ΣΧΟΛΗ
Ancient Philosophy
and the Classical Tradition

A Journal of the Centre for Ancient Philosophy
and the Classical Tradition

ISSN 1995-4328 (Print) ISSN 1995-4336 (Online)

ARTICLES

John Dillon
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 11-20
Keywords: monism, dualism, Old Academy, Middle Platonism
Abstract. John Dillon (Trinity College, Dublin) argues that the Platonism that Plotinus inherits – setting aside Ammonius Saccas, of whom we know all too little – is by the later second century distinctly dualist in tendency, and is able, especially in the case of Plutarch, to quote Plato to its purpose. Plato himself, though, as the author maintains, is, despite appearances to the contrary, what one might term a ‘modified monist’. That is to say, he fully recognizes the degree of imperfection and evil in the world, and holds it to be ineradicable, but he does not in the last resort believe in a positive countervailing force to the Good or the One. What we have is simply a negative force, whether Indefinite Dyad, disorderly World-Soul, or Receptacle, which is an inevitable condition of their being a world at all, but which, as a side-effect of introducing diversity, generates various sorts of imperfection. It is this scenario that justifies his follower Hermodorus in declaring that Plato recognizes only a single first principle, and it to this sort of monism – if anything, in a more pronounced form – that Plotinus returns. The article is published in its English version in Vol. I, issue 1 (cf. above).

Eugene Orlov
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 21-49
Keywords: epistemology, syllogism, definition, induction, deduction, semantics
Abstract. Eugene V. Orlov of the Institute of philosophy and law, Novosibirsk, discusses the basic elements of analysis in Aristotle, including the stages of scientific inquiry, the composition of a valid syllogisms, and applying universal knowledge thus gained to particular inferences.

Ludmila Sychova
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 50-54
Keywords: Ancient theories of literature, their formation; literary criticism; social practice
Abstract. Ludmila S. Sychova of Novosibirsk State University considers the earliest ancient theories of literature, esp. these by Plato and Aristotle, in the framework of the sociology of sciences. She argues that these theories initiated the process of accumulation of knowledge and shows how they have considerably changed the character of all consequent artistic creativity and literary activity.

Andrey Shetnikov
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 55-74
Keywords: Ancient mathematics, Plato's unwritten doctrine, Old Academy, Eratosthenes, Platonism, Nicomachus, ideal number
Abstract. Andrej I. Schetnikov (ΣΙΓΜΑ: The Centre for Educational Projects, Novosibirsk), on the basis of testimonies by Nicomachus of Gerasa, Theon of Smyrna and other later authors, reconstructs an algorithm of developing all the numerals (provisionally called the ‘algorithm of Nicomachus’) and demonstrates how this algorithm could be found in the background of the so-called Plato’s ideal numbers. Besides, he suggests that the Platonicus by Erathosthenes, preserved in a fragmentary form by Theon, could be used as a supplementary source for reconstructing the content of the famous lecture of Plato On the Good.

Vladimir Itkin
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 149-159
Keywords: Corpus Dionysiacum, Dionysius the Areopagite, Church Slavonic literary tradition, eschatology
Abstract. An article by Vladimir Itkin (a former curator of the Department of Manuscripts, State Public Library in Science and Technology, Novosibirsk) on a fragment of the Dionysian corpus, “A vision of St. Carpus about two sinners”, transmitted independently in the Russian literary tradition.  

Panos Eliopoulos
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 160-169
Key words: ethics, axiology, happiness, Cappadocian theology, Existentialism
Abstract. P. Eliopoulos (Tripoli, Greece) compares the attitudes to happiness taken by two Christian philosophers, separated by a very wide margin of space and time, Gregory of Nyssa and Søren Kierkegaard.

TRANSLATION

Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 75-89
An annotated translation of the Manual of Harmonics by Nicomachus of Gerasa (the first century A. D.), prepared by Andrej Schetnikov (ΣΙΓΜΑ: The Centre for Educational Projects, Novosibirsk), supplements his recent translation of the Introduction to Arithmetic by this famous Neopythagorean philosopher. This short treatise, important for the history of ancient mathematics and musical theory, is completely translated into Russian for the first time. The author thanks Ludmila Alexandrova and Timothy Myakin (Novosibirsk University) for sending his unpublished translation of the Manual, which has proven to be very helpful.


REVIEWS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Eugene Afonasin
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 90-98
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 99-115
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 116-123
Two bibliographic summaries are dedicated, respectively, to the Dionysian corpus and the classical tradition and Dionysius the Areopagite in the context of Byzantine–Slavonic literary relations. The former outline is in Russian and it will be continued in the next issue (this time focused in the Christian sources of Pseudo-Dionysius), while the latter is prepared in English, since no detailed outline of this subject is available in English so far. 

The origins and nature of Gnosticism: A discussion
Eugene Afonasin
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 125-132
Alexey Kamenskikh
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 133-138
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 2.1 (2008) 138-148
A discussion on the origins and nature of Gnosticism, conducted in the framework of the interdisciplinary seminar “Teaching Classics. Fundamental Values in the Changing World” in August 2007. In the second century A.D. the Mediterranean world underwent a profound change in ethical attitude towards the kosmos and human society, and the change is especially well reflected in one of the most controversial intellectual movement of the Late Antiquity, the so-called Gnostic tradition. Although attempts to draw a coherent picture of Gnosis which have been undertaken so far have yielded no satisfactory result, the basic patterns of thought, commonly labeled as ‘Gnostic’, are reasonably well known. Taken in the broadest sense of the word, Gnosticism is a specific world attitude. In the framework of Judeo-Christian world-view the Gnostics contemplated the world affairs from a global prospective, put them in the context of world history and developed a specific form of eschatology. The discussion opens with a paper by Eugene Afonasin. The author undertakes to interpret selected historical evidence, which can throw the light upon the development of this quite diverse and controversial tradition, including a passage from the Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria (Strom. III 29, 1–2 St), which, surprisingly enough, was not previously treated in this context. The round table continues with a presentation by Alexey Kamenskikh on the Evangelium Veritatis and a general discussion.

ΣΧΟΛΗ, Vol. 2, Issue 1, complete text

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