Teleology Without Tears: Aristotle and the Role of Mechanistic Conceptions of Organisms

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Berryman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Perceived Similarity ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
History Of

In this paper I outline a role for mechanistic conceptions of organisms in ancient Greek natural philosophy, especially the study of organisms. By ‘mechanistic conceptions’ I mean the use of ideas and techniques drawn from the field of mechanics to investigate the natural world. ‘Mechanistic conceptions’ of organisms in ancient Greek philosophy, then, are those that draw on the ancient understanding of the field called ‘mechanics’ — hê mêchanikê technê—to investigate living things, rather than those bearing some perceived similarity to modern notions of ‘the mechanical.’ I have argued elsewhere that evidence of mechanistic conceptions of the natural world can be found, not only among seventeenth and eighteenth century ‘mechanical philosophers,’ but also—albeit in vestigial form — in some ancient Greek texts. Unfortunately, these reports are slight, often by detractors of this approach, and offer only clues as to the motivational context for employing these mechanical conceptions. Here, my purpose is to suggest what role they might have played in the history of natural philosophy.

Hellenism

2019 ◽  
pp. 46-67
Author(s):  
Averil Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Greek Literature ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
Great Idea ◽  
Imperial Power ◽  
History Of

This chapter explores the persistent idea of Byzantium as a repository of Christianized Hellenism. The interpretation of Byzantium is especially fraught for Greek scholars. One of the most contentious aspects of this problem is the question of historical continuity, especially as it has been posed in relation to the modern Greek state. The idea of Constantinople/Istanbul as the capital of a modern Greek state may seem counterintuitive today. The “great idea” also conflates two conceptions of Byzantium: as the seat of Orthodoxy and as an imperial power. Yet Byzantium still occupies a privileged place in the consciousness of many Greeks. Nor is it surprising—given the role of Greek as the language of government and culture throughout the history of Byzantium, the dependence of its educational system on classical Greek literature and rhetoric, and the ambivalence of Byzantine attitudes to ancient Greek philosophy—to find that “Hellenism” is as fraught a concept within Byzantine studies as the Byzantine tradition is to Greeks today.

Feminism in Ancient Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Schultz
Keyword(s):  
Gender Discrimination ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
History Of ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
And Gender

This chapter offers an account of central issues and themes in feminist philosophical engagements with ancient Greek philosophy. It starts with an overview of the history of feminist engagements with Greek philosophers. The chapter then explores the role of women in the Pythagorean tradition, Plato’s complex treatment of women in the dialogues, Aristotle’s view of the feminine, and the role of women in later Greek philosophical traditions and ends with suggestions about the grounds for further research. Throughout the chapter, there are reflections on examples of important contributions to this scholarship. The chapter also contains discussion of the extent to which feminist work has changed or entered the mainstream of the field. It posits that ancient philosophy offers a resource for understanding the place of women in philosophy and gender discrimination in philosophy and in society.

scholarly journals EMOTION AS A FEATURE OF ARISTOTELIAN EUDAIMONIA AND AFRICAN COMMUNITARIANISM

Phronimon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-61
Author(s):  
Bernard Matolino
Keyword(s):  
African Philosophy ◽  
Interesting Aspect ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
Emotional Basis

Taking it to be the case that there are reasonable grounds to compare African communitarianism and Aristotle’s eudaimonia, or any aspect of African philosophy with some ancient Greek philosophy,1;2 I suggest that it is worthwhile to revisit an interesting aspect of interpreting Aristotelian virtue and how that sort of interpretation may rehabilitate the role of emotion in African communitarianism. There has been debate on whether Aristotle’s ethic is exclusively committed to an intellectualist version or a combination of intellectualism and emotion. There are good arguments for holding either view. The same has not quite been attempted with African communitarianism. This paper seeks to work out whether African communitarianism can be viewed on an exclusively emotional basis or a combination of emotion and intellect.

On Contents Division of Ancient Greek Philosophy

2018 ◽  
pp. 369-374
Author(s):  
Shaoyu Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Natural Science ◽  
Practical Philosophy ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Speculative Philosophy ◽  
Science Ethics ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
History Of

The history of Western philosophy usually divides the ancient Greek philosophy into three parts, namely, natural science, ethics, and logic. The author deems that the ancient Greek philosophy should be divided into two categories: speculative philosophy and practical philosophy, for which writings of Plato and Aristotle provide sufficient grounds.

The Body of Western Embodiment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Interior Space ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
The Relationship

Much of western philosophy, especially ancient Greek philosophy, addresses the problems posed by embodiment. This chapter argues that to grasp the early history of embodiment is to see the category of the body itself as historically emergent. Bruno Snell argued that Homer lacked a concept of the body (sōma), but it is the emergence of body in the fifth century BCE rather than the appearance of mind or soul that is most consequential for the shape of ancient dualisms. The body takes shape in Hippocratic medical writing as largely hidden and unconscious interior space governed by impersonal forces. But Plato’s corpus demonstrates that while Plato’s reputation as a somatophobe is well grounded and may arise in part from the way the body takes shape in medical and other physiological writing, the Dialogues represent a more complex position on the relationship between body and soul than Plato’s reputation suggests.

Robert Boyle and Subversive Religion in the Early Restoration

1974 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Robert Boyle ◽  
Free Inquiry ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
The World ◽  
Competing Ideas ◽  
Early Restoration

Boyle's natural philosophy as it evolved in the 1660s was the product in part of some competing philosophies and theologies. Since he defined his own thought in terms of these others, one of the best ways of understanding it and its origins would seem to be to study it in relation to this context of competing ideas—especially as this has never before been done for Boyle. This was no mere battle over philosophical and religious ideas; beneath the surface lay extreme ideological differences; the nature of society and government was at stake just as it was in Boyle's dialogue with the sects in the late 1640s and the 1650s. Indeed some of his opponents in the 1660s still represent positions against which he argued before the Restoration, and these are the ones I wish to consider here.In 1665 or 1666 Boyle wroteA Free Inquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature. By “the vulgarly received notion of nature” he means the conception deriving from ancient Greek philosophy, both Platonic and Aristotelian, that there is a governing agency in nature apart from God which cannot be reduced to the mechanical principles of matter and motion. This agency is called variously plastic nature, the astral spirits or the soul of the world, and as Boyle says is conceived by “the schools” as “a being that…does always that which is best.” Boyle's intention is to show that his own idea of nature is preferable to this Peripatetic and Platonic one because his goes further than its rival towards a proper understanding of the relations between Creator and creation.

scholarly journals Formation and development of the concept of "emotional intelligence": a historically conditioned philosophical analysis

2018 ◽  
pp. 36-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyudmyla Rakityanska
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
World Outlook ◽  
Primitive Society ◽  
Primitive People ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
The World ◽  
First Time

The article deals with the historically conditioned philosophical aspect of the formation and the development of the concept of «emotional intelligence» from the pre-Christian times to the Antiquity. This concept, as a complex of mental properties of an individual, was first formulated and introduced into the psychological theory by the US scholars P. Salovey and J. Mayer in 1990. However, the origins of ideas on the problem of the unity of the emotional and the rational can be found in religious and philosophical teachings. The Bible contains examples that testify to the role of intelligence in emotional self-regulation of a human being and confirm the existential, «emotional wisdom of mankind». Our research has proven that the idea of the relationship between emotions and the reason as the essential manifestations of an individual is recurrent at all stages of the history of mankind, its roots date back to the time of the primitive society. In various periods of history, that problem was interpreted differently depending on cultural-historical, religious and philosophical traditions, world outlook views regarding the role of human emotions and human reason in the cognizance of the surrounding world, the nature of their interconnection, and attributing parity or priority features to them. The mythical and pagan views of primitive people, their animistic beliefs testified to the undivided nature of their thinking, and were embodied in various visual-sensory forms of collective creativity that combined intellectual, emotional and volitional attitude to the world. As the human civilization developed and the social relationships changed, also changed mythological and philosophical views of primitive people that were opposed by the naive-spontaneous philosophical world outlook of ancient thinkers. The image and the symbol of the primitive society were supplanted by the Logos, i. e. the reason, by means of which the naive-spontaneous philosophy tried to solve world outlook problems. Still, the representatives of the Pythagorean philosophical school can claim the credit for using, for the first time, emotions as the basis for the comprehension of aesthetic phenomena. During that period, for the first time within the ancient Greek philosophy, aesthetic knowledge was formed, to which the notion of «sensuality» was central. The classical period of the ancient Greek philosophy testifies to the priority of the «rationalized world outlook» of the ancient philosophers, who approached the solution of the world outlook issues from the standpoint of reason.

Vlastos, Gregory (1907–91)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
History Of

A leading figure in the study of ancient Greek philosophy, Vlastos was a pioneer in the application to ancient philosophers of the techniques of analytic philosophy. Concentrating on figures of early Greek philosophy, he made major contributions to the understanding of the Presocratics, Socrates and Plato. He saw the Presocratics as applying ethical concepts to nature which ultimately rendered nature intelligible. He distinguished between the early dialogues of Plato, which represent the philosophy of Plato’s master Socrates – a philosophy the early Plato shared – and the middle dialogues in which Plato develops a transcendental metaphysics and rationalist epistemology to ground Socratic ethical concepts. Vlastos’s work played a major role in bringing the history of philosophy into the mainstream of philosophical research.

Simplicius (fl. first half 6th century AD)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Wildberg
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Main Principle ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
History Of

Simplicius of Cilicia, a Greek Neoplatonic philosopher and polymath, lived in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He is the author of the most learned commentaries on Aristotle produced in antiquity, works which rest upon the accumulated accomplishments of ancient Greek philosophy and science. In them he gives numerous illuminating references and explanations that not only lead to a fuller understanding of Aristotle, but also allow one to reconstruct the history of the interpretation and criticism of Aristotelian doctrines in antiquity. The main principle that guides Simplicius’ exegesis is the conviction that most Greek philosophers, including some Presocratics, can be brought into agreement with Neoplatonism. Simplicius adduces copious quotations to prove his point, thereby supplying us with substantial fragments from lost works of thinkers like Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Eudemus and the Stoics. A devout pagan, Simplicius sought to defend traditional Greek religion and philosophy against the oppressive dominance of Christianity. His commentaries have influenced the reception and interpretation of Aristotle’s philosophy ever since.

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