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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

The 'Third Man Argument' And The Text Of The Parmenides, Robert G. Turnbull

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

I attempt to show that the 'Large' argument of Parmenides 132 must be understood as part of the attempt to clarify Socrates' response to Zeno. The threat to that response is to the requirement that each form be one and not many. But it is also a threat to the very idea of having a share of a form. In context, the argument is underbrush clearing, getting an unworkable idea out of the way.

Participation In Plato's Dialogues: Phaedo, Parmenides, Sophist, And Timaeus, Leo Sweeney S.J.

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

What was important to Plato was formal causality. From experiencing that many existents are (say) beautiful, he realized that there is a form or essence of beauty. And this causes the beauty in things by its presence somehow in them. Formal causality and participation are two sides of the same coin. But Plato came to realize that his view of participation was incomplete. In the Parmenides and Sophist he joined participation with exemplarity and efficiency.

Aristotle On Genus And Differentia In The Topics And Categories, Herbert Granger

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Each of Aristotle's early works, the Topics and the Categories, provides important evidence for Aristotle's holding two accounts of the nature of genus and differentia. In one account genus and differentia are radically distinct in nature. In the other they are much the same. In this paper I make a case for Aristotle holding each account, suggest why he adopts them, and consider which of the two is the earlier one.

Aristotle On Women, Francis Sparshott

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Sex differentiation is a pervasive and striking feature of the animal world, of which humans form a part. Patriarchy and role differentiation between men and women are pervasive phenomena in human societies. Aristotle is not about to re-design the world. But these phenomena are explained and justified at the economic level, and that is not where human values lie. At the higher level of civilized life, the differentiation becomes anomalous. Aristotle never shows how the anomaly is to be overcome. This is partly because the account of the homestead and the treatment of the city as such are not made …

Sagp Newsletter 1983.1, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Programs of the Society with the Pacific and Western Divisions of the American Philosophical Association, March and April 1983.

Aristotle's Philosophical Principles Of Mathematics, Hippocrates George Apostle

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

On Natural And Unnatural Arts, Jerry Clegg

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The analogy between art and nature is basic in Aristotle's work, but he keeps it from degenerating into an identity. We explore the differences between artificial and natural processes.

Towards An Understanding Of De Anima 432a1: Aristotle's Analogy Between The Soul And The Hand, Sarah J. Shorten

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Construing cognitive processes as life-functions of animals enable him to suggest the view that some of the problems of 'psycho-physical dualism' and 'facts of consciousness' may be philosophical creations after all.

Epicurean Prolepsis, David Glidden

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The paper I presented at the SAGP session was NOT the same as my much longer paper that was subsequently published in Oxford Studies, where I had by then established a fuller philosophical accounting of Epicurean prolepsis as akin to non-conceptual pattern recognition, a purely perceptual facility used by humans and other animals alike. (In this way, my dog recognizes other dogs and distinguishes them from other animals, just as we recognize kinds of things in nature and kinds of situations in our socializing, before we conceptualize and define what we are already habituated to recognizing.) So, the paper …