Special Issue
THE NATURAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES IN ANTIQUITY
Dmitry Shcheglov
Saint Petersburg Branch of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology, shcheglov@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 9–23, ill.
Keywords: ancient geography, Claudius Ptolemy, geographical longitude.
Abstract. It is well known that all longitudes in Ptolemy’s Geography are cumulatively overestimated, so that his map is excessively stretched from west to east as compared with the modern map. In recent years, a number of scholars have suggested that this stretching can be explained as a result of the change in the value of the Earth’s circumference from a larger one proposed by Eratosthenes to a lesser one by Posidonius. As a result, all distances converted from linear units to angular became overestimated. This explanation has a necessary presupposition that the error in longitude on Ptolemy’s map grows linearly. This article argues that the error in longitude on Ptolemy’s map varies considerably depending on longitude, latitude and region. In particular, it grows most slowly in the Eastern Mediterranean, which is probably due to the fact that this region was the center of the ancient world. Therefore, the error in longitude on Ptolemy’s map cannot be explained by one universal reason, but only by a combination of different factors.
Andrey Sсhetnikov
“Faraday”, Ltd., Novosibirsk, Russia, schetnikov@ngs.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 24–34, ill.
Keywords: ancient and medieval geography, maps, cartography.
Abstract. The survey is devoted to the history of European portolan sea charts, mapping the Mediterranean and adjusting Atlantic coasts. I discuss the techniques of their initial charting and subsequent refinement and coping and conclude that the first center for systematic mapping of the Mediterranean was Genoa.
Irina Melik-Gaykazyan, melik-irina@yandex.ru
Tamara Mescheryakova, mes-tamara@yandex.ru
Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Siberian State Medical University, Russia.
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 35–44.
Keywords: Ancient medicine, The Hippocratic Oath, prejudices, bioethics, paternalism.
Abstract. The Hippocratic Oath enjoys imperishable value in the western traditions of medicine. In modern culture, its postulates have frequently been interpreted as the foundations for the principles of bioethics and a basis of paternalistic practice, typical for modern medicine and opposite to bioethics. According to the authors of this contribution the semantics of the Hippocratic Oath underwent a serious transformation in the course of centuries, while contemporary bioethics revives its archaic pragmatics.
Natalia Koptseva, Ksenia Reznikova & Irina Dobryaeva
Siberian Federal University, Russia, decanka@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 45–55.
Keywords: Galen, Chrysippus, scientific method, anatomy, soul, heart, brain.
Abstract. In this article, based on the second book of Galen’s De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis, we analyze scientific method of the famous anatomist and philosopher. We discuss experimental, logical and philosophical argumentation that Galen employs in his proof that the rational part of the soul situated in human brain. We study his polemics with Chrysippus, who declares that the rational part of the soul is located in the heart, and conclude that the treatise by Galen sets the standards of scientific studies in antiquity, which combines medical, philosophical and moral components.
Eugene Afonasin
Tomsk State University, Novosibirsk State University, Russia, afonasin@gmail.com
Language: Russian, translated from the Ancient Greek
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 56–72
Keywords: Ancient medicine, Galen, empiricism, dogmatism, Methodism.
Abstract. A short polemical treatise of Galen, dedicated to the nature of medical knowledge, is now translated from the Greek into Russian for the first time. Galen outlines the position of two opposing camps in the Hellenistic medicine, the Rationalists and the Empiricists. The dispute culminates with the appearance of the third camp, the so-called Methodists, who claim to have found a position immune to criticism from the both sides. The majority of counterarguments of Galen are directed against this school. The translation is supplemented with an introduction, notes, and bibliography.
Maria Varlamova
Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, Russia, boat.mary@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 73–80
Keywords: Ancient science, Aristotle, Physics, dynamic, energy conservation.
Abstract: This article questions the correlation between the first mover, the Heavens and subcelestial beings in Aristotle. It shows that Aristotle considers the first mover to be not only the principle of the celestial movement, but also the cause of the movement for every material being in the Universe. Since the movement brings about the interaction between the beings, the first mover – insofar as it causes the movement in the Universe – should be regarded as the principle of order in the Universe.
Sergey Kulikov
Tomsk State Pedagogical University, kulikovsb@tspu.edu.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 81–92
Keywords: Plato, Timaeus, natural philosophy, Demiurge, Universe, visible, invisible.
Abstract. The article defends the thesis that interpreting Plato’s natural philosophy it is useful to take the terms horatos and aoratos in two distinct meanings: “observable” and “unobservable” (i. e. “present” or “absent”, “assumed” or “not assumed” by the observer), and “visible” and “invisible” (i. e. “available” or “non-available” in the process of seeing). This approach helps to perceive new sides of Plato’s ideas, implicitly present in the “Timaeus”, which allows interpreting it in both anthropomorphic and anti-anthropomorphic senses.
Eugene Afonasin & Anna Afonasina
Tomsk State University, Novosibirsk State University, Institute of philosophy and law, Novosibirsk, Russia
afonasin@gmail.com; afonasina@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 93–104
Keywords: Ancient medicine, Alexandrian school, pulse diagnostics, measuring, musical intervals, harmony.
Abstract. The first detailed study of the pulse (sphygmology) is associated in antiquity with Herophilus (the end of the 4th century BCE), an Alexandrian physician, renowned for his anatomical discoveries. The scholars also attribute to him a discovery of a portable and adjustable water-clock, used for measuring ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ pulse and, accordingly, temperature of the patient. In the article we translate the principal ancient evidences and comment upon them. We study both the practical aspects of ancient sphygmology and the theoretical speculations associated with it. Ancient theory of proportion and musical harmony allowed to build a classification of the pulses, but the medical experience did not fit well in the Procrustean bed of this rather simple theory.
Michael Chase
CNRS, Paris, goya@vjf.cnrs.fr
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 105–118
Keywords: Florensky, Einstein, Plato, Goethe, relativity, philosophy of time.
Abstract. An investigation of the views on space and time of the Russian polymath Pavel Florensky (1882-1937). After a brief account of his life, I study Florensky’s conception of time in The Meaning of Idealism (1914), where he first confronts Einstein’s theory of special relativity, comparing it to Plato’s metaphor of the Cave and Goethe’s myth of the Mothers. Later, in his Analysis of spatiality and time, Florensky speaks of a person’s biography as a four-dimensional unity, in which the temporal coordinate is examined in sections. In On the Imaginaries in Geometry (1922), Florensky argues that the speed of light is not, as in Relativity, an absolute speed limit in the universe. When bodies approach and then surpass the speed of light, they are transformed into unextended, eternal Platonic forms. Beyond this point, time runs in reverse, effects precede their causes, and efficient causality is transformed into final or teleological causality, a concept on which Florensky elaborates in his Iconostasis. Florensky thus transformed the findings of Einsteinian relativity in order to make room for Plato’s intelligible Ideas, the Aristotelian distinction between a changing realm of earth and the immutable realm of the heavens, and the notion of teleology or final causation. His notion that man can approximate God’s vision of past, present and future all at once, as if from above, is reminiscent of Boethius’ ideas.
Petr Mikhaylov
St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, Russia, locuspetri@rambler.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 119–136
Keywords: temporality, problem of time, theology of time, definitions of time, time and eternity, Heraclitus, Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor.
Abstract. In the article a problem of time is posed as an object of Christian theological reflection developed in a complicated interweaving of philosophical, cultural and religious traditions of the Mediterranean civilization. A typology of the problem is established by a correlation of the category of time with different aspects of temporality – with eternity in Antiquity, with future in Modernity and with present in the thought of different authors belonging to different epochs. The most representative thinkers of Christian metaphysic, viewed against this background, are Gregory of Nyssa (the 4th c.) and Maximus the Confessor (the 7th c.). The former has successfully reinterpreted time as being-to-salvation rather than being-to-destruction. Gregory solves the problem of time by introducing an original concept of a dynamical static, or a statical dynamic, using the principle of epektasis as a general tool. In that case, time becomes a kind of spiritual practice. Maximus resolves the problem in a more traditional manner. He speaks about an overcoming of time in the perspective of divine eternity; Gregory on the contrary presupposes its transfiguration. Thereby Christian metaphysic offers a number of possibilities for a theological solution of the eternal question about time.
Igor R. Tantlevskij
St. Petersburg State University, Russia, tantigor@mail.wplus.net
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 137–141
Keywords: Aristotle, Maimonides, Spinoza, immortal/eternal “part”/“share”/“portion” of man’s soul/mind, “share in the World-to-Come”.
Abstract. The author compares the ideas of Aristotle and Spinoza on the «immortality»/«eternity» of the wise one’s “mind”/“soul”, not excluding the Stagirite’s immediate influence on Spinoza in this aspect. The paper also deals with the possible influence of the rab¬binic doctrine of one’s “share in the World-to-Come” in its Maimonides’ interpretation on Spinoza’s teaching concerning the eternal “part” of the wise one’s soul.
Daniil Dorofeev
National Mineral Resources University (University of Mines), St Petersburg, Russia, dandorof@rambler.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 142–156
Keywords: plastic and narrative, the visual and acoustic images in ancient art, physiognomic, iconography, anthropology, aesthetics of a human image.
Abstract. The acoustic and visual understanding of man is a hotly debated issue in contemporary culture. I found it important therefore to look at certain historical, cultural, aesthetical, philosophical and anthropological peculiarities of human image in Antiquity as reflected in the arts. The following aspects deserve special attention: the visualization of sense and values; the interaction of “ethos” (character) and “soma” (body); the influence of the plastic images on the narrative ones; a normative typology of man; the significance of visual and acoustic perception. In this context, I studied ancient physiognomic; Aristotelian understanding of the acoustic and plastic arts; genesis, evolution and significance of the sculptural portrait image of man and the image of philosopher in Antiquity. I also pay attention to some methodological aspects of the study. As a result, there emerges an integral image of philosopher, which allows looking at the Greek culture from a fresh angle.
Valeriy Savchuk
Saint-Petersburg State University, vvs1771@rambler.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 157–168
Keywords: sculptural portrait, image of the philosopher, photographs of sculpture, representation, iconography, iconology, analytics of visual image.
Abstract. The article outlines the research in the area that has just started to take shape nowadays, namely the study of visual images of ancient philosophers, and identifies the ways in which we can clarify the role played by images of ancient philosophers, including the ones produced during their lifetime and the later replicas. I highlight the problem of how the image of particular philosopher might influence reception of his thought and rise the following: could the portraits of a philosopher act like an obstacle for pondering the originality of his ideas? Is there a historical correlation between evolution of a philosopher’s visual image and the changes in perception of his thought? What were the stages of mythologizing certain philosopher? I conclude that portraits of philosophers possess intrinsic language and additional resource for comprehending philosophy of ancient thinkers. Implicit substitution of tridimensional sculptural image for flat photographic one is another important topic of the present article. Two basic interpretations of portraits are distinguished: the first one takes place at the moment of the portrait’s creating, the second – in the process of taking a photograph of the said portrait thus transmitting it into flat image. Eliminating some implicit assumptions allows us to improve methodological base for research on the philosopher’s images. I conclude that portraits of the philosophers shall not be perceived as mere illustration for verbal descriptions, but as important and valuable sources on their own right.
Roman Svetlov
St. Petersburg State University, Russia, spatha@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 169–184
Keywords: Ancient iconography, prosopography of philosophers, ancient philosophical text and classical theater.
Abstract. The paper aims to consider the physiognomy of some ancient images of Socrates in the context of their biographical, mythological, theatrical and value aspects. The duality of image (a satyr or a silenus) and the inner nature of Socrates was important for his biographers, and for the artists who have created portraits of the philosopher. This duality radically enhances the philosophical and moral preaching, makes it more effective. Also, it offers new possibilities for Plato’s dialogues reading. Some elements of the Satyr drama are discernable in Plato’s dialogues. The image of Socrates therefore correlates with the genre of the philosophical writings of Plato.
Anna Afonasina
Tomsk State University, Novosibirsk State University, Russia, afonasina@gmail.com
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 185–192
Keywords: the images of philosopher, Pythagoras, plastic art, schools in antiquity, Asclepius.
Abstract. Describing Pythagoras’ activities in Croton Iamblichus summarizes the content of his public speeches addressed to young men, to the Thousand who governed the city, as well as children and women of Croton. The earliest evidences about the Pythagoras’ speeches, available to us are found in an Athenian rhetorician and a pupil of Socrates Antisthenes (450–370 BCE), the historians Dicearchus and Timaeus, and Isocrates. In the present paper I consider the content of the Pythagoras’ speeches, preserved by Iamblichus, in more details, in order to suggest a new interpretation of the famous grave relief from the Antikensammlung, Berlin (Sk 1462). The relief, found in an “Olive grove on the road to Eleusis” and dated to the first century BCE, presents an image of a sitting half-naked bearded man with a young man, also half-naked, standing behind his chair, and a group of peoples consisting of a child, an older man and a woman, standing in front of him. Our attention attracts a big and clear image of the letter ‘Psi’ above the scene. The comparison of the content of Pythagoras’ speeches with the picture given on the relief allows us to interpret the image as following: we suggest that the sitting man, undoubtedly a philosopher, could be a Pythagorean or Pythagoras himself; he is attended by his pupil and gives speeches to different groups of peoples, symbolically represented as a young man, a public agent, a woman and a child. Admittedly, the letter ‘Psi’ symbolizes the Pythagorean teaching about psyche (the soul), and the relief itself, contrary to general opinion, was initially designed to adorn a school or a private building rather than a funeral monument. An alternative interpretation suggested is that the sitting figure could be a wandering physician.
Sergey Avanesov
Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Russia, iskiteam@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 9.1 (2015) 193–210
Keywords: ontology, Ancient philosophy, Heraclitus, philosophical optics, visible and invisible, harmony of implicit and explicit.
Abstract. This article starts to explore the problem of the mutual relations of “visible” and “what it is”. Ontology, which is nicknamed “classical”, tends to deny the “visible” as a “false-existing”. The source of this ontology is usually found in ancient philosophy. The author starts studying this problem based on Heraclitus. Heraclitus had initially seen the “visible” and “invisible” as two sides of the cosmic continuum. One cognates the reality by means of physical sight. But a prerequisite for real knowledge is a sort of ascent from the explicit attunement (harmony) to the implicit one. The latter somehow embraces the former, and, although only vision of the universal signifies real wisdom, Heraclitus does not proclaim himself an enemy of the visible and does not declare the visible untrue. Vision “deceives” until the soul have reached an appropriate orderly state, when ‘explicit’ is found in a coordination with ‘implicit’, and a logos becomes visible to his eyes. This asymmetrical harmony of the visible by eyes and the visible by mind (soul) is, according to Heraclitus, the essence of all things as a whole, a genuine subject of ontological knowledge.
