ARTICLES
John Dillon
Trinity College (Dublin), jmdillon@eircom.net
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 321–332
Keywords: Platonic dialogues, the history of education, Plato, Iamblichus, Proclus.
Abstract. The question I wish to address on this occasion is whether the Platonic course of study retains any validity in the modern world. I shall argue that some version of it indeed might, though by no means for everybody. A course of education, after all, which begins with the rules for rational thought and argumentation, then turns to the question of the true nature of the self, followed by a consideration of the nature of ethics, politics, physics and metaphysics, should serve very well for developing well-rounded and ratio¬nal persons. I believe that the true legacy of the Platonist model of education, on which modern civilisation is progressively turning its back, is that the properly structured study of quite abstract subjects is the best training for the mind, even when the mind is turned to the solution of entirely practical problems.
Luc Brisson
CRNS – Paris, lbrisson@agalma.net
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 333–340
Keywords: Late antiquity, Neoplatonism, Plutarch of Athens, Proclus, Damascius.
Abstract. How was the Neoplatonic School of Athens able to maintain itself for more than a century at Athens, in a hostile environment, while being the target of the opposition of the Christians who were not only in the majority, but also held political power? These are the questions this text seeks to answer. Although it does not promise any earth-shaking discovery, it will try to sketch a clear and precise portrait of the Neoplatonic School of Athens on the family, political and economic level.
Miguel López-Astorga
Institute of Humanistic Studies “Juan Ignacio Molina”,
University of Talca (Chile), milopez@utalca.cl
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 341–353
Keywords. Cicero; denied conjunction; indemonstrable; mental models; Stoic logic.
Abstract. Cicero attributes an inference schema that is not logically valid to Stoic logic. This fact has been deemed as a Cicero’s mistake. However, in this paper, I assume the thesis that Cicero was not actually wrong and that, by means of his schema, he could be showing us interesting aspects of Stoicism that are not clear in the ancient sources. In this way, I use the mental models theory as a methodological tool and argue that the case of Cicero’s mistake allows us to suppose that there were six indemonstrables in Stoic logic, and not five.
José María Zamora Calvo
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, jm.zamora@uam.es
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 354–371
Keywords: Boethius, truth, modes of cognition, consolation, Neoplatonism
Abstract. Boethius does not accept the principle of realism that considers truth as the adaptation – or adequation – of the subject to the knowable object, and instead defends that knowledge should be studied by relating it to the capacity of the cognoscente subject. Thus, truth is relative to the faculty or level of knowledge in which we stand, since each faculty -each level of knowledge- has its own object: the material figure for the senses, the figure without matter for the Imagination, the universal for reason and the simple form for intelligence. But this epistemological relativism is moderate, precisely because of its hierarchical character. Therefore, although in a sense truth is manifold, the perfect truth, proper to divine knowledge, includes and surpasses all others. In order to cement the architecture of this system of relativisation of knowledge, Boethius starts from a Neoplatonic interpretation of the simile of the line of the Republic (VI.510a-b) and Plato's Timaeus, but not completely tied to it. The beings endowed with knowledge are ordered according to the Neoplatonic hierarchy of cosmic realities.
Sergey Kocherov
National Research University «Higher School of Economics» (Nizhny Novgorod)
kocherov@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 372–382
Keywords: the seven sages, the laws of Lycurgus, the community equal, edification, the Spartan ethos.
Abstract. The article assesses the role of one of the Seven Sages, Chilon, a lawgiver and a mentor of the ancient Sparta. The analysis of Chilon’s aphorisms displays that they are not just a sum of worldly wisdoms. More appropriately they may be perceived as a compendium of moral instructions that have become an integral part of the Spartan educational system. A special attention is given to deciphering the original meaning of the maxim “Know thyself” that is attributed to Chilon. The author hypothesizes that in a Spartan polis, whose citizens were used to a minimum of written laws, Chilon’s edification could serve as binding unwritten rules.
Sergey Kulikov, Viktor Lobanov
Tomsk State Pedagogical University
kulikovsb@tspu.edu.ru, danvelur@rambler.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 383–392
Keywords: theater, comedy, mimesis, ancient philosophy, reception of the ancient ideals in contemporary culture.
Abstract. In the article, we offer a model for actualization of the dialogue between the representatives of dramatic art and philosophy in Ancient Greece, having compared the notion of wisdom in Aristophanes and in Plato. In addition to his literary virtues, Aristophanes can be perceived as a philosopher of education. Extrapolation of these results on the modern situation opens prospective of dialogical ways of interactions between the representatives of different spheres of cultural life. Values on which such representatives are based can differ, but the common idea to guide the analysis remains true regardless of these differences in their viewpoints: our opponents could well proceed from opposite philosophical principles but their position cannot be treated as necessarily mistaken. It demands efforts of all the participants of the dialogue, and ancient thought seems to offer general opportunities for this, which serves as a good example of the enduring value of the ancient ideals in the history of human culture.
Valery V. Petroff
RAS Institute of Philosophy (Moscow)
campas.iph@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 393–406
Keywords: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Maximus the Confessor, natural will, selective will, choice.
Abstract. The article treats the teaching on the will and volitional act developed by a Byzantine philosopher and theologian Maximus the Confessor (c. 580-662). The concepts discussed by Maximus in relation to the stages and constituent parts of volitional act are analyzed. In the article, I show that the core of the conceptual apparatus on which Maximus, involved in the Christological polemics with the Monothelites, builds his doctrine of will, is made of the terms discussed by Aristotle in his “Nicomachean Ethics” III, 4, 1111b 4 - 7, 1113b 22, and reconstruct Maximus’ teaching concerning the natural and selective will of man.
Roman Svetlov, Elena Alymova,
St. Petersburg State University, Russia, spatha@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 407–414
Keywords: Plato's political philosophy, history of liberal ideas, economic estate in the Republic of Plato
Abstract. Many modern scholars use the terms ‘liberalism’ and ‘liberal ideas’ uncritically from a historical point of view. For example, we can assume that Plato's judgments from the Republic about the absence in Callipolis external regulations for the activities of the ‘economic class’ (425 d-e) resemble the ideas of Adam Smith's political economy. However, these judgments should not be taken as indications of the liberal spirit on the part of Plato; in fact, they are caused by the mere fact that political sphere in Callipolis was alienated from the economy. This and other examples show that one must try to take into account the real historical context of any of the judgments made by the ancients, as far as possible.
Vitaly Tselishcev
Novosibirsk State University
Institute of Philosophy and Law SB RAS (Novosibirsk), Russia, leitval@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 415–427
Keywords: Liar paradox, Godel’s theorem, explication, truth predicate, self-reference.
Abstract. The article critically analyzes the example of the incorrect application of metamathematics, in particular, Gödel's First incompleteness theorem, to the explication of the Liar Paradox by J. Barker. It is shown that an explication of this kind, doubting well known Tarki’s definition of truth, is based on the erroneous use of key Gödel constructions - substitution idea and the diagonal lemma. The criticism of the proclamation by Barker of the explication of the Liar as a mathematical theorem shows certain limitations in demonstrating the heuristic analogy between the Liar's sentence and the Godelian sentence.
Leonid Zhmud
Saint Petersburg Branch of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology RAS
l.zhmud@spbu.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 428–459
Keywords: Arithmology, number symbolism, Pythagoreanism, Neopythagoreanism, Platonism, early Academy.
Abstract. This essay considers the origins of the arithmological genre, the first specimen of which was an anonymous Neopythagorean treatise of the first century BCE. Arithmology as a special genre of philosophical writings dealing with the properties of the first ten numbers should be distinguished from number symbolism, which is a universal cultural phenomenon related to individual significant numbers (three, seven, etc.). As our analysis shows, the philosophical foundations of arithmology were laid down in the treatise of Plato’s successor Speusippus On Pythagorean Numbers, who relied on the Platonic doctrine of the ten ideal numbers, whereas in ancient Pythagoreanism arithmological notions, unlike number symbolism, are not attested. In the first century BCE, an epoch of revival of Platonism and Aristotelianism, Speusippus’ ideas received a second birth, thus marking the beginning of arithmology as a popular genre.
Igor Tantlevskij
St. Petersburg State University, Russia, tantigor@mail.wplus.net
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 460–465
Keywords: Aristotle, “Protrepticus”, “Nicomachean Ethics”, “Metaphysics”, “On the Soul”, rational “part” of the soul, immortality, blessedness, virtues.
Abstract. The author of the article seeks to demonstrate how Aristotle, having put forward in the “Protrepticus” the idea that the person's selfness is essentially identical with the rational “part” of his soul and that it is just in it and thanks to it that the man’s “blessedness”, “divinity” and “immortality” can be achieved, hereafter substantiates and develops this doctrine in his later works, primarily in the treatises “Metaphysics”, “On the Soul” and “Nicomachean Ethics”.
Maria Varlamova
Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, Russia, boat.mary@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 466–481
Keywords: Aristotle, Proclus, Philoponus, matter, ex nihilo creation.
Abstract. This paper considers a number of arguments in defense of the idea of matter's being created developed by John Philoponus in his treatise “De aeternitate mundi contra Proclum”. It is well known that the concept of matter was transformed by Philoponus as compared to the physics of Aristotle, and in the present occasion I aim to contribute to an on-going scholarly discussion on how Philoponus’ concept of matter qua three-dimensionality helped him to substantiate the idea of creation ex nihilo.
Nadezhda Volkova
RAS Institute of Philosophy (Moscow), Russia, go2nadya@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 482–492
Keywords: Aristotle, apodictic knowledge, Logic, Metaphysics, Meno’s paradox, being, substance.
Abstract. In this article, the author addresses the problems of theoretical knowledge according to Aristotle, who divided all sciences into three parts: theoretical, practical, and productive. The first among the sciences are theoretical sciences or theoretical philosophies (φιλοσοφίαι θεωρητικαί) – physics, mathematics, and theology. Each of them deals with some kind of essence or a part of being. Why Aristotle divides the philosophical disciplines that way and what guarantees the unity of philosophical knowledge? By considering first principles of apodictic knowledge, the author concludes that this is possible if one introduces another form of knowledge, which properly concerns with the first principles of being and thought.
Marina Volf
Institute of Philosophy and Law SB RAS, Novosibirsk State University, Russia, rina.volf@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 493–504
Keywords: relativism, theory of perception, homo mensura, Plato, Aristotle, Protagoras, Gorgias.
Abstract. In traditional interpretations, ancient Sophistic is labeled as relativism. According to them, Plato and Aristotle refer Protagoras' doctrine to philosophically inconsistent perceptual relativism. Plato offers two interpretations of relativism, and one of them, so called "secret doctrine" of Protagoras, is often marked as Plato’s own theory of perceptions. Despite the fact that the exoteric and esoteric versions of Protagorean doctrine contains fully valid epistemic and ontological ideas, they are attributed philosophical failure to them because of the self-refutation thesis contained in them, and, according to Aristotle's version, its subjectivism. Subjectivism can also be attributed to Gorgias with regard to his categorial distinction of abilities and objects of perception. However, criticizing subjectivism, Aristotle himself uses a similar categorial argument. Both interpretations undermined the reliance of the Sophistic, having made relativism one of the negative markers of it. Modern rehabilitating interpretations of the Sophistic either seek ways to eliminate subjectivism and skepticism from the sophistic doctrines, or avoid using modern terminology, also they should take into account that fact that in the contemporary philosophy there is no such concept as «simply relativism», but there are various, sometimes contradictory, interpretations of it, and in this case, they have to make an adjustment to the current context in which negative interpretations of relativism have long been not popular.
Igor Berestov
Institute of Philosophy and Law SB RAS, Novosibirsk State University, Russia, berestoviv@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 505–514
Keywords: Meno’s Paradox, Posterior Analytics, possibility of inquiry, search for knowledge, attitude ascription, de re, de dicto.
Abstract. In the present paper, we analyze Aristotle’s solution of Meno’s Paradox in his An. Post. I, 1.71a17–71b8, where he seeks to demonstrate that Plato’s assertion that it is impossible to search for an unknown object is false. We show that such an interpretation of Aristotle’s solution is very generous on his part. We demonstrate that the search in Aristotle’s solution is quite naturally treated as a search for an object that satisfies the search conditions and that this treating of the search in question allows to write down a formally correct notation with the epistemic operators. Nevertheless, this interpretation of Meno’s Paradox solution, despite all its merits, turns out to be defenseless against an alternative that is similar to the original paradox, to wit: if the object to be searched for is fixed, then it is meaningless to search for it; if it is not fixed, then even the realized desire to find such an object will never fix the object that satisfies the search conditions.
Vladimir Diev
Novosibirsk State University, Institute of Philosophy and Law SB RAS, Russia, diev@smile.nsu.ru
Galina Sorina
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia, gsorina@mail.ru
Irina Griftsova
Moscow Pedagogical State University, Russia, grif811l@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 515–523
Keywords: Socrates, Plato, Gorgias, Theaetetus, Aristotle, decision, conscious choice, intellectual activity, conceptualisation, question, answer, communication.
Abstract. This article analyses ancient texts to show that ancient philosophical thought was not only considering the practical variants relating to decision-making but it was also constructing a theory of decision-making. The authors propose a reconstruction of the elements of such a theory from a perspective that interprets decision-making as a kind of intellectual activity, which makes it possible to solve a problem without a developed conceptual framework for the decision-making theory (as is the case with Plato’s dialogues Gorgias, Theaetetus, and The Republic). It is suggested that the question-answer procedures used by Socrates can be be interpreted as a kind of intellectual activity aimed at decision-making. At the same time, an analysis of Aristotle’s texts shows that he discussed decision-making as a special problem on a theoretical level. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses the notion of decision-making explicitly and considers it in the context of such notions as voluntary acts and conscious choice. It is shown that today, as in Antiquity, one can come across different ideas about what decision-making is.
Anna Afonasina
Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Novosibirsk State University, Russia, afonasina@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 524–535
Keywords: Pythagoras, Pythagoreanism, Dicaearchus, epistolary genre, female letters, Theano, Plutarchus, the Cynics, Crates, Hipparchia.
Abstract. The letters of the Pythagorean women, designed to support the Pythagorean ideal of education in the context of the revived interest to Pythagoreanism around the first cent. CE and considered until the 19th century as the authentic ones, are examined in this article in the context of the rhetorical schools of Early Roman period. Putting these letters in the context of pastoral ones, we can also suggest that the Pythagorean letters were written with an ideological aim, as a counterbalance to the strengthening Christianity. I discuss the testimonies about Theano in their chronological order and question one of the conventional dating of the letters, attributed to her name. The second part from the letter Theano to Eubule is published in my translation, for the first time in the Russian language. Overall, this article is conceived as an introduction to a forthcoming commented translation of the letters of the Pythagorean women.
Aleksandr Khlebalin
Novosibirsk State University
Institute of philosophy and law SB RAS, Russia, sasha_khl@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 536–544
Keywords: Liar paradox, truth theory, diagonal argument, logical theory of truth.
Abstract. It is well known that mathematical logic helps to reveal a general scheme of self-reference for generating paradoxes, which makes it possible to present the Liar as a special case of self-reference, the analysis of which requires the involvement of the concepts of expressiveness and provability. This contemporary approach, at least partially was developed on the basis of classical solutions of the paradox, which still merit some attention. Based on a comparison of the formulations and approaches to the solution for the Liar's paradox, proposed in traditional and modern logic, in the article I seek to demonstrate differences in the role this paradox played in contemporary and classical theories of truth.
Irina Konovalova
Institute of World History RAS (Moscow), Russia, irina_konovalova@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 545–557
Keywords: geography, cartography, tradition, toponymy, al-Idrīsī.
Abstract. The article is devoted to reception of ancient toponyms and geographical images in medieval Islamic geography. This question is discussed on the example of the geographical work of al-Idrīsī (the middle of the 12th century), who widely used ancient mythopoetical and geographical images to describe the remote regions of the world. Al-Idrīsī’s report about the so called “Russian river”, the Qūqāyā mountain and the people called an-n.bāriyya, whose identification is still unclear, is considered in this paper. The analysis of the composition of the report about the Qūqāyā mountain allowed to compare it with the popular ancient image of Riphean mountains, which was closely tied to the name of the Hyperboraens and the Tanais (Don) river flowing from this mountains to the Black Sea. The correspondence between the ancient image of Riphean mountains with the Tanais river, on the one hand, and the description of the Qūqāyā mountain with the “Russian river” — on the other, was found. This led to the conclusion that ethnotoponym an-n.bāriyya was also linked to ancient geography and was a distorted Arabic version of the “Hyperboreans”. At the same time the information about the northern cities of Eastern Europe available to al-Idrīsī allowed him to fill the ancient geographical images with new data.
Pavel Butakov
Institute of Philosophy and Law SB RAS (Novosibirsk), Russia, pavelbutakov@academ.org
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 558–569
Keywords: Pantheism, Stoicism, person, personhood, personalism, anthropocentrism.
Abstract. Peter Forrest claims that his “Personal Pantheist” conception of God is in agreement with the Stoic pantheism. The traditional interpretation, however, treats the Stoic God as the non-personal universal law. I demonstrate that arguments in favor of the personal interpretation typically imply either a personalist or an anthropocentric metaphysical foundation. I also argue that the Stoics were neither personalists nor anthropocentrists, therefore those arguments should be rejected.
Eugene Afonasin
The Institute of World History (Moscow), Novosibirsk State University, Russia, afonasin@post.nsu.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 570–607
Keywords: the school of Aristotle, ancient biography, doxography, the seven sages, Pythagoras, Plato, Ancient poets.
Abstract. According to a later report (Synesius, Calvit. Enc. 22.85c, Aristotle, On philosophy, fr. 8), Aristotle thought that wise sayings are the “relics” (enkataleimmata) of the past tekhne, preserved thanks to their conciseness and cleverness when ancient civilization perished in a world cataclysm. In this respect they are valuable clues for a retrospective reconstruction of the intellectual history of Greece, and Aristotle was the first to develop in his works a sense of historical consciousness, prerequisite for such a reconstruction, although some contemporary authors would contest this view. In the paper I translate and comment selected fragments of and testimonies about Aristotle’s lost works (mostly On philosophy, On poets, and On the Pythagoreans) and observe how he used this historical observations in his philosophical treaties, having thus paved the way to a systematic historical research, conducted by the Peripatetics in a pre-established institutional framework.
Mikhail Egorochkin
RAS Institute of World History, Institute of Philosophy (Moscow)
egorochkin@torba.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 608–635
Keywords: ancient biography, the ancient biographical tradition on Aristotle, Hesychios of Miletos.
Abstract. The paper consists of two parts. The first introductory part considers all the available testimonies about life and works of Hesychios of Miletos, the Byzantine historian and encyclopaedist of the 6th cent. A.D. The Introduction also contains a brief overview of the research literature on the issue. Some new assumptions are made about the dating and the purpose of the Roman and General History attributed to Hesychios. In particular, I suggest that the History was written in the early years of the reign of Justinian I and, perhaps, was intended for the upbringing and education of Hesychios’ son John. The second part of the paper contains a translation of the biography of Aristotle, which was attributed to Hesychios by V. Rose and which is believed to be a part of his Onomatologos or Table of Eminent Writers. The main value of this Biography is an extensive list of Aristotle’s writings. The translation is annotated and accompanied by an index of correspondences between the list of Hesychios and the two other extant lists of Aristotle’s works, belonging to Diogenes Laertius and Ptolemy-al-Garib.
Irina Prolygina
Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry named after A.I. Evdokimov, prolygina99@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 636–677
Keywords: Ancient philosophy and medicine, Galen, bio-bibliography, medical training, epistemology, methodology.
Abstract. In the treatise On my own books (De libris propriis) Galen explains why there have been circulating many forgeries, entitled by his name, in the book market of Roman Empire, and gives a list of his authentic works with a short description of each of them. In his notes to his books Galen discusses the content of each book, and describes historical circumstances of its appearance, specificity of its genre and its addressee. This work contains a unique historical information on Galen’s childhood, on the two periods of his life in Rome, on the fire which took place in the Temple of Peace in Rome in 192 A.D., on the plague which burst out during the reign of Antonius Pius, and on the agonistic nature of the medical profession in Rome in the 2nd–3rd cent. C.E. Moreover this work is an important source for the history of ancient philosophy and medicine, because Galen mentions the titles and even summaries of many lost works of his own as well as of his famous predecessors and contemporaries — philosophers and physicians. In particular, he mentions two great anatomists of antiquity — Marinus and Likus. The treatise «On my own books» is one of the most frequently cited works of Galen and may serve as an introduction to his thought. The first Russian translation of this work is provided with a short introduction and detailed commentary.
Elena Sobolnikova
Russian Christian Academy of Humanities (St. Petersburg),
Tyumen Industrial University, Russia, sobolnikova@list.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 678–682
Keywords: political power, history of government, the figure of the ruler.
Abstract. Review of: S. Yu. Saprykin, I. A. Ladov, eds. Gods among men: the cult of rulers in the Hellenistic, Posthellenistic and Roman worlds. Moscow; St. Petersburg: Russian Christian Academy of Humanities, 2016.
Irina Protopopova & Alexei Garadja
The Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow), plotinus70@gmail.com, agaradja@yandex.ru
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 11.2 (2017) 683–688
Keywords: Antisthenes, the Cynics, Diogenes Laertius, Socrates, ethics, aristocracy, demos.
Abstract. Review of: Kennedy, William John, ed. (2017) Antisthenes’ Literary Fragments: Edited with Introduction, Translations, and Commentary. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney. (https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/16595/1/Kennedy_WJ_Thesis%20Final.pdf). The review deals with a thesis by William John Kennedy devoted to Antisthenes. The authors of the review are chiefly interested in the first part of the work where Kennedy is attempting to substantiate his controversial view on Antisthenes’ philosophical affiliation, asserting that he had nothing to do with the Cynics and in his ethical judgment abided by traditional tenets of Athenian aristocracy. The review is focusing on those hermeneutical devices, including rather biased translations that allow the author to come to a conclusion that breaks so starkly with the standard position in modern Classical studies.
