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Gaj Blosije i uloga stoičke filozofske misli na političku djelatnost plebejskog tribuna Tiberija Sempronija Grakha i nastanak popularske platforme i pokreta

Author(s): Salmedin Mesihović / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 44/2015

During plebeian tribunat of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus 133 BC, main ideological and political adviser was Caius Blossius. He came from Cumae, campanian town and community. Caius Blossius was adherent of radical version of stoicism, which included democratic and social ideas. After death of his friend and leader Tiberius Gracchus, Caius Blossius left Italy for Asia Minor where he joined to movement of Aristonicus and Heliopolis. He committed a suicide after defeat of Aristonicus movement.

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Wokół początków pedagogiki: w trosce o powrót do "Pedagogiki Sokratejskiej"

Author(s): Jodłowska Bogusława / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2016

We live in a time of a global educational crisis and it is therefore important that we look back for guidance to the origins of pedagogy. These origins are associated with the ancient sage, Socrates, who created the innovative concept of the moral renewal of Athenian society. Seen against earlier conceptions - those of Pythagoras and the Sophists - it reveals a revolutionary design of pedagogy. This plan, which consists of constructs currently in use in Western conceptions of humanity and education, but also constructs that remain novel and innovative, is based on the notions of elenchus and maieutics, concepts that speak to the fundamental importance of dialogue between student and teacher. The concepts of humanity and pedagogy provide sufficient foundations on which to build what I call a "Socratic pedagogy".

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Ksenofont i „srećan život“ u Kirupediji

Author(s): Ivan Jordović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2016

The question of “happy life”, i.e. the question of how to live, is one of the most relevant topics in Greek literature and philosophy. The main point of Herodotus’ depiction of the encounter of Croesus with Solon and Cyrus, one of the best-known tales from antiquity, is the question of how to live. It is also an important motif in Plato’s Gorgias. Thus, it comes as no real surprise that it plays a significant role in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia too. However, the attention of scholars is usually focused only on the encounter of Cyrus with Croesus. The present article attempts to overcome the shortcomings of this approach by also examining other episodes in Cyropaedia which refer directly or indirectly to the question of “happy life”. In this way it will be shown that Xenophon understands by “happy life” vita activa and not vita contemplativa.

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ARİSTOTELES'TE EN YÜKSEK ENTELEKTÜEL ERDEM

Author(s): Kemal Batak / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 33/2016

According to many commentators, on the one hand, Aristotle elaborates the concept of happiness as an action in coherence with all virtues in the first book of The Nicomachean Ethics, on the other hand, in the last book of The Nicomachean Ethics, he consubstantiates happiness with only one virtue, which is philosophical wisdom.In this article, I examine parts 7 and 8 of Book 10 of The Nicomachean Ethics,which are probably the most interesting and unexpected passages in the the book. These parts arethe most problematic areas whichbecame a subject matter of many books for the clarifications of the issues. Aristotle obviously claims that there is a relationship between the best intellectual virtue and God, giving him perfect happiness, which indicates that there is an intersection point among metaphysics, epistemology, ethic and philosophy of religion.In this context, the main aims of this article are, first, to describe the contemplative life which is causedby the highest intellectual virtue and to claim that this life is in harmony with the inclusivist theory.

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Anaksimandar i teorija evolucije

Author(s): Damir Marić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 1/2014

Anaksimandar's teaching about human and animal evolution caused a lot of discussion among experts. Anaksimandar is the first one that we know of, that gave rational explanation about human and animal evolution excluding interference of gods or some others supernatural powers. According to the testimonies available to us, he held that living beings were formed in water or in primarily sludge and that these were marine animals. In judging if Anaksimandar somehow advocated living beings evolution, alongside of analysis of testimonies from Antique, it is crucial how we understand concept of evolution. Anaksimandar's theory of the human and animal evolution should be understood from her own historical context and we should eventually think if it could be, in some way, an antecedent of ideas that are find in later times.

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БЫЛ ЛИ БОГ СТОИКОВ ЛИЧНОСТЬЮ?

Author(s): Pavel Butakov / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2017

Peter Forrest claims that his “Personal Pantheist” conception of God is in agreement with the Stoic pantheism. The traditional interpretation, however, treats the Stoic God as the non-personal universal law. I demonstrate that arguments in favor of the personal interpretation typically imply either a personalist or an anthropocentric metaphysical foundation. I also argue that the Stoics were neither personalists nor anthropocentrists, therefore those arguments should be rejected.

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„Ewiges Ballet“ in Platons Höhle

Author(s): Drago Perović / Language(s): German Issue: 3/2018

Die Präsentation versucht, die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Denken und Realität im gegenwärtigen technisch-technologischen entstehenden Vergehen. Verborgen damit sind alle grundlegenden philosophischen Fragen verbunden, und vor allem die Frage nach der Möglichkeit, „von“ oder „jenseits“ der entstehenden-vergehenden Realität zu denken. Die zeitgenössische Debatte kehrt damit zum transzendental-immanenten Charakter der Meinung zurück, die trotz der neu entstandenen/vergangenen Situation, als Frage möglicher Begründung des philosophischen Wissens man mit seinen traditionellen Formen und Leistungsweisen vergleichen kann. Das Feld dieses Tanzes ist eine neue „Höhlenwand“, die in ihrer kraftvollen Darbietung die Technik und die Technologie inszenieren.

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Od teórie k praxi: prínos čnosti rozvážnosti

Author(s): Oľga Gavendová / Language(s): Slovak Issue: 2/2019

The article focuses on the role of the virtue of prudence in developing people’s abilities and thus in achieving perfection. It concetrates on three areas. The formation of this virtue in antiquity is the starting point. While Plato linked it to leadership, Aristotle underlined its practical side. Although being a dianoethical virtue, it should direct ethical virtues that are like “blind” without it. Then it focuses on Thomas Aquinas, who builds on the philosophy of being and enriches Aristotle’s attitude with Christian elements. The above-mentioned authors agree that the virtue of prudence plays a key role in achieving internal integrity. In the last part, the article deals with the revival and return to the virtue of prudence. Nowadays, huge scientific knowledge and effective technical means are available, but these are outside the field of ethics. However, the daily life of an individual requires axiological criteria. There is also a need for prudence to make a person in a particular situation able to decide correctly and with responsibility for the future. It is the task of prudence, as well: pro-video, anticipate. This makes this virtue extremely relevant and necessary.

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Is it possible to see darkness? Goethe and Aristotle on the role of light and darkness in vision

Author(s): Svetlana Mesyats / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

J.W. Goethe in his Farbenlehre deduced all physical colors from a simple primordial phenomenon that takes place every time light and darkness act through a semitransparent colorless medium either on our eyes or on the opposite surfaces. This basic rule of Goethe’s color theory was criticized by his contemporary physicists, who argued that darkness could not play an active role in the origin of colors because of being a mere absence of light. The paper demonstrates that this criticism became possible only if one shares the Newtonian view on the nature of light and darkness. Goethe however held a more traditional point of view, which he traced back to Antiquity and Aristotle. In contrast to Newton and his followers, previous scientists considered light not as an immediate cause of colors but as an actually transparent medium that conveyed colors from the visible objects to the organ of sight. For vision to take place, the color must first affect the light, which in its turn, must affect the faculty of vision. Though it is difficult to say what kind of change the light undergoes when some colored object is seen through it, most Aristotle commentators agree that this change must be real and not mere relational. In Aristotle’s physics, however, things that are capable of acting on and being affected by one another are either contraries or consist of contraries. Therefore, to be visible the color must be either dark or to contain darkness. Thus, assuming that Goethe shared the Aristotelian concept of light, we have to conclude that he was not mistaken saying that darkness "acts” upon our eyes or “is seen through” the illuminated semi-transparent medium.

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Скепсис и парадокс: проблема предпосылок скептицизма у Платона и античная традиция парадоксов

Author(s): Roman Svetlov,Konstantin Shevtsov / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2019

The subject of the research is the question of what texts of Plato could become a stimulus for the formation of skeptical ideas in the Academy. Can we, in particular, raise the question of the presence in the texts of Plato of something similar to the principle of the “epoche”, which is the most important methodological sign of skepticism? Can be compared with skepticism the elenchic strategy of Socrates? In our opinion, there are a number of moments in the works of Plato, which brings him closer to skeptical discourse (although this does not make him a skeptic). We dwell only on two of them. The first is the ability of the protagonists of his dialogues to hold in their arguments the two opposite sides of the subject in their undoubted difference and, at the same time, in mutual necessity. This is the Platonic dialectic in its true expression, examples of which we see in the Sophistes and the Parmenides. The second specific aspect of Plato's thought is in the formulation by Plato of a number of logical paradoxes. In its classic version, it became known, however, a little later, in the works of representatives of the Megarian school. We shall deal in more detail with the paradox of the liar, or “the thesis of Epimenides”, which is often seen as a classic example of a self-referential statement. The article will show analogies to the paradox of the liar in Plato's texts. The key point is the last argument from the Theaetetus, where Socrates examines the definition of knowledge as a true opinion with the addition of a specifying attribute (Thaet 201c-208d), as well as the 7th and 8th hypotheses of the Parmenides (Parm. 164b-166c). It seems to us that this moment of the Platonic dialectic also turns out to be a definite resource for the future “skeptical turn” in the Academy. Especially in the situation when the dialogues of Plato were discussed in terms of interest in the arguments of Pyrrho and the Megarians, for whom paradoxes were one of the important methodological tools.

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Protagoras 351b3‑358d4: le plaisir et rien d’autre

Author(s): Karine Tordo‑Rombaut / Language(s): French Issue: 17/2019

In Protagoras 351b3‑358d4, Socrates apparently admits the use of pleasure and pain as criteria for distinguishing between good and bad. Focusing on this passage, my paper outlines three problems, raising from: (1) the contradiction between Socrates’ objection to pleasure in other platonic dialogues and his assent here to a hypothesis which identifies good with pleasure; (2) the petitio principii apparently involved in Socrates’ argument to support the thought that knowledge is more powerful than emotions; (3) the compatibility of his “ hedonist ” hypothesis with his “intellectualist” thought. My paper undertakes to reconstruct Socrates’ argument, in order to answer problem (2). I contend that this argument makes the humans admit they are deprived of the knowledge both of good and evil and of pleasant and painful, a point sufficient to silence them when they speak of “knowledge being defeated by pleasure”. This contention helps answering problem (1), through a distinction between so‑called pleasures (to which Socrates objects) and real ones (which he might accept). My conclusion answers problem (3), by showing that, held together, both the “hedonist” hypothesis and the “intellectualist” thought lead to not take pleasure for granted, as required to secure a philosophical approach.

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Aristote: poursuivre et fuir

Author(s): Michel Crubellier / Language(s): French Issue: 17/2019

ARISTOTLE ON PURSUIT AND AVOIDANCE. Pleasure and pain play an essential role in Aristotle’s conception of the goal‑directed activities of animals and human beings, since they trigger the reactions of pursuit or avoidance, and hence the entire behavior. The present paper inquires into Aristotle’s analysis of this phenomenon on the basis of De Anima III, chapter 7 and De Motu Animalium, chapters 6‑7‑8. The crucial move in this analysis is the definition of pleasure and pain given in both treatises: “To feel pleasure or pain is to actualize through the sensitive mean towards what is good or bad, as such”. The paper examines the meaning of this definition and shows how it connects and agrees with the explanation of the principles of the physical motions of animals in the De Motu Animalium.

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Le plaisir et le temps dans le livre X de l’Éthique à Nicomaque

Author(s): Marguerite Deslauriers / Language(s): French Issue: 17/2019

Aristotle begins the discussion of pleasure in Book X of the Nicomachean Ethics with the claim that pleasure “is thought to be most properly connected with our kind,” (EN X 1, 1172a19‑23). In his positive account of pleasure in X 4, he suggests that we can somehow experience pleasure otherwise than “in time” (1174b2‑10). The aim of this article is to show how the claim that pleasure does not occur ‘in time’ might illuminate the claim that pleasure is most properly connected to our kind. The point, I will argue, is not only that pleasure is complete at every moment – that will be true of many activities – but also that pleasure has the same structure as the best activity available to us, and a structure different from the best activity available to other kinds. Several passages indicate that Aristotle believes that all living things act for the sake of immortality, understood as divine and eternal life, and connect the pursuit of eternal life with the activities that are natural to a species. These offer us a way to understand why the pleasure of contemplation is the best pleasure, and why pleasure is most intimately connected with our kind. I begin in section (ii) with an exploration of the pleasures proper to different activities which are in turn proper to different kinds. In subsequent sections (iii) I take a closer look at contemplation, particularly insofar as it is an activity that does not take place ‘in time’ but rather ‘in a moment’, and consider Aristotle’s reasons for describing such activities as wholes, or indivisible, or without parts; and (iv) I turn to the relation between the activities and pleasures proper to different kinds and the possibilities available to those different kinds for approximating divine life. In the final section (v) I return to question of pleasure and its intimate connection with our kind.

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Aristote: le plaisir des différences

Author(s): Annick Jaulin / Language(s): French Issue: 17/2019

Given the necessary connection between pleasure and energeia, the value of an aristotelian pleasure depends on the value of its correlative activity. Since the absolute pleasures the philokalos takes in his virtuous activities might go hand in hand with pains, the definition of absolute pleasure cannot rely on the distinction between mixed pleasure (pleasure with pain) versus pure pleasure (pleasure without pain). So, how can we characterize the pleasures of the temperate man (sôphrôn)? My thesis is that the right way to define the pleasures of the temperate man is to describe them as pleasures derived from differences. A pleasure derived from differences is involved in the pleasure human beings get from the formal use of their senses. It then belongs to the kind of pleasure they take in knowing. This formal use of the senses helps understanding how the pleasures of the temperate man can be separated from the pleasures enjoyed by children and animals

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Catharsis et plaisir tragique selon Aristote

Author(s): William Marx / Language(s): French Issue: 17/2019

Catharsis and tragic pleasure according to Aristotle. According to Aristotle, tragedies induce three different kinds of pleasures. First, there is the cognitive pleasure of imitation, since it is pleasurable to recognize in the imitation an object one already knows. Second, there is the aesthetic pleasure linked to the material parameters of the tragedy, that is the language, the show, and the performance (verses, singing, acting). Third, there is the “specific” pleasure of tragedy. This specific pleasure is linked to the affects of pity and fear through the process of catharsis. Although pity and fear are two opposite affects depending on the position of the subject relatively to an event, the spectator of the tragedy is bound to experience both of them simultaneously because of the ethical similarity the playwright must keep between him and the tragic hero. But pity and fear are also two opposite affects on the physiological level: pity is a warm affect, fear a cold one. Catharsis is then a physiological balancing of pity by fear, of warmth by cold, and reciprocally, and this continuous suppression of excesses of temperature through the tragic imitation, while bringing a feeling of relief and pleasure, rids the spectator of all excessive affects. Catharsis provides a healthy and hygienic pleasure, and so can Aristotle effectively reply to Plato’s criticism of tragedy

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Plaisir et acte selon Alexandre d’Aphrodise

Author(s): Gweltaz Guyomarc’h / Language(s): French Issue: 17/2019

According to some testimonies, the Aristotelian ethics have been torn between a hedonist reading, as much as an anti‑hedonist one, throughout Antiquity. From Critolaos to Verginius Rufus and Sosicrates, pleasure is considered both as “an evil [that] gives birth to many other evils” and as the first appropriate thing and the supreme good. This noteworthy disagreement stems from a famous difficulty within the Aristotelian corpus, raised by Aspasius, i.e. the alleged coexistence of two ‘definitions’ of pleasure in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics VII and X. In this paper, I offer a reconstruction of Alexander’s treatment of this difficulty, based on some passages from Alexander’s Ethical Problems and the Mantissa. I try to show that Alexander does not dismiss the so‑called “definition A” of pleasure (the unimpeded activity of one’s natural state) as being spurious, although he obviously values more the definition B (according to which pleasure perfects the activity as a kind of supervenient end). Even if he never openly brands the definition A as “dialectic” (like Aspasius), Alexander takes it as a reputable endoxon, which however needs to be emended in that it blurs the distinction between pleasure and activity. Pleasure only supervenes on the activity to which it is appropriate, and this supervenience is precisely what accounts for the inaccuracy of the definition A. As much as the child conflates the apparent good and the good, so the hedonist takes pleasure to be identical with the activity and the telos of human life. On the contrary, for Alexander, pleasure is actually only a sign of happiness and the shadow of the activity

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Le statut ontologique du plaisir : ExÉgÈse aristotÉlicienne et querelles thÉologiques (1250‑1320 env.)

Author(s): Iacopo Costa / Language(s): English Issue: 17/2019

The aim of this paper is to study some aspects of the Medieval Latin reception of Aristotle’s theory of pleasure (Eth. Nic. X). First, I introduce Aristotle’s position, with special attention to the problem of the ontological status of pleasure and the relationship between pleasure and the different genera of causes (viz. formal and final causality), as well as the somehow ambiguous exegesis of Michael of Ephesus. Second, I take into account the interpretation given by Albert the Great in his first commentary on the Ethics. Finally, I present some theological issues raised by Albert’s interpretation, in the discussions about beatific vision. The authors taken in account are James of Viterbo, Radulphus Brito, Peter Auriol and William of Ockham

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Философ-революционер: мотив освобождения в платоновском мифе о пещере

Author(s): K. V. Kondratiev / Language(s): Russian Issue: 4/2018

In this paper, we consider the “Allegory of the Cave” – a well-known part of the “Republic” by Plato. However, the conventional interpretation of this fragment – the image of Plato’s form theory – does not regard themes, which Plato clearly remarks as principal. The paper discusses the image of “liberation” in its relation to the image of “education”. The aim of the study is to determine the relations between the stages of education and the conversion of knowledge condition. The main method of the study is hermeneutic analysis of the original text and modification of the interpretative context. In the course of study, we have identified the following stages of education: 1) chained prisoners; 2) people, who take utensils and images at the upper road; 3) liberated prisoners; 4) a person, who liberates the prisoner; 5) the prisoner, who gets out from the cave. All of these stages of education are related to the stages of knowledge, but we should not consider its conversion in the sense of gradual increase: in fact, during these changes not only knowledge can be declined, but also the transit from the first false reality image to another one is possible. It has been suggested that the prisoner does not gain true liberation outside the cave, but rather falls to another phantom reality, larger than the previous one. It has been concluded that the only possibility of education growth and conversion of the knowledge stage is the moment of transit from one cave to another one.

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L’idéal éthique selon Aristote, ou la «belle vie»

Author(s): Louis RODRIGUEZ / Language(s): French Issue: 17/2019

This study aims at providing a global explanation of the good life or happiness according to Aristotle. By applying the method used in ethics by Aristotle, the specific content of happiness is determined, of which meditation is the essence, together with the practice of moral virtues. The article rests on a relatively new perspective, neither ‘exclusive’ nor ‘inclusive’, considering the results of each type of traditional interpretation, and shedding light upon the richness of all happiness’ dimensions.

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Reflections: Eudaemonia in the Eyes of the Kouros

Author(s): Nava Sadeh / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The Kouros image in Archaic Greek art has never been perceived as expressing emotions; and nor have his eyes been a focus of research. Rather, the gaze of most of the Kouroi has been perceived as reflecting a sort of denial or cancellation of expression and emotion. However, the opposite of emotion is in itself an emotion and, indeed, once a human figure is portrayed its expression always conveys some sort of emotional message, no matter how indifferent it may seem. Moreover, emotions in Ancient Greece were perceived differently from their conception today.

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