Philosophy Commons^™

Anaxagoras On The Composition Of Matter, David Sider

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

We will try to ignore the often-repeated "everything in everything," which if taken literally leads to an infinite regress. We hope that Anaxagoras' theory of the composition of matter can be established by first examining his more straightforward and conventional statements; then, perhaps, the paradox will take care of itself.

Morphogenesis: Some Elements Of Aristotelian Embryology And Some Ontological Ramifications, Montgomery Furth

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Aristotle's metaphysical theory of individual objects and their essences is preeminently aimed at formulating and resolving several fundamental issues regarding biological objects, living things. For this reason the biological writings are in some ways a better resource than the Metaphysics for a vivid intuitive conceptualization of what 'substantial being' concretely comes to.

Science And The Philosophy In Aristotle's Biological Works, Anthony Preus

Philosophy Faculty Scholarship

The contents of this book cover observations and theories, science and philosophy in Aristotle's "Generation of Animals," understanding the organic parts, necessity and purpose in the explanation of nature, notes and a bibliography.

Listing Of The 1975-1976 Sagp Content, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Aristotle's Doctrine Of Elements, L. Shannon Dubose

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In his studies of nature, Aristotle pursues a series of connected inquiries. He elicits a series of sets of elements; none of the steps is abandoned in favor of later ones. Each set of elements discovers primary constituents of an appropriate sort. Substratum, form, and privation are the most fundamental for the study of generable objects.

Heart And Soul In Aristotle, Theodore Tracy S.J.

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

When Aristotle speaks of the soul 'in the heart' he has in mind the heart as primary and proximate material organ of the soul, the controlling organ originally informed and activated by the soul, upon which all the other organs depend for their formation and activation by the soul. They too live, are informed and activated by the soul, but in a way that is secondary and more remote. To speak of the soul as existing 'in the heart' is not to deny its presence in the other organs, but to indicate the primary and proximate subject it informs and …

The Tragic And Comic Poet Of The Symposium, Diskin Clay

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Focus on the final scene in Plato's Symposium leads to consideration of the relationship between tragedy and comedy in Plato's composition of dialogues and thought. The tragic poet and comic poet are the same person; Plato combines tragedy and comedy in his portrait of Socrates.

Listing Of The 1974-1975 Sagp Content, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Sophrosune As Quietness, L. Aryeh Kosman

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Aryeh Kosman writes: When I presented it, as I recall, I read a silly little poem for the occasion, (nods to W. Gilbert) which delighted Rosamond Kent Sprague (who chaired the session) no end:

Sophrosyne in the soul

Leads to quiet self control

Which is not the same

As Dolce far niente

Fast or slow as he may please

The Sophron acts with quiet ease

As the ancient Romans said

Festina Lente.

Forms And Explanation In The Phaedo, Charlotte Stough

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In coming to grips with what are essentially logical and conceptual problems Plato doubtless had in mind and followed the example set by the natural philosophers. It seems very likely, therefore, that he thought of his Forms as causes of certain puzzling facts in a manner initially not wholly unlike that in which others had believed air or fire to be causes of various physical phenomena. Plato's language suggests that his own explanatory formula, though strikingly different in function from any other, was fashioned after those of his precursors.

Zeno And Stoic Consistency, John M. Rist

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

It seems that the Stoics were prepared to say two things : 1) It will in fact pay to be virtuous provided that you want to be happy; and 2) the good man will seek virtue for its own sake. Some of the apparent difficulties in reconciling these propositions may be resolved by examining the notion of seeking virtue for its own sake. What then do the Stoics say that virtue is?

Any Cynic could advocate a consistent life, for the description is purely formal. But one consistent life might be set against another, and Zeno's appeal to natural consistency …

Plotinus And Paranormal Phenomena, Richard T. Wallis

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The present paper is intended primarily for classicists who are not specialists in Neoplatonism and will therefore tell experts in Plotinus little of which they are not already well aware. Its purpose is to explain Plotinus' views on a subject which finds itself, perhaps surprisingly, once again of some contemporary interest, and where misunderstandings and emotionally toned judgments are only too easy. It will be concerned as much with the reasons underlying Plotinus' beliefs as with those beliefs themselves, and in particular will show how his views on paranormal phenomena spring naturally from some of the most fundamental principles of …

Listing Of The 1973-1974 Sagp Content, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Parmenides: 'To Be' Or 'Not To Be', Victorino Tejera

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I will seek to test the possibility that Parmenides was referring, in the Way of Being (the Aletheia), to existence-as-a-whole. According to this hypothesis Parmenides, in expounding 'the first way' should be understood to be making clear what can be said without contradiction about existence-as-a-whole, i.e. about what is, about Being.

Symbol And Structure In Heraclitus, Raymond Adolf Prier

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Prier reviews the interpretations of Heraclitus by Guthrie and Hegel in terms of a scientific viewpoint and an idealist viewpoint. Prier follows a suggestion by Cherniss to examine the fragments in symbolic and structural terms.

Iamblichus' Criticism Of His Immediate Predecessors, John M. Dillon

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

This paper deals with the criticisms that Iamblichus levels against his predecessors. His differences with his predecessors are not as great as he tries to make them. His criticisms consist largely of reformulations and more exact specifications. He takes his stand as a conservative, preserving the purity of Platonism against Porphyry or Amelius.

Aristotle And Plato's Theory Of Transcendent Ideas, Chung-Hwan Chen

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Listing Of The 1972-1973 Sagp Content, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Aristotle's De Philosophia And The Introduction Of The Fifth Element, David E. Hahm

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

One of the most influential of Aristotle's ideas, the idea that the heavenly bodies consist of a fifth element distinct from the four earthly elements (earth, water, air, and fire) is widely believed to have been introduced to the world for the first time in Aristotle's lost dialogue De Philosophia. This assumption has created a host of problems which have not yet been solved.

The Dissoi Logoi 4, 5 And 6, Thomas M. Robinson

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Translation, with comments, of Dissoi Logoi 4, 5, and 6, based on a new edition of the text.

Socrates And Protagoras, Michael I. Stokes

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Stokes provides a close reading of the arguments in Plato's Protagoras, focusing especially on Socrates' questions after Protagoras' "Great Speech."

"Complete Virtue" (Hole Arete) In The "Eudemian Ethics", Vianney Decarie

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Several problems (aporias) are discussed: a) the meaning of the phrase "complete virtue" in the Eudemian Ethics; b) does the last chapter of EE explain this phrase? c) How do the "Common Books" (EN V, VI, and VII = EE IV, V, VI) apply to the problem of "complete virtue". Decarie approaches this problems from the direction of Plato's Laws 12. He describes the structure of "complete virtue" in EE and argues that the final chapter of EE is a reasonable conclusion to the book, and that the Common Books fit well with the rest of EE.

Listing Of The 1971-1972 Sagp Content, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Parmenides' Way Of Truth And B16, Jackson P. Hershbell

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

At least three interpretations have been given to B16 of Parmenides' poem. It has been taken for a fragment of his theory of knowledge, of his doctrine of sense perception, and of his views on sensing and knowing. It is usually assigned to the second part of the poem, the Way of Seeming. In this study I will argue that it comes from the first part of the poem, and that it is an affirmation of the close relationship between thought and being.

Socrates And Prodicus In The Clouds, Z. Philip Ambrose

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

While Plato's Socrates would deny the description of himself as a meteorosophist on the grounds that the term associates him wrongly with the physical philosophers, Aristophanes' meteora are bodies which metaphorically include all lofty knowledge, both about things and about words. In this sense Socrates and Prodicus are rightly grouped together as meteorosophists at Clouds 361. It is possible to make more use of the Clouds as testimony for Prodicus than has hitherto been seen and to reaffirm Nestle's views concerning the general content of the Horae.

Listing Of The 1970-1971 Sagp Content, Society For Ancient Greek Philosophy

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Listing Of The 1970-1971 Sagp Content, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

On The Antecedents Of Aristotle's Bipartite Psychology, William W. Fortenbaugh

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

This paper will be concerned with the antecedents of Aristotle's bipartite or moral psychology. It will consider two common theses: 1) Aristotle's bipartite psychology is in origin a popular psychology already present (if not clearly formulated) in Euripides' Medea; 2) Aristotle's bipartite psychology developed out of tripartition by collapsing together the two lower elements of tripartition. Roughly, I shall be affirming the first and rejecting the second thesis. In both cases I hope to develop and make more precise the origins of Aristotle's bipartite psychology.

Intellectualism And Practical Reasoning In Aristotle's Moral Philosophy, John Cooper

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

My aim in this paper is to examine the basis of the dominant scholarly understanding of Aristotle's conception of human eudaimonia. I call this interpretation intellectualist, because it attributes to Aristotle the view that human flourishing consists exclusively in pure intellectual activity of the best and highest kind. I show that the intellectualist thesis, with its grounds, is inadequate. I also show that in the Eudemian Ethics the rejection of this kind of intellectualism is explicit, adopting instead a much more inclusive view of what it is for a man to flourish. I provide an alternative reading of EN X.7-8, …

The Tradition About Zeno Of Elea Re-Examined, Friedrich Solmsen

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Acceptance of Plato's testimony in the Parmenides raises more problems than has commonly been realized. Plato's divinatio may have hit the truth, but to have this confidence involves an act of faith. If anyone wonders what other theory we may put forward regarding Zeno's treatise, he may take notice of the fact that in the Phaedrus Plato mentions Zeno in the company of rhetoricians like Thrasymachus, Theodorus, and Gorgias. In the devising of new methods and argumentative techniques he remains a pioneer.