Peitho. Examina Antiqua
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Anaksymander i Anaksymenes z Miletu – ważniejsza doksografia i fragmenty
Full text linkIn addition to the existing source editions and translations, several new works on the so-called Presocratics (i.e., early Greek philosophers) have been published (see bibliography). While this study continues our work on the translation of the doxography and fragments of these authors, this paper presents Anaximander and Anaximenes of Miletus, who dealt with the same issues of principles, cosmogony, astronomy, and meteorology. We deal with them separately, but in a similar arrangement of sources, slightly different from previous editions, taking into account as instructive the longest of all testimonies about Anaximander and Anaximenes, namely the accounts of Hippolytus of Rome in Refutatio omnium haeresium I 6–7. As previously with Thales, we approach these Milesians in a selective and systematic arrangement of testimonies and those few fragments which, although considered inauthentic by many researchers, we find extremely interesting, rather reliable, and worth quoting. For greater clarity, we have introduced appropriate thematic headings in our translation of these texts, which is as close to the original as possible. The brief information below may serve as an introduction to a new reading of the sources on Anaximander and Anaximenes of Miletus
Pleasure in the Fragments of Aristotle’s Lost Writings
Full text linkIt is well known that Aristotle’s philosophical legacy has not survived in its entirety to our time. A large part of it has been lost, and only scattered fragments, paraphrases and testimonies cited by other ancient philosophers have survived. The analyses carried out in the article focus on what the Stagirite says about pleasure in fragments of lost writings, especially in the Symposium, On Pleasure, Protrepticus and On Justice. The aim of the analyses is to establish whether or not the statements in these fragments can be correlated with statements from Aristotle’s surviving works, and whether or not they are compatible with them. Thanks to the analyses, it is also possible to show that the hypothesis that Aristotle’s philosophy may have been subject to evolution is not tenable at least as far as the doctrine of pleasure is concerned
History of Thought and History of Humankind in Plato’s Protagoras
Full text linkIn Plato’s Protagoras, prompted by Socrates, Protagoras grapples with the complex problem of the nature of the sophistike techne that he professes. To clarify the nature of his teaching, he reconstructs a history of his discipline, identifying a series of figures who preceded him, concealing their own activities under the guise of other technai. Furthermore, through the famous myth of Prometheus, he places the sphere in which he operates, the politike, at the center of the development of human communities. In response to Protagoras, Socrates, through a curious reinterpretation of the past, identifies Spartan brachylogy and the activities of the Seven Sages as precursors to his own philosophy. As is also evident from the comparison with the Ancient Medicine, in the Protagoras, Plato, not without a hint of irony, seems to stage the fifth century intellectuals’ attempt to define their activity through a skillful reworking of human history
Senofonte, Ciropedia: Ciro bambino e adolescente
Full text linkIn the last decades the Cyropaedia enjoyed a renewed interest, mostly addressed to the controversial character of Cyrus, exemplary leader or susceptible to a dark reading. However the character of Cyrus as a child and adolescent, who appears in Cyr. 1.3-4, has been usually overlooked, especially with regard to the psychological side of his behavior, which instead deserves to be carefully analyzed. Xenophon indeed created a complex, multifaced character: on the one hand a Cyrus as a child, who already shows the exceptional character traits of the adult Cyrus; on the other hand – and this is the innovative aspect – a Cyrus as a child and adolescent who shows attitudes and behavior that today we are able to acknowledge as typical of children and adolescents. It is not difficult for us to grasp these attitudes and behavior, but that Xenophon succeeded in creating a character endowed with them is a really amazing achievement, because he could only rely on his observation skills, probably a kind of empathy and his gifts as a writer: an even more amazing achievement if we keep in mind that Greek literature and more generally Greek culture showed very little interest in the child itself, regarded nearly exclusively as the adult he was destined to become or anyway in its relationships with adults. Cyr. 1.4.3 is a very important passage, in which Xenophon gives a kind of overview of those features of Cyrus as a child that will quickly disappear already in the first phase of adolescence: immediately afterwards indeed in Cyr. 1.4.4 Xenophon summarizes in few lines some significant changes that mark the transition, often so abrupt, to adolescence and that will be described as the narration goes on. It is really noteworthy that very recent studies on some psychological processes (especially concerning mirror neurons) offer an explanation of the attitudes and behavior of Cyrus as a child and adolescent as they were narrated by Xenophon
Riflessioni sul demiurgo in Plotino a partire dall’interpretazione del Timeo e dell’Epinomide
Full text linkThe problem of the interpretation of the Timaeus represents one of the greatest exegetical challenges for Plotinus. For Plotinus the Timaeus is a problematic dialogue due to its mythical-allegorical language and the fact that some doctrines in the work seem incompatible with his hypostatic vision. The Plotinian conception of the demiurge is critical of the concept of “artisanal causality.” Plotinus does not agree that the cosmos could have been generated according to a plan, i.e., according to dianoetic and contingent reasoning. At the same time, he identifies the demiurge with the Intellect, but then, in other treatises, also equates the demiurge with the world soul and nature, i.e., the aspect of the third hypostasis that has the task of acting directly on matter. While this ambiguity of Plotinus is found in several places of his Enneads, it finds justification in a spurious dialogue of Plato, the Epinomis, in which the role of the demiurgic soul is central. In my opinion, Plotinus is likely to have taken his cue from the Epinomis as an endorsement for his doctrine of the demiurgic soul. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the identification of the demiurgic soul with a single hypostasis leads Plotinus to several aporias
Senofane DK 21 B 18 sullo sfondo della cultura milesia
Full text linkIn this paper, I will first try to refute Lesher’s hypothesis who reads in 18.1 a polemical reference to divination: in the first verse, in fact, Xenophanes merely outlines an exemplum fictum, punctually overturned in 18.2. The fragment must be read, on the contrary, against the historical background that produced it. The language of Xenophanes in B18 is the same as ever and many are the interconnections with the remaining evidences. Here it is enough to recall the link with the two surviving elegies, in which the value of intellectuals is proudly claimed, as opposed to that of the athletes hailed by the masses. It will come as no surprise, therefore, that in B18 the researchers (ζητοῦντες) are celebrated, with a genuine ‘monument’ to what was being discovered at Miletus. I will also try to show how previous interpretations have been vitiated by an unfair devaluation of Xenophanes’ ‘scientific’ activity, seen as a pre-Herodotean ἱστορίη, not as an investigation referring to a methodology that was taking shape and in which Xenophanes largely recognised himself. B18, therefore, is not the first affirmation of coherent ‘philosophical’ interpretation, but the first, brilliant intuition of what enquiry was revealing, in opposition to the mythical tradition, in a passage from μῦθος to λόγος that was gradual, rich in nuances, but irreversible
Theaetetus 151e–186e: Did Plato Refute Protagoras?
Full text linkIn the Theaetetus, which seeks a definition of knowledge, the first definition of Theaetetus, namely that ‘knowledge is perception’, is easily refuted without the need to refer to Protagoras. But for Plato the refutation of Protagoras is a goal in itself, and he devotes almost half the dialogue to this task. He argues that the doctrine of homo mensura amounts to saying that ‘all judgements are true’ and, using his ‘most exquisite argument’, he claims to prove that it is self-refuting. As many scholars have recognised, this alleged demonstration depends on the arbitrary dropping of the relativistic qualifier that specifies ‘for whom’ a given judgement is true. Plato does not justify the disappearance of the qualifier, but rather tries to disguise it. Indeed, Protagoras has an epistemological conception that is opposed to Plato’s theory of knowledge and that is fundamental to the logical justification of the political conceptions set out in the Republic. For Plato, therefore, the refutation of Protagoras’ doctrine of homo mensura is an imperative ethical requirement. He is not too demanding in his choice of arguments: he does not seek rigour in argumentation, only persuasive effectiveness – more than two millennia of interpretations have proved him right
Cosa è esterno alla mente stoica?
Full text linkThis paper explores the role of external factors in the constitution of the Stoic mind. It will show how the external influences the Stoic mind in several crucial ways: 1) Constitutive Role: The external world acts as a constitutive factor for the soul (the third level of the scala naturae), shaping its development. At the fourth level, the logos (rational principle) interacts with qualified external objects. These objects form the basis of abstract reasoning and teachings derived from external sources; 2) Truth-Making Function: The external world serves as a truth-maker for phantasiai and the axiomata associated with them, providing validation and substance to internal representations and core beliefs; 3) Opposition to External Goods: For the Stoic soul dedicated to virtue, external goods are elements to be opposed or transcended. The Stoic perspective emphasizes the pursuit of virtue as independent of external goods, which are considered indifferent or secondary to moral development; 4) Condition of Possibility: the external void or incorporeal space is a necessary condition for the growth of the cosmos, including its periodic conflagration (destruction) and subsequent reconstitution
Della nozione di “filosofia virtuale” e degli altri strumenti ermeneutici messi a punto da Livio Rossetti per ripensare i presocratici
Full text linkThe aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the contributions made by Livio Rossetti to the methodologies of inquiry into ancient philosophical thought, with a specific focus on the hermeneutical tools he has developed over the course of his extensive research activity. This article will examine, in particular, the concept of “virtual philosophy” and of other “tools of the trade,” which the scholar has further refined within his latest book, Ripensare i presocratici
Xenophanes DK 21 B 18, a Testimony of the Rising Philosophy
Full text linkGreek seafaring between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE gave rise to a technical culture centered around navigation, commerce, and international cultural exchange. The Greeks were not a unified nation in the modern sense, confined to a territory centralized in Attica or the Peloponnese. Instead, they were a collection of independent city-states (poleis) spread across the Mediterranean, from the Iberian Peninsula to the Black Sea. The intense commercial relationships among these Greek settlements and with other peoples wove a Mediterranean cultural web that fostered a genuine spirit of intercultural exchange, leading to a new cultural synthesis that gave the Greeks – and the world to this day – an extraordinary drive for originality. This technical culture, which Rossetti calls the “cultura dell’attendibilità,” was based on observation, objectivity, and rationality. Without these principles, and relying solely on myth, seafaring could never have flourished. This shift away from myths to a new culture is testified by Xenophanes, who, in DK B 18 (LM D53), contrasts the ancient method of gaining knowledge through communication with the gods with a new method of research that in time yields better results