966-1979), Paul R. Fink

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Review: The Minister's Library, V 2 (1972-1980), Paul R. Fink

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

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.