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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in History of Philosophy
On Beliefs "Worth Risking" In Plato, Clayton Willis Carden
On Beliefs "Worth Risking" In Plato, Clayton Willis Carden
Doctoral Dissertations
In this dissertation, I ask and answer the question “What is a belief ‘worth risking’ in Plato?” This question arises in light of some peculiar passages in the dialogues, particularly in the Meno and the Phaedo, in which Plato’s Socrates appears to advocate for adopting certain beliefs specifically in virtue of their goodness rather than their likelihood of being true. I claim that the reason for this is that Socrates regards the meaningful possibility of successful inquiry as being uncertain given certain challenges: namely, Meno’s paradox (which threatens the possibility of inquiry as such) and the formidable threat of …
Socrates As A Philosophical Exemplar, Aria Mia Loberti
Socrates As A Philosophical Exemplar, Aria Mia Loberti
Senior Honors Projects
In Plato’s dialogues, Socrates famously denied being a teacher. Nonetheless, others took him to be a teacher, and there is no doubt that his attempts to encourage people to philosophy are pedagogical. So, we are presented with a puzzle—one that is still with interpreters today, despite important work on the issues (e.g., Nehamas 1985, 1992). In this project, I approach these issues from a different angle, asking not whether Socrates is a teacher (or whether philosophy can be taught) but considering Socrates as a philosophical exemplar. I contend that this question will help us to understand not only Socrates but …
Socrates' Satisfied Pigs, Jacob Zimbelman
Socrates' Satisfied Pigs, Jacob Zimbelman
Global Tides
At the start of Republic’s book II (358e-361d), Glaucon renews Thrasymachus’s challenge to Socrates with a robust account of the origin of justice, arguing that justice is only instrumentally desirable for the end of a good reputation, and that everyone would choose to be unjust were there no legal or social consequences. Socrates soon responds to this narrative account in kind (370c-372d), telling the story of an idyllic city whose people live simply, “in peace and good health,” and contribute to one another’s welfare by performing the task for which they are best suited. Socrates praises this city as “the …
Classical Philosophical Approaches To Lying And Deception, James E. Mahon
Classical Philosophical Approaches To Lying And Deception, James E. Mahon
Publications and Research
This chapter examines the views of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle on lying. It it outlines the differences between different kinds of falsehoods in Plato (real falsehoods and falsehoods in words), the difference between myths and lies, the 'noble' (i.e., pedigree) lie in The Republic, and how Plato defended rulers lying to non-rulers about, for example, eugenics. It considers whether Socrates's opposition to lying is consistent with Socratic irony, and especially with his praise of his interlocutors as wise. Finally, it looks at Aristotle's condemnation of lies, and asks whether lies to enemies, and self-deprecating lies by the magnanimous person, are …
Socratic Metaethics Imagined, Steve Ross, Lisa Warenski
Socratic Metaethics Imagined, Steve Ross, Lisa Warenski
Sophia and Philosophia
A time machine mysteriously appeared one day in ancient Athens. Curious about the future of philosophical dialogue, Socrates entered the device and traveled to the 21st Century. He spent several months in the United Kingdom and United States discussing metaethics before returning to Athens, now a devoted and formidable quasi-realist moral expressivist.
The Rhetoric Of Tyranny: Callicles The Rhetor And Nietzsche's Zarathustra, Greg Whitlock
The Rhetoric Of Tyranny: Callicles The Rhetor And Nietzsche's Zarathustra, Greg Whitlock
Sophia and Philosophia
Here I will work through the rhetoric of tyranny as practiced by Callicles and as reflected in Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, in particular. In Part 2 it will be shown that Nietzsche’s account of Plato as the complex figure with a Socratic exterior but a latent alternative ego of the tyrant, arrived at an image consistent with E.R. Dodds’ later thesis. Callicles the rhetor, featured as a student of Gorgias, embodies this alter-ego. In Part 3 we find Callicles and Zarathustra shared very similar beliefs once they overcame shame and gained honesty. Indeed, Callicles expounded a number of propositions foundational to …
On The Relationship Of Alcibiades’ Speech To The Rest Of The Speeches In Plato’S Symposium[1], Andy Davis
On The Relationship Of Alcibiades’ Speech To The Rest Of The Speeches In Plato’S Symposium[1], Andy Davis
Sophia and Philosophia
To get to the point immediately concerning how I think about the relationship between the first five speeches and Socrates’ speech: it seems to me the claim that Plato has only brought together inadequate perspectives on Eros in order to present Socrates’ speech over and against them as the only correct one is completely in error. Socrates himself does not deny these speeches their accolades, he comes back to many things in them as he assigns each single perspective its own due place. Much more, I believe that from the first speech to the last a decisive progress takes place, …
Xanthippe To Her Mother, Ginger Osborn
Xanthippe To Her Mother, Ginger Osborn
Sophia and Philosophia
The following is a translation of an ancient manuscript, presumably a late-Hellenistic school exercise, recovered from the so-called Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, which was entombed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 BCE. The library was well-stocked with philosophical works, mostly of an Epicurean bent, but with a variety of other traditions represented as well. The text below is the result of the editorial work and translation of the Italo-Brtitish philosophical eccentric Michael Tommasi, completed presumably in Cambridge in the 1940s, but never published; his literary executors discovered the manuscript among his posthumous papers. Several revisions to Tommasi's …
The Measure Of Wisdom: The Soul, Society And Justice, Travis A. Powers
The Measure Of Wisdom: The Soul, Society And Justice, Travis A. Powers
M.A. in Philosophy of History Theses
Following the insights of Eric Voegelin, this paper attempts to articulate a measuring tool by which Western civilization could test its health. The paper is centered on Plato’s existential principle, tracing its formulation and development through Greek tragedy and Socratic thought, first. The existential principle in its basic formulation is that a societal order reflects the type of people by whom it is composed; stated more tersely, the spirit of the people weave together the spirit of the society. An understanding of the existential principle is given by the example of when Socrates and Plato used the authority of the …
A Religious Revolution? How Socrates' Theology Undermined The Practice Of Sacrifice, Anna Lannstrom
A Religious Revolution? How Socrates' Theology Undermined The Practice Of Sacrifice, Anna Lannstrom
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
Mark McPherran and Gregory Vlastos argue that Socrates’ theology threatened Athenian sacrificial practices because it rejected the do ut des principle (aka the principle of reciprocity). I argue that their arguments are flawed because they assume that the Athenians understood sacrifice as something like a commercial transaction. Drawing upon scholarship in anthropology and religious studies, I argue that we need to revise that understanding of sacrifice and that, once we do, McPherran’s and Vlastos’ arguments no longer show that Socrates would have been a significant threat to the practice of sacrifice. Finally, I argue that McPherran’s Socrates does undermine sacrifice, …
Ratiocination And Socrates' Daimonion: A Practical Solution, Anthony K. Jensen
Ratiocination And Socrates' Daimonion: A Practical Solution, Anthony K. Jensen
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
Socrates's commitment to 'follow the argument wherever it leads' seems to be at odds with his notorious 'divine sign' or daimonion. It appears in several dialogues as a divine force that Socrates cannot help but to obey, even in some cases where no negative consequences would seem to have otherwise obtained. This paper explores the meaning of the daimonion in the religious and cultural contexts of early Greece, concluding that the scope of the daimonion is restricted to Socrates' practical activities rather than his theoretical engagements.
Socrate E Freud. Due Psicoterapie A Confronto, In "Kykéion. Semestrale Di Idee In Discussione", 8 (2002), Pp. 105-116., Marco Solinas
Socrate E Freud. Due Psicoterapie A Confronto, In "Kykéion. Semestrale Di Idee In Discussione", 8 (2002), Pp. 105-116., Marco Solinas
Marco Solinas
No abstract provided.
Socratic Perfectionism Ii, George Rudebusch
Socratic Perfectionism Ii, George Rudebusch
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
This paper is part two of an argument that Socrates is an agent-neutral perfectionist (like J. S. Mill) rather than an agent-relative perfectionist (e.g. in Crime and Punishment, the egoist Raskolnikov and the altruist Sophie). The argument is based on Plato's Lysis.
Aristotle On Akratic Action: How Rational Is It?, Patrick Mooney
Aristotle On Akratic Action: How Rational Is It?, Patrick Mooney
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
My answer to the question asked in the paper’s title is: akratic action-acting contrary to what one believes or knows is the best course of action open to one, or “weakness of will”—is not rational at all, according to Aristotle (here restricting myself to his discussion of akrasia in the Nicomachean Ethics, VII. 1-3). In saying that it is ‘not rational at all,’ I have in mind that there is no “intellectual,” or “cognitive,” faculty at work which so much as helps to bring about the akratic act-there is, in other words, no way in which the akrates “figures out” …
Hiccups And Other Interruptions In The Symposium, George Kimball Plochmann
Hiccups And Other Interruptions In The Symposium, George Kimball Plochmann
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter
The hoped-for result of my study will be to discover that the genius of philosophy and that of literature do not change places, yet are somehow the same; and if this conclusion involves getting rid of certain textbook conceptions of either philosophy or literature, this too will be all to the good.