1,721,194 research outputs found
Socrates and the Socratic Dialogue: An Overview from the First-Generation Socratics to Neoplatonism
No full textMany attempts have been made to solve the Socratic question by identifying and then studying those sources assumed to yield the “historical” or at least a “reliable” or a “realistic” Socrates. Scholars have often restricted their inquiry, accordingly, to specific texts, or to some range of texts, by a “quadriga” of authors, namely Aristophanes, Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle.6 Such a selection led to important scholarly work, but it often failed to account for the literary and philosophical complexity to which these texts refer, and upon which they largely depend. This collection aims to set out on a new path. It presents a comprehensive picture of Socrates and the Socratic dialogue in ancient Greek and Roman literature, from the comedies of Eupolis and Aristophanes, written during Socrates’ middle age, to the treatises of Proclus, more than eight hundred years later. Each chapter addresses an author or group of authors whose work reveals something significant either about the thinking associated with Socrates and his nearest associates, especially the authors of “Socratic dialogues,” or the power and texture of the Socratic icon as formed in these dialogues and passed down, reinterpreted, and redeployed in the thought, biography, oratory, and literature of the ensuing generations
Introduzione
No full textLa poikilia dell’anima e delle emozioni che la pervadono si configura come una moltitudine eterogenea di elementi che, in virtù della sua irriducibile complessità e dinamicità, è in grado di apparire sempre come in sé coerente e unitaria. Questo modello ha una lunga tradizione: l’idea di una poikilia complessa e dinamica, in grado di conferire unità a un insieme eterogeneo di elementi, si trova, ben prima di Platone, applicata a una molteplicità di ambiti
Aporia o definizione? Il ti esti negli scritti socratici di Senofonte
No full textThis paper deals with a much-discussed issue among Socratic scholars, Socrates’s quest for “what is” (ti esti). So far, ti esti has been tackled by taking into account almost exclusively Plato’s testimony, or authors that depend on that testimony (especially Aristotle, at Met. 987b1-11, 1078b17-32, and 1086b3-7). This led to a series of difficulties, since in Plato the issue of ti esti is closely linked to the theory of ideas, which in itself poses a series of logical problems. Robinson (1953), Vlastos (1973), Benson (2000) and other scholars have shown that Socratic ti esti and Platonic metaphysics should in fact be considered as mutually interconnected issues. This paper attempts to deal with the Socratic ti esti on a basis other than Plato, i.e. by looking at Xenophon. In fact, since Xenophon does not depend on Plato’s theory of ideas (the term idea is never used by Xenophon, while eidos occurs only twice in his Socratic works with the traditional meaning of “exterior appearance”), it appears that his account of ti esti provides a completely different picture than that given by Plato and Aristotle. A close reading of Memorabilia 1.1.16 and 4.6 shows that the Socratic ti esti aims not at reaching a conclusive “definition” (horismos, as in Plato and Aristotle), but at establishing the premises (hupotheseis) of every possible research (episkepsis): according to Xenophon, the ti esti does not provide a result, but a method, of dialogic inquiry
Emozioni e cura di sé nel logos sokratikos. Una ricognizione a partire dai dialoghi platonici
No full textLa cura socratica di sé si configura come una cura di emozioni mediante emozioni. Le emozioni in gioco sono anzitutto quelle degli interlocutori di Socrate: in primo luogo la vanità (plemmeleia) conseguente alla loro presunzione di sapere. La cura avviene mediante un’ulteriore emozione, l’eros, che è una prerogativa di Socrate volta a rendere migliori e dunque a trasformare i suoi interlocutori
L’Elena di Zeusi: harmoghe, illusione, elezione
No full text‘Vi prego,’ disse il pittore Zeusi, ‘datemi le più belle di queste vergini, mentre dipingo il quadro che vi ho promesso, affinché la verità possa essere trasferita dall’esempio vivente al simulacro muto.’ A quel punto i Crotoniati deliberarono di riunire le vergini in un luogo e diedero al pittore la facoltà di scegliere quelle che voleva. Ma egli ne scelse cinque, i cui nomi molti poeti tramandarono ai posteri, dato che avevano superato il giudizio di colui che doveva avere un giudizio assolutamente vero sulla bellezza: e infatti non credeva di poter trovare tutto ciò che ricercava per ottenere la bellezza in un solo corpo, perché la natura non ha rifinito alcunché di semplice in un genere perfetto nelle sue parti. È come se per ogni altra cosa non avesse alcunché da elargire, poiché, avendo concesso tutto a un’unica persona, ricompensa qualche cosa con un ulteriore pregio, qualche altra con l’aggiunta di un difetto
The Present State of Socratic Studies: an Overview
No full textThis reference to the ‘historical Socrates’ has been, since Olof Gigon’s seminal book, a taboo.114 A remarkable feature of recent studies is its comeback. We find this expression in Giovanni Cerri’s account of the parallel passages on Socrates’s confrontation with contemporary physiologia; we spot it in the title of Andreas Patzer’s collection of essays, whose “aim is only one: to acquire knowledge about the historical Socrates”115. But we find it implied also in several essays of the present volume, such as those of Aldo Brancacci, Franco Trabattoni, and Michel Narcy. Recent works on the ‘way of life’ of Socrates116 seem to support this trend, as well as studies on various aspects connected with his ‘uniqueness’ and ‘outward appearance’
From Competitor to Hero: The Stoics on Socrates
No full textIt is commonly held that Zeno of Citium founded the Stoa in the wake of Socrates, and that from that point on the Stoics took themselves to be Socratics. This view gained added credence thanks to A.A. Long; forty years earlier M. Pohlenz claimed that the Stoics drew their image of Socrates from Xenophon’s writings and saw in him their spiritual ancestor. This chapter criticizes this view. Zeno did not regard himself as a Socratic, and he conceived his philosophy as an explicit alternative to Socratism. The first leaders of the Stoa followed the founder of the school. Only in the so-called Middle and Imperial Stoa did the position on Socrates change, Socrates becoming an exemplum. But this was the result of a process that cannot be projected back upon Zeno without anachronism
L’apparenza e la traccia. Ricordo di Horst Künkler (1936-2008) a dieci anni dalla scomparsa: panoramica sulla sua opera edita e inedita
Full text linkIn this paper, Alessandro Stavru provides a review of the published and unpublished work of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s favourite student, Horst Künkler (1936-2008). Künkler wrote his PhD with Gadamer and Köhler in Heidelberg in 1965, on the reception of Aristotelian mimesis in French Classicism. Under the influence of Karl Löwith, Künkler wrote important works on philosophers such as Hegel, Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida, but also on writers such as Pirandello, Molière, Kleist, and especially Paul Celan. In the 70s he moved to Naples, where he became full professor at the University “L’Orientale”. Here he taught courses on Cusanus, Leibniz, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Derrida, and Ricoeur. But he also kept working on poets and writers, i.e. 17th century French playwrights, Hölderlin, Kleist, Rilke, Kafka and Celan. Among Künkler’s most valuable unpublished works is the “Analytics of appearance”, a monograph on which he worked for three decades: here he discusses Jacques Derrida’s notion of trace, which he examines in the light of Western philosophical tradition (from Plato to Aristotle, up to Kant and Hegel, reaching until Heidegger)
Aristoxenus on Socrates
No full textIn traditional scholarship, Aristoxenus’ Life of Socrates has been considered very often as an untrustworthy testimony, as the Socrates being described seems to be at odds with what we know about him by our main sources Plato and Xenophon. Recent reassessments, however, note that Aristoxenus’ account provides a balanced picture of Socrates, which is not at odds with earlier Socratic literature. This chapter follows this more positive hypothesis. It reviews all fragments available in the extant editions of Aristoxenus’ Life of Socrates, and provides new texts not included in these collections. I show that Aristoxenus’ characterization of Socrates as an irascible, sex-driven man who eradicates his licentiousness through education is widely confirmed: not only by Aristotle and other Peripatetics, but implicitly also by Plato, Xenophon, Antisthenes, Phaedo, and other Socratics. Both the account based on Aristoxenus’ father Spintharus, who knew Socrates personally, and the report about Socrates’ youthful association with Archelaus, the historical reliability of which has been shown by recent studies, give us good reasons to claim that Aristoxenus had solid grounds for depicting Socrates the way he did
Introduction
Full text linkOrphism, way of life, dietetics and medicine, music, number and harmony, late refractions of Pythagorean beliefs and tenets – these issues can by no means be separated from each other. On the contrary, they are vitally interconnected. Most of the contributions to this volume show quite clearly the interrelationships of all of these topics. Indeed, the present collection aims to enhance the study of the many links, transfers, have emerged throughout history, from Archaic Greece to Early Modern times
- …
