PISMA PRIJATELJU LUCILIJU

Author(s): Alen Matošević / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 1/2015

Lucije Anej Seneka, ............ Lucije Anej Seneka (lat. Lucius Annaeus Seneca), rimski državnik, književnik i filozof, ostavio je čovječanstvu u nasljeđe devet tragedija, dvanaest knjiga filozofskih dijaloga, prirodoslovnu enciklopediju, satiričnu dramu i druga vrijedna djela, ali posebno je dragocjeno dvadeset knjiga pisama iz područja etike (lat. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium). Dovoljno govori činjenica da ih je pisao nakon što proživio i preživio političke turbulencije, podučavanje maladoga cara Nerona i izgnanstvo. Osim toga nastala su potkraj njegova života. Sva 124 pisma naslovljena su na prijatelja Lucilija.

(Post)archaiczność obrazu

Author(s): Sebastian Borowicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 33/2020

The proximity of the late archaic Greek philosophical breakthrough and postmodernity relies on the analogy of a media and intellectual revolution that takes place in both periods. Greek culture of the 6th and early 5th century BCE gradually moves from orality to literacy, from performativity and affection towards an intellectual view of the world and reflective being, from a world that is shared with non-human beings to the world of human monody. Modernity, however, seems to reverse these trends. Nevertheless, we do not go into the past but reach a higher level of archaicity. From this point of view, postmodernity becomes postarchaicity; this is a chance that in the moment of historical contiguity, vivisection of our culture will reveal still active common places, allowing us to explore images before the metaphysical era. The starting point of the analysis is the question “What is the image?” posed by Maurice Blanchot and his extremely insightful answer to this question.

REMINISCENCE THEORY AND IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL: SOME MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS IN PLATO’S PHAEDO

Author(s): Miguel López-Astorga / Language(s): English Issue: 48/2021

This paper focuses on a particular discussion Plato describes in Phaedo. That is the discussion between Socrates and Cebes about the pre-existence and immortality of the soul. The paper does not try to clarify or better understand the discussion. It is only intended to show that the mental representations underlying the arguments both Socrates and Cebes give are consistent with the possibilities the theory of mental models attributes to human reasoning. In this way, the present paper attempts to support the basic theses of that theory.

Ono neograničeno načelo

Author(s): Željko Kaluđerović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 35/2021

In this paper the author discusses the various modalities of access to the only extant Anaximander's fragment (DK12B1), which is also regarded as the first written document in the history of Western philosophy. Aristotle's heritage is the main source for studying the views of this Milesian thinker, similar as it was for Thales. Although, Anaximander's name was mentioned only four times in Stagirites' works, it is evident that "successor and pupil of Thales" was referred or alluded more often. The paper, first of all, explores possible definitions of the key concept of his philosophy τὸ ἄπειρον, which generally range from apeiron being "something in between" (τὸ μεταξύ or τὸ μέσον) elements, to the one that it is "a mixture" (μῖγμα) of all the elements. In addition the topic is being discussed of whether the apeiron is something that is "spatially boundless", or is it something that is "qualitatively indefinite". The author, at the Aristotle's trail, analyzed, whether "the boundless" is purely a monistic principle, or whether Anaximander since being placed in a group of philosophers together with Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Democritus, is situated as someone who could no longer speak of a single principle of everything. The author concludes that, regardless of doubts and disagreements among commentators over the nature of ἄπειρον, it is certain that the Anaximander's "the boundless" should be interpreted as matter and classified into the so called category of material causes.

Valuing Goods: The Development of Commensurability in Archaic Greece

Author(s): Mark S. Peacock / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

To be monetised, a society requires a unit which measures the values of a wide range of goods. Being thus measurable, the values of goods are mutually commensurable, a point which Aristotle theorised in the Nicomachean Ethics (Book V). But whereas Aristotle gives rise to the impression that the stipulation of a currency unit suffices to make goods commensurable, societies themselves must undergo a process of commensurabilisation whereby people become habituated to valuing goods in terms of a unit of value. This essay examines the development of practices of valuation and commensurability in ancient Greece, paying particular attention to the rule of Solon and his division of the citizenry into census classes according to their yearly income. The assessment of citizens’ income presupposes a unit for measuring income. The stipulation of this unit, it is argued, had a decisive influence in developing practices of valuation and commensurability.

Plotinos Felsefesinde Sudur ve Hipostaz Sisteminin Düzeni Üzeri-ne

Author(s): Hüseyin Aydoğan / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 46/2022

The philosophy of Plotinus is essentially based on a process of emanation. This process, which has various names, creates an ontological hierarchy system by starting from a first principle. These can be summarized as One, Nous, and Soul. Each of them was conceived by Plotinus as a hypostasis and connected with being. Even in Turkish Plotinus research, this process, which is commonly known with the doctrine of overflowing from perfection, has been interpreted differently. The purpose of this study is to draw attention to other interpretations outside this well-known interpretation and to present them for discussion. Different interpretations of emanation, determined as two metaphorical and two philosophical explanations, form the core of the article. The first of the metaphorical explanations can be summarized as the Aristotelian biological principle. That is, anything that reaches fullness must give rise to something else that comes after it. This is both a biological and a logical necessity. In this explanation, it can be said that Plotinus is trying to establish a similarity between the process of production and generation in living beings and the process of emanation from the One. The second metaphorical explanation is that the One is compared to objects such as light, fire, or snow. In this account, the self-existence of fire, light, and, snow represent the ontological state of the One. Parallel to these objects, the heat, brightness, and cold emanating from them represent the Nous. Plotinus attempts to establish a metaphorical approximation between the elements that emanate from these objects and Nous that emanates from the One. The first of the philosophical explanations, on the other hand, is based on the necessary reflex of contemplation. According to this, the Nous is a product of the necessary and unconscious contemplation of the One and arises as an indeterminate level of being as a result of this contemplation. This level, which can be called pre-entity, gains determination by turning to the One for contemplation and reaching nous-being. We have tried to highlight the second philosophical explanation as to the two-acts theory. This explanation relies primarily on Plotinus' account of the One as dunamis panton. The One is the productive power of all things as dunamis panton. The One as such can be interpreted as two kinds of activity. The first is the state of activity in itself, in its essence, which is defined as energeia tes ousias. The second is the state of activity [energeia ek tes ousias] that comes from its essence and expresses what it is to the other. These doctrines will be analyzed using extensive quotations from Plotinus' Enneads. The difficulties Plotinus had in describing his doctrine of emanation are another focus of this article. In this context, Plotinus' presentation of the One as absolutely transcendent and indefinable poses a difficult problem. This question, of course, also complicates the describability of the emergence of Nous from the One. In this article, this emanation process will be reinterpreted from different perspectives. Finally, in view of the Pythagorean tetractys concept, another mathematical explanation for this emanation process is presented.

LA FILOSOFÍA DEL DIÁLOGO INTERIOR: DESDE EL SEMEION DAIMONION SOCRÁTICO HASTA EL EXISTENCIALISMO

Author(s): Daniel MARTÍN SÁEZ / Language(s): Spanish Issue: 47/2021

In this article we analyze the idea of «inner speech» from a philosophical perspective. To do this, we start with the psychological category as a tertium quid between the ideas of thought and language. We will show that philosophers has always put inner speach in the center of their interests, from the socratic semeion daimonion to the existentialist «call of conscience», from the musical exhortation of Phaedon to the myth of the inner city, the Christian theology of prayer and confession, Cartesian introspection, German idealism and Gandhi’s inner voice, among other episodes. The notion of inner speech serves us to illuminate important moments in the history of philosophy and religion, as well as helping us to understand the versatility of the phenomenon beyond the psychological category, which ranges from the negativity of criticism and retraction to the positive character of Christian life, from non-transferable speech to a universal language linked to silence.

Plato, Adorno, and the Dialectic

Author(s): Maxwell Kennel / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2021

This essay shows substantial connections between Plato’s dialectical approach in The Republic and Adorno’s 1958 lectures in An Introduction to Dialectics. Although the relationship between Adorno and Aristotle has received some attention, little work has been done either demonstrating or making connections between Plato and Adorno, especially on the topic of the dialectic. This is likely because Adorno himself has little to say about Plato’s dialectic, although he does refer often to Plato’s ideas and forms, and sometimes to his aesthetics. This essay reads against the grain to show how Plato and Adorno conceive of dialectical thinking in strikingly similar ways that run parallel with their discontinuities, and concludes with the suggestion that the figure of chiasmus is well-positioned to push the limits of dialectical thinking.

Вера Јанићијевић, Платон и тирани - Платонова путовања у Сиракузу, Пешић и синови, Беоргад, 2004, стр. 125; Вера Јанићијевић, Миљеници богова - Аристотел и Александар Македонски, Пешић и синови, Београд, 2006, стр. 130)

Author(s): Jasminka Hasanbegović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2006

O vječnosti i problemu raja – razmatranje kroz Parmenidov privid bića i nebića

Author(s): Zoran Hercigonja / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 2/2017

Čovjekovo neprestano lutanje za smislom života dovodi ga do jedinoga smislenog i koliko-toliko razumnog odgovora: smisao života je postići vječnost i raj nebeski. Raj (neki oblik tog raja, neko individualno, subjektivno mjesto za koje se čovjek zalaže, kojem čovjek teži, mjesto sa svim mogućim užicima, blagostanjem i blagodati) cilj je kojem čovjek teži i žudi cijelog života pateći se i mučki trpeći zemaljski život; raj je mjesto blaženstava i vječne bezbrižnosti. Sve izvan toga je neprihvatljivo, isuviše nisko i isprazno. Čovjek lakše trpi bič maćehe zemlje kada zna da je kraj njegova puta zapravo prag raja nebeskog u bilo kojemu njegovu obliku, neovisno o društvenomu i nacionalno-religijskom poimanju koncepta raja.

Umierający Sokrates i Wielka Matka

Author(s): Marcin Pietrzak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 108/2021

The last days of Socrates’ life, which, as indicated by ancient sources, took place at the turn of the months of Mounuchiōn and Thargēliōn, fit into the scheme of the sacral calendar of Athens as a spectacle completing the ritual sacrificial cycle connected with the commemoration of the Cretan expedition of Theseus and the Thargēliōn festival celebrated immediately after it. Socrates dies as a sacrifice offered to Artemis, the Great Mother, and at the same time fulfills the heroic myth. This myth on the Jungian psychoanalysis plane signifies the liberation of the conscious ego from the power of the unconscious, represented by the Great Mother archetype. The mythological-psychological context allows us to give a new interpretation to the discussions which Plato noted in his dialogues and which are connected with the death of Socrates. Above all, they put in a new light the Socratic majeutics, as about the service of Artemis, as well as the consideration of the immortality of the soul and the eschatological myths told on their occasion, which Plato wrote down on the pages of the Phaedo.

The Whole-Part Dilemma: A Compositional Understanding of Plato’s Theory of Forms

Author(s): Seong Soo Park / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

In this paper, I suggest a way of resolving the whole-part dilemma suggested in the Parmenides. Specifically, I argue that grabbing the second horn of the dilemma does not pose a significant challenge. To argue for this, I consider two theses about Forms, namely, the oneness and indivisibility theses. More specifically, I argue that the second horn does not violate the oneness thesis if we treat composition as identity and that the indivisibility thesis ought to be reinterpreted given Plato’s later dialogues. By doing so, I suggest a compositional understanding of Plato’s theory of Forms, which can resolve the whole-part dilemma.

View on Ancient Philosophy and its Legacy: between Soviet and Chinese Marxism

Author(s): Vitalii Turenko / Language(s): English Issue: 17/2022

The article reveals the peculiarities of the interpretation of ancient philosophy in two directions of Marxism – Soviet and Chinese. The author emphasizes the common and distinctive features of understanding philosophy in Soviet and Chinese philosophy. Proved that Soviet Marxism saw the most important stage in the formation and development of philosophy as a phenomenon of world culture in ancient philosophy. At the same time, Soviet thinkers tried to find the key points of ancient philosophy that would correlate with the main Marxist ideas. Also, based on the principles of Marxism, Soviet historians of philosophy analyzed and identified both common and commonplace moments in ancient Greek and ancient Chinese philosophy. It was revealed that Soviet and Chinese thinkers, first of all, try to find those moments in ancient philosophy that are directly or indirectly connected with Marxist philosophy – its principles, values, and ideas. At the same time, as part of the study of ancient philosophy, a whole corpus of translations from ancient Greek was carried out, although ancient Roman thinkers were less in demand for Soviet Marxism. Whereas, within the framework of Chinese Marxism, there is still a lot to be done in the context of the philosophical translation of the ancient heritage. However, argued thesis that to some extent, Chinese Marxism developed more intensively in the context of research of ancient philosophy. After all, in addition to purely ideological works devoted to the understanding of ancient philosophy, research began to develop actively in terms of comparative philosophy and classical reception studies.

FORM MADDE DÜALİZMİNDE KADIN

Author(s): Abdullah ÇAĞIL / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 54/2022

In ancient Greek philosophy, it is customary to consider concepts with their opposites. We see the same situation when it comes to genders. The female gender is handled in a dualist style with the male gender. In this direction, the most obvious approach was established with the form-matter relationship. Accordingly, something needs form and matter in order to exist. Man is also composed of form and matter. However, the human takes his form from the man and his matter from the woman. Thus, we encounter an approach that is accused of sexism. Leaving aside the historical circumstances, there is something to justify this accusation.

MANTIQUE HUMAINE ET MANTIQUE DIVINE. LA CRITIQUE DES FORMES COMMUNES DE LA DIVINATION PAR JAMBLIQUE

Author(s): Adriana Neacșu / Language(s): French Issue: 42/2018

Concerned with an ethical and ontological model of man aimed at his fulfilment in divine perfection, Iamblichus criticizes the principal human forms of divination, in order to describe, as opposed to them, the authentic form of divination, namely sacred or divine divination. Its principle is the following: the knowledge of the cause and essence of becoming leads us to the knowledge of the future. The ability to make predictions about the future is only granted to the gods, because they have a universal knowledge, but the gods offer their power to men that are capable to participate in the divine. This sacred divination occurs only in theurgy, which ultimate goal is the union of the theurgist with divinity, and the authentic divination is the crowning of the theurgy.

CONDIȚIA FEMEII ÎN POLITICA LUI ARISTOTEL

Author(s): Adriana Neacșu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 41/2018

Despite recognizing women as a free being and asserting the need for precise rules on women's conduct, Aristotle does not have an original stance on the role of women in society. Criticizing the Platonic concept of the women's community, which he considers to be detrimental to the city and impossible to accomplish, he outlines his vision of the woman's ideal condition in terms very close to the role that the Greek city of his time usually accords to woman. Rejecting the authoritarian position that women have been able to acquire in Sparta, it reduces their social importance to the organization of the house, as wives, as well as to the birth and raising of children, that is, as mothers - which express an attitude of acceptance and legitimacy of the common practices of his time.

PAIDEIA AND EROTIC SEDUCTION IN “ALCIBIADES”

Author(s): Ștefan Vlăduțescu / Language(s): English Issue: 38/2016

The present paper is a philosophematic lecture of the dialogue “Alcibiades” by Plato. The method used represents a combination among the metaanalytical, the comparative and the hermeneutical procedures. Overall, the method is associated with the philosophical hermeneutics. First of all, a relative convergence related to the dialogue comprehension can be noticed after having studied the previous interpretations. Well-known specialists, such as A. Koyré, A. Posescu, V. Muscă, J. Brun, Y. Brès, E. R. Dodds, R. M. Hare and N. Denyer interpret ”Alcibiades” as illustrating the dialogue experience of becoming aware of the imperative according to which the political man should be primarily educated, learned and then rich. Professor Gheorghe Vlăduțescu suggests a different type of comprehension. He considers “Alcibiades” a “dialogue on self-knowledge,” where the interpretation is based on the philosopheme “gnôthi seauton” (“know yourself”). A third paradigm of comprehension is shown by Michel Foucault, who establishes the philosopheme “epimeleia heauton” (“be preoccupied with yourself”) as a framework of interpretation. In relation to these three positions, our article analyzes the dialogue under discussion, according to a synthesizing idea. Our thesis lies on the fact that “Alcibiades” represents a paideic seduction, structured argumentatively on the sophistic recurrence to two philosophemes: “gnôthi seauton” (“know yourself”) and “epimeleia heauton” (“be preoccupied with yourself”). According to the initial remark, Socrates organizes, reshapes erotically Alcibiades’ ambitions to accede to accede to the high-level political power. As a conclusion, the amorous Socrates sets an erotic trap for Alcibiades. Consequently, in the communicational situation developed within the dialogue, we can clearly notice the intricate functioning of both a paideic and erotic situation. The complexity imposed by the process of dialogue decodification originates in the absence of a clear assumption concerning the double relation in progress: apart from the paideic relation, there takes shape, by means of seduction, an erotic relation. By seduction exercised by Socrates, Alcibiades appears both as the object of a paideia and as an erotic object. Paideia (the transformation of cultural acts into life acts) takes place, in the case of Alcibiades, as a pedagogy within a life of spirit: the passage of culture into nonexistence (the paideic instruction) takes place on a seductive, erotic curve.

NATURA ȘI FORMELE DIVINAȚIEI LA IAMBLICHOS

Author(s): Adriana Neacșu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 38/2016

Concerned with an ethical and ontological model of man aimed at his fulfilment in divine perfection, Iamblichus criticizes the principal human forms of divination, in order to describe, as opposed to them, the authentic form of divination, namely sacred or divine divination. Its principle is the following: the knowledge of the cause and essence of becoming leads us to the knowledge of the future. The ability to make predictions about the future is only granted to the gods, because they have a universal knowledge, but the gods offer their power to men that are capable to participate in the divine. This sacred divination occurs only in theurgy, which ultimate goal is the union of the theurgist with divinity, and the authentic divination is the crowning of the theurgy.

ΣΤΕΡΗΣΙΣ: PRIVATIVE NEGATION IN ARISTOTLE AND PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

Author(s): Daniel Jugrin / Language(s): English Issue: 37/2016

The theology of alpha privative flourishes in the late Hellenistic thinking. Aristotle identifies the use of the alpha privative with the logic of privation, and this is the place where the negative theology begins, despite the refusal of Late Platonism to associate the notion of steresis with via negativa. The “apohatic” will eventually be contrasted with the “steretic”, but this distinction is not as clearly emphasized in Aristotle: „Privation (steresis) has as many meanings as there are negations (apophasis) by the alpha privative” (Metaphysics 1022b33). It is noticeable that the privation is equaled with a form of negation, and the alpha privative is included in the logic of privation. In Dionysius we have the first clear tendency to limit privation to the ontological spectrum. The key sequence is the one in the Mystical theology IV, where the “Cause of all” is not and does not contain “alteration, destruction, privation, diminution, or anything else which pertains to what is sensed”. In this context, privation explicitly addresses the sensible world and is associated with various concepts which denote the change of state.

FORMELE SUBSTANȚIALE ÎNTRE REALITATE ȘI FICȚIUNE

Author(s): Adrian Niță / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 37/2016

In this paper, I deal with the issue realityfiction from the following perspective: substantial forms appear in some of Leibniz's writings as a part of a substantial whole, and in others as the whole as such; more precisely, the souls is both the form and the substance. In the first part of the paper, I give an historical presentation, in the second and third parts, I focus on the influence that Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas had on Leibniz, and in the last part, I will present, briefly, a solution for the problem I raised in the beginning of the study.