History of Philosophy Commons^™

Anaxagoras' Theory Of Change: A Response To Parmenides, David J. Furley

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Assuming that Anaxagoras was responding to Parmenides, I shall examine the nature of his response. I aim to show that the fragments and other evidence can and should be interpreted as belonging to a system whose main purpose is to provide an apparatus for explaining change without "coming to be" or "perishing".

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.

John Locke In The German Enlightenment: An Interpretation, Klaus P. Fischer

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

This article explores the era of the Enlightenment and looks into the philosophical arguments of John Locke.

The Meaning Of Resolution As A Reflective Method In The Philosophy Of Thomas Aquinas, Astrid M. O'Brien

Research Resources

While the importance of resolution as a reflective method in the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas is generally recognized, relatively little has been written about it, and the few articles devoted to it differ in their conclusions as to its nature and use. It is the aim of this dissertation to analyze the texts in which the term or its synonyms appear in order to discover its fundamental meaning and role as revealed by Thomas’s own statements and practices.

The first chapter notes the divergent meanings which the Latin term resolutio acquired through being used to translate several different Greek terms, …

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.

Choice And Universality In Sartre's Ethics, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Does Sartre have a coherent ethical position? At the end of Being and Nothingness he raises questions about the ethical implications of his ontology but refers them to a promised future work. For the student of existentialism it is an interesting question whether any of Sartre's later works offer this anticipated and definitive statement. Yet in the controversy over whether Saint-Genet or the Critique of Dialectical Reason fills the gap in Sartre's thought, the one concise presentation of his ethics in Existentialism Is a Humanism has been generally neglected. This neglect has not been groundless, for the essay, originally delivered …

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 …

Jean-Paul Sartre’S Theory Of Literature, Timothy Jobe

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The thesis of this paper is twofold. First, there is the general concern to investigate and demonstrate clearly that there are relationships between certain superficially unrelated disciplines, namely philosophy, aesthetics and literary criticism. Second, by way of accomplishing the first aim, there is an attempt made to synthesize and explicate the contributions of a significant twentieth century intellectual. The particular procedure employed to attain these ends is the consideration of an academic field which is continually being reshaped by other separate but related disciplines. For my purposes the figure of Jean Paul Sartre and the field of literary criticism are …

Nietzsche And His Friends: Richard Wagner And Jakob Burckhardt, Meredith A. Butler

The Courier

From November 1 to 10, 1972, Syracuse University's Bird Library was host to a unique exhibition of books, manuscript materials, photographs, and original graphics by and about Friedrich Nietzsche.

The section of the exhibition subtitled "Nietzsche and Friends" is given emphasis in this paper, which was based on materials from Syracuse University Special Collections. They detail Nietzsche's friendship with Richard Wagner and Jakob Burckhardt. As Walter Kaufmann wrote: "It was Wagner's presence that convinced Nietzsche that greatness and genuine creation were still possible, and it was Wagner who inspired him with the persistent longing first to equal and then to …

Listing Of The 1973-1974 Sagp Content, Anthony Preus

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Habit And Meaning In Peirce's Pragmatism, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

The pragmatic movement has often been misunderstood; the most frequent misconceptions, which assimilated the philosophies of Peirce and James in particular to forms of positivism, reductionism, or crude voluntarism seem to be on the wane. Peirce's scholastic realism, his doctrine of signs, and his conception of truth as the unique and destined goal of inquiry now tend to receive the attention that was formerly reserved for his empiricism and pragmatism. A similar change in the estimation of James seems to be taking place insofar as his theory of truth is seen as much less simplistic than was formerly supposed; and …

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.

Kant, Quine, And Human Experience, Kenton Machina

Faculty Publications - Philosophy

In this paper I provide an account of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason approach to how humans automatically shape the interpretation of their sense experiences in order to create a picture of themselves enduring in and interacting with an objective world. I contrast Kant's view with those of W.V. O.Quine, who also talks about how we create theories about what we are sensing. I claim that although Quine and Kant are both talking about making sense of our "experiences", they actually have different conceptions of "experience". The primary point of the paper is to elucidate Kant's views on these matters.

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.