History of Philosophy Commons^™

Aristotle On Sense Perception: The Enemy Of My Enemy Is Not My Friend: A Reply To Martha Nussbaum And Hilary Putnam, Anthony Crifasi

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Among the many contributions to twentieth century philosophical scholarship by Martha Nussbaum and Hilary Putnam was their 1992 essay, “Changing Aristotle’s Mind,” in which they appealed to “the Aristotelian form - matter view as a happy alternative” between Cartesian dualism and materialistic reductionism. On the one hand, they argued, Aristotle’s view escapes Cartesian mind-body dualism because for Aristotle, there can be no description of animal functions “without making these functions ... embodied in some matter...” On the other hand, Aristotle does not reduce psychological functions to matter, because the Aristotelian psuche or soul is not identified with the matter of …

Sagp Newsletter 2006/7.1 (December), Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Sagp Ssips 2006 List Of Papers, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Alphabetical list of the participants in the 2006 SAGP SSIPS conference at Fordham University.

Natural-Law Judaism?: The Genesis Of Bioethics In Hans Jonas, Leo Strauss And Leon Kass, Lawrence A. Vogel

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Leon Kass is much misunderstood. He is not simply a Republican ideologue who tailored his ideas to break out of the ivory tower and into the halls of power. Nor does he look simply to use human nature as a moral guide. When the full range of his writings is considered and set in the tradition of his teachers, Hans Jonas and Leo Strauss, what emerges is a natural law position colored by religious revelation.

Is 'Part Of Justice' Just At All? Reconsidering Aristotle's Politics Iii.9, Steven Skultety

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Here is a summary of my argument: if partisan groups like oligarchs and democrats successfully achieve some degree of justice, it must be the case that they exhibit some degree of that virtue as it is analyzed in Nicomachean Ethics Book V (=Eudemian Ethics Book IV). Justice there is divided into two types: justice as lawfulness (which I will often refer to as “justice in the broad sense”), and justice as the equal (or, alternatively, “justice in the narrow sense”). The former type of justice is complete virtue with respect to others; it is the virtue that allows individuals to …

Eudaimonism And The Demands Of Justice, Andrew Payne

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

The ancient eudaimonists were not misguided when they gave a prominent place to the human function in their ethical theory. Most modern reconstructions of eudaimonism do not employ the human function in this way. Though this gives them the appearance of being more streamlined and plausible, they fail to unify a life which respects the demands of justice. It is evident that in the Republic and other ancient ethical works humans are presented as acting out of concern for the good of others. They show respect for justice and act from altruistic motivation, and this is one source of value …

The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment In The Land Of The Tattered Buddha, Stephen Asma

Stephen T Asma

Asma, a professor of Buddhism at Columbia College in Chicago and the author of Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads (2001), recounts his intense and revelatory Cambodian adventures while teaching at Phnom Penh's Buddhist Institute. In an electrifying and frank mix of hair-raising anecdotes and expert analysis, he explicates the vast difference between text-based Buddhist teachings and daily life in a poor and politically volatile Buddhist society. Amid tales of massage parlors, marijuana-spiced pizza, and bloodshed, he cogently explains how Theravada Buddhism, the form practiced throughout Southeast Asia, differs from the Buddhism Westerners are familiar with, and how entwined it is …

Sir Thomas Browne’S Annotated Copy Of His 1642 Religio Medici, Brooke Conti

English Faculty Publications

Although relatively few readers today may have heard of Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682), the works of this essayist, doctor, and amateur scientist cast long literary shadows. Among those influenced or inspired by Browne are Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Herman Melville, Virginia Woolf, Jorge Luis Borges, and W. G. Sebald. The admiration of later generations has to do in part with Browne’s style, for he is widely regarded as one of the finest prose writers in the English language. However, Browne’s wide-ranging intellectual interests, his love of paradoxes, and his playful personality have surely also contributed to his popularity. Combining a skeptical, …

Platonic Recollection And Mental Pregnancy, Glenn Rawson

Faculty Publications

This article proffers reinterpretation of Platonic recollection and examines Plato and his models for philosophical inquiry. One underappreciated puzzle about Platonic recollection is why this notorious legacy to epistemology and theory of education, this pioneering notion of innate ideas, should so often be ignored by its author ... Plato finds ways to remind us constantly of his favorite teachings, and recollection would be particularly relevant at important moments in Symposium and Republic, which offer different models of innate ideas instead: in place of the non-dispositional model of recollection, which implies the innate possession of the content of the knowledge …

The Impact Of The Reformation On The Fine Arts, John D. Wilsey

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Against Transcendentalism: The Meaning Of Life And Buddhism, Stephen Asma

Stephen T Asma

From the 1970s cult TV show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, to the current hit musical Spamalot, the Monty Python comedy troupe has been at the center of popular culture and entertainment. The Pythons John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam are increasingly recognized and honored for their creativity and enduring influence in the worlds of comedy and film. Monty Python and Philosophy extends that recognition into the world of philosophy. Fifteen experts in topics like mythology, Buddhism, feminism, logic, ethics, and the philosophy of science bring their expertise to bear on Python movies such …

Antisthenes' Theory Of Unique Enunciation: Similarities, Differences, And Possible Influences, Fouad Kalouche

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In this paper I will focus on Antisthenes’ theory of unique enunciation, and will then discuss its similarities and differences with, and/or possible influences on, other theories on language that flourished around the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. I showed elsewhere that Antisthenes’ theory of language is a practical application or a strategy that has direct implication for his ethical project. My aim here is merely to highlight the originality and relevance of Antisthenes’ theory by presenting it and contextualizing it, before assessing relevant similarities and differences between certain positions of Antisthenes and those of some Skeptics, Sophists, Cyrenaics, and …

The Concept Of Abstraction, Allan Bäck

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Philosophers deal with abstractions. Being reflective, they also have come up with theories about what these abstractions are. Aristotle is no exception, and indeed gave what came to be a canonical account of abstraction. Here I shall investigate what Aristotle thinks abstraction is. I shall conclude that Aristotle views abstraction as selective attention.

As its very name suggests, abstracting (ἀφαιρέω) consists in taking away something from an object. The root verb, αἱρέω, suggests additionally a sense of grasping or of choosing, of taking for oneself something of what lies ready to hand.

These lexical meanings leave open a wide range …

Sagp Newsletter 2005/6 March Pacific, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Memorials 2006, James A. Borland

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Των Λογων Ο Πρωτος Τε Και Σμικροτατος, Sph. 262c6-7: The First And Littlest Of Sentences, John J. Mulhern

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

In this paper I show that the orthodox syntax suggested in Sophistes 262C6-7 and the surrounding text is not adhered to in the dialogues. Within the limited universe of monadic atomic sentence syntax extended with constants for existence and unity, in fact, all but three of the 14 possible irregular forms are used in one or other of the three dialogues instanced here. Self-predication, which, in the mid-twentieth-century, fascinated so many scholars, turns out to be just one among the many varieties of irregular syntax in the dialogues.

The nonadherence of other interlocutors to the Eleatic Stranger’s description of monadic …

Courage And Knowledge At Protagoras 349e1-351b2, David Wolfsdorf

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

At Protagoras 349E1-350C5 Socrates argues for the identity of courage and knowledge, and at 350C6- 351B2 Protagoras objects to Socrates’ argument. Between 1961 and 1985, a few valuable contributions in English were made to the interpretation of these passages. None, however, is entirely satisfactory. And in the last twenty years, among some cursory treatments in studies not particularly focused on these passages, no notable progress has been made.

The objective of this paper is to present a more satisfactory interpretation of Socrates’ argument and Protagoras’ objection, in particular by engaging with a set of problems with which previous commentators have …

Self-Knowledge, Tyranny, And The Delphic Oracle In Plato's Charmides, Alan Pichanick

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

My focus here is the discussion between Critias and Socrates regarding the message of the oracle at Delphi: “Know yourself”. This is the only substantive discussion of the oracle outside the Apology, so we should give it careful attention, if we are at all interested in the philosophy of Socrates and those who in any way follow or depart from him. For though sôphrosunê may be elusive, the dialogue makes it clear that it is deeply connected, whatever its nature is, to the philosophical outlook of Socrates, tying together his ethical and epistemological stances. The task of understanding sôphrosunê is …

Words In Blood, Like Flowers: Philosophy And Poetry, Music And Eros In Hölderlin, Nietzsche, And Heidegger, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

No abstract provided.

Sartre's View Of Kierkegaard As Transhistorical Man, Antony Aumann

Faculty Works

This paper illuminates the central arguments in Sartre's UNESCO address, 'The Singular Universal." The address begins by asking whether objective facts tell us everything there is to know about Kierkegaard. Sartre's answer is negative. The question then arises as to whether we can lay hold of Kierkegaard's "irreducible subjectivity" by seeing him as alive for us today, i.e., as transhistorical. Sartre's answer here is affirmative. However, a close inspection of this answer exposes a deeper level to the address. The struggle to find a place for Kierkegaard within the world of objective knowledge is an allegory. It mirrors Sartre's struggle …

The Alleged Pragmatism Of T.S. Eliot, Gregory Brazeal

Gregory Brazeal

Before gaining recognition as a poet, T.S. Eliot pursued a doctoral degree in philosophy. His dissertation on the philosophy of F.H. Bradley has been a source of longstanding critical dispute. Some read the dissertation as a defense of Bradley’s views, while others read it as a repudiation of Bradley in favor of a kind of American philosophical pragmatism. This essay considers whether the dissertation can be properly characterized as pragmatist, despite Eliot’s enthusiastic and repeated dismissals of William James’ philosophy of truth. Eliot comes closest to a Jamesian view of belief when he writes of the endless ways we can …

The Abrek In Chechen Folklore, Rebecca Gould

Rebecca Gould

No abstract provided.

Ignaty Krachkovsky’S Encounters With Arabic Literary Modernity Through Amīn Al-Riḥānī, Rebecca Gould

Rebecca Gould

No abstract provided.

'The Montage Of Tbilisi Culture' By Zaza Shatirishvili, Film International, Rebecca Gould

Rebecca Gould

Georgian cultural critic Zaza Shatirishvili discusses Tbilisi's cinematographic culture, concentrating particularly on the works of Otar Ioseliani, Sergei Paradjanov, and Robert Strurua.

Toward A Genealogy Of Aryan Morality: Nietzsche And Jacolloit, Thomas Paul Bonfiglio

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

While Nietzsche’s writings of the late 1880s reveal waxing interests in Hinduism, Sanskrit philology, Aryan culture, and the related Indo-European hypothesis, these interests have been remarkably understudied by Nietzsche scholarship, with the exception of a scant few articles that have recently appeared. The presence of the aforementioned topics was crucial for the configuration of the works written in 1887 and 1888: On the Genealogy of Morality, The Twilight of the Idols, and The Antichrist, as well as for some of the notions at hand in Nietzsche’s correspondence with Heinrich Köselitz, but the provenance of the ideas that …

Kant And The Logic Of Aristotle, Kurt Mosser

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Kant’s famous remark that Aristotle’s logic presents a “closed and completed doctine” has been traditionally interpreted, both by philosophers and historians of logic, as claiming that Aristotle provides the last word in logic. Given the later developments of Leibniz, Frege, Peirce, and others, such an interpretation paints Kant’s conception of logic as remarkably naive and historically uninformed. I argue here that Kant’s understanding of logic, and its history, is considerably more sophisticated than he has traditionally been given credit for, and that his remark tells us much more about Kant’s conception of logic, as a set of rules that are …

The Modal Gap: The Objective Problem Of Lessing's Ditch(Es) And Kierkegaard's Subjective Reply, Matthew A. Benton

SPU Works

This essay expands upon the suggestion that Lessing's infamous ‘ditch’ is actually three ditches: temporal, metaphysical, and existential gaps. It examines the complex problems these ditches raise, and then proposes that Kierkegaard's Fragments and Postscript exhibit a similar triadic organizational structure, which may signal a deliberate attempt to engage and respond to Lessing's three gaps. Viewing the Climacean project in this way offers an enhanced understanding of the intricacies of Lessing's rationalist approach to both religion and historical truth, and illuminates Climacus's subjective response to Lessing.

Review: Encountering The Divine: Theophany In Biblical Narrative, James A. Borland

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

"Will A Man Rob God?" (Malachi 3:8): A Study Of Tithing In The Old And New Testaments, Andreas J. Kostenberger, David A. Croteau

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

Is tithing, that is, giving ten percent of one's income, obligatory for Christians? This first in a series of two articles investigates this question by studying all references to tithing in Scripture. The discussion commences with OT references to tithing prior to the giving of the Mosaic Law, then in the Mosaic Low, the historical, and the prophetic books. This is followed by a study of the three major NT passages on tithing. This article concludes that none of the OT or NT passages can legitimately be used to argue for the continuation of tithing in the new covenant period.

Review: The End Of Wisdom: A Reappraisal Of The Historical And Canonical Function Of Ecclesiastes, Donald L. Fowler

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.