Special Issue
THE PERIPATETIC TRADITION
SCHOOL TRADITIONS
John Dudley
UCL (Louvain), jajdudley@yahoo.co.uk
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 7–27
Keywords: Aristotle, chance, teleology, accident, freedom, determinism, evolution, soul.
Abstract. In this article I first set out Aristotle's explanation of chance as a term that refers to an event that occurs unusually and that appears significant in the context of the human search to achieve a goal. On this basis Aristotle argues against Democritus that the order in the universe could not be due to chance. Aristotle argues that all natural beings strive for their full potential and greatest possible development, and this is their way of striving for the goodness of God. And they strive for survival and to remain in their best condition for as long as possible, and this is their way of striving for the eternity of God. Chance abnormalities occur accidentally in this process. This view of Aristotle enables us to give a much more satisfactory explanation of the evolution of species than that put forward by Darwin and Neodarwinians. In the field of ethics Aristotle argues that a certain measure of good fortune is required for happiness and even for the performance of virtuous acts. Finally, Aristotle rejects determinism and supports his belief in free choice by means of the reality of accidental occurrences and indeterminism in the field of physics.
Michiel Meeusen
King’s College London, michiel.meeusen@kcl.ac.uk
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 8–47
Keywords: Aristotle, Natural Problems, reception, Graeco-Roman Empire
Abstract. The Natural Problems, attributed to Aristotle (but probably only partially authentic), have gained much scholarly attention in the last decades, yet a systematic study of how the collection circulated in the Graeco-Roman Empire remains a blind spot in contemporary scholarship. Indeed, the Imperial Era is a seminal period for the history of the text, not just as a conduit between Aristotle and the Middle Ages – which in itself is essential for explaining the subsequent Arabic and Latin uptake of the Problems more clearly – but also for the wealth of sources and testimonies it offers about the collection’s ancient readership and concrete use. The evidence shows that the collection sparked much debate among a range of ancient philosophers, doctors, sophists and scholars, both Greeks and Romans. This paper provides a selection of readings representative of the different socio-intellectual milieus in which the Problems circulated and the different agendas that it served.
Liliana Carolina Sánchez Castro
University of São Paulo, lsanchez.castro@fuac.edu.co
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 48–62
Keywords: Harmony, Suitability, De Anima, Aristotle, John Philoponus.
Abstract. The Neoplatonic commentaries on Aristotle’s works have always been considered somehow suspicious. That is partly related to the doctrinal commitments of the commentators, partly with the hermeneutical strategies to which they seem to recur. Both of these reasons have also give place to the accusation of distortion and misunderstanding of Aristotle’s philosophy. In the following paper I want to perform an exercise of disclosing the hermeneutical procedure that one of this commentators applies to one of the passages of the first book of the De Anima. The commentator is Philoponus, the passage is the refutation of the soul-harmony theory. My aim is to show that, despite the doctrinal commitments that the commentator may have, his methodology follows Aristotelian guidelines. I hope that this could open perspectives on the value that the commentators must have as philosophers, rather than merely interpreters or paraphrasers.
Yaroslav Slinin
St. Petersburg State University, slinin@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 63–71
Keywords: Deduction, syllogism, Aristotle, Al-Farabi, scientific hypothesis, N. A. Vasiliev, K. Popper.
Abstract. The article deals with the Aristotelian doctrine of induction and its influence on the theory of induction of Al-Farabi. Inductive syllogisms of antiquity and the Middle Ages are compared with modern inferences by induction.
Igor Tantlevskij
St. Petersburg State University, Russia, tantigor@mail.wplus.net
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 72–85
Keywords: Aristotle, “Eudemian Ethics”, interpretation of EE VII, 1245b.13–14, Book of Ecclesiastes, interpretation of Eccl. 7:27, methods of cognition, method of comparison, the semantic field of the Hebrew term ḥešbôn. Abstract. The author reveals a fundamentally significant parallel in the definitions of the method of cognition through a comparison of things and essences, attested in Aristotle’s “Eudemian Ethics” (VII, 1245b.13–14) and in Ecclesiastes (Eccl. 7:27). With this particular attention is paid to the consideration of the semantic field of key terms used in the corresponding formulations. The examples of Ecclesiastes's application of the methodology of cognition developed by him demonstrate that his “pessimistic” and “skeptical” statements are only judgments with which sometimes directly opposite premises are compared in the process of his reasoning, which results in rather optimistic conclusions; so that the “inconsistency” of Ecclesiastes proves to be only seeming.
Igor Tantlevskij
St. Petersburg State University, Russia, tantigor@mail.wplus.net
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 86–89
Keywords: Aristotle, Ecclesiastes, epistemology, perception and cognition of the world, man’s soul.
Abstract. Comparing the passage of Aristotle’s treatise De anima, III, 8, 431b.21-432a.2 and Ecclesiastes 3: 10-11, the author reveals a similar epistemological image: the universe is in the soul of the cognizing subject, for it embraces all existing things in the process of perception and cognition of the world.
Vsevolod Ladov
Tomsk State University, Tomsk Scientific Center SB RAS, ladov@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 90–98
Keywords: Protagoras, Plato, Aristotle, truth, relativism, idea, Third Man Argument, Russell, paradox.
Abstract. The phenomenon of self-reference combines self-refutation (the principle of peritrope) in the case of Plato’s critics of Protagoras in “Theaetetus” and self-predication in the case of a difficulty which Plato himself faces developing the theory of ideas in “Parmenides”. The author of the article asserts that self-predication does not produce a negative impact on Plato’s metaphysics and in no way destroys the integrality of Plato’s philosophy: It is logically correct as are both his criticism of Protagoras’ relativism (by means of the principle of peritrope) and the theory of ideas (in which the phenomenon of self-predication is also proposed).
Artem Iunusov
Institute of philosophy RAS (Moscow),
Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, forty-two@mail.ru
A review of: David Bronstein. Aristotle on Knowledge and Learning: The Posterior
Analytics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 99–107
Key words: review, David Bronstein, Aristotle, Posterior Analytics.
Abstract. The present article is a review of the recent comprehensive study of the doctrines of Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics. I outline the ideas used by D. Bronstein in his interpretation of the Posterior Analytics, inspecting, at the same time, soundness of some of these ideas. Among other points, I show that Bronstein's conception of two models of demonstration is not really supported by the text of the Posterior Analytics and that the set of "ingredients" of demonstrative science offered by him cannot be correct, since it is at odds with the examples of the arrangement of demonstrations offered by Aristotle himself.
Vitaly Ogleznev
Tomsk State University, ogleznev82@mail.ru
Valeriy Surovtsev
Tomsk State University, surovtsev1964@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 108–121
Keywords: Aristotle, definitio per genus proximum et differentiam specificam, legal language, analytical jurisprudence.
Abstract: The article is concerned with the general characteristics of Aristotle’s theory of a genus-differentia definition. The authors examine the validity of the definitions in the framework of legal language and present some objections against the definitions of per genus proximum et differentia specificam as they are considered by Aristotle. At the same time, through the objections to the position of genus-differentia definition critics, it is proved that in a number of cases Aristotle’s theory is more preferable than the approach offered by Herbert Hart, the proponent of analytical legal philosophy. The argument of Peter Hacker is used to reinstate Aristotle’s genus-differentia definitions.
Timothey Myakin
Novosibirsk State University, miackin.timof@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 122–136
Keywords: Poetic quotations in Aristotle's "Rhetoric"; Sappho and Aristotle; mysteries of Artemis in Mytilene; Pythias and Aristotle in Mytilene.
Abstract: In the article, I prove that the dialogical ritual obscene songs, in which Sappho “scolds” (elenchei) Gorgo and Andromeda, are the closest parallel to Aristotle's poetic dialogue of Sappho with Alcaeus (cf. Sapph. Frr. 68(a), 70, 145, 99(a) etc. Campbell; cf. Max Tyr., 18. 9 (p. 230s.) Hobein). Also I prove that this poetic dialogue was most likely included in the text of the “Rhetoric” in mid-340s., when Aristotle and his young wife Pythias were living in Mytilene. Aristotelian verb tetimekasin indicates that, even in his time, these Sapphic dialogical songs had traditionally been performed in Mytilene during religious festivals (cf. SEG XV, 517, 16–19; Schol. In Pind. Nem. II, schol. 1c, 8 etc.). It becomes clear that Aristotle, while quoting this dialogue of Sappho with Alcaeus, seeks to “elevate” Sappho over the obscene songs of the Mytilenean ritual chorus, leaving all the responsibility for aischrologia entirely with Alcaeus (cf. Arist. Pol. 1336b4–7).
Nadezhda Volkova
RAS Institute of Philosophy (Moscow), go2nadya@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 137–146
Keywords: being, substance, kind, species, synonym, homonym.
Abstract. The main subject of the study is the criticism of Aristotelian categorical system proposed by Plotinus. Treatises VI 1-3 focus on the problem of the possibility of thought within particular system of categories (Plato, Aristotle, Stoics). Plotinus identifies categories with the kinds of being, being based on the tradition of such identification originated in the Plato’s “Sophist”. In some texts Aristotle himself speaks of categories as the kinds of being (An. Post. 88b 1, Metaph. 1024b 9-16, De An. 402a 23-5). The article is divided into two main parts. The first part is about Aristotle’s position. I discuss the following questions: 1) what does the common name “being” mean; 2) why may the categories be the kinds of being and why should the substance be the first among the categories; 3) how are the substance and other categories related? The second part is about Plotinus’ criticism. Plotinus asserts 1) that not the substance, but being is the subject matter of the first philosophy, 2) that ten categories are not equally applicable to the intelligible world and to the world of sense, and 3) that the substance has two different meanings with respect to these worlds, and therefore the substance can’t be one kind, which includes the corporeal and incorporeal substances.
Andrey Shcheglov
I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University), staropomor@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 147–166
Keywords: Apodictic method, formal logical structure, logic, logical presuppositions, disjunction, conjunctions, contrarian opposition, counter-opposition contrast, categories, truth, falsity, sensory experience, the structure of the human body.
Abstract. The article is devoted to the analysis of the evident scientific method of Galen, which establishes the necessity of correct diagnosis of diseases, determination of true symptoms and causes of diseases, which results in the choice of the exact method of treatment. The article focuses on how Galen seeks to achieve reliable knowledge based on an undeniable logical necessity. Logical reliability is contrasted with “dialectical”, that is, probabilistic judgments, often leading to the opposite of what was originally asserted in them. Probabilistic judgments were characteristic of the Stoic philosophical school, with which Galen hotly argues, asserting his understanding of truth. Truth, in his opinion, is achieved through facts based on true premises. The criterion of truth for Galen is the study of the device of a living organism, and the logical conclusions depend on the accuracy of knowledge of human anatomy. Thus, the nature of the proof judgments of Galen depends on their practical content and not on the formal and logical structure offered by the Stoics when studying the functions of the human body, which ultimately leads to incorrect methods of treatment.
Maria Solopova
Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow)
msolopova@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 167–181
Keywords: Aristotle, Parva naturalia, biology, soul, philosophical psychology, life, death, middle, heart, vital heat, connate pneuma.
Abstract. The article deals with some textual issues related with Aristotle’s treatise “On Youth and Old Age, Life and Death (De juventute et senectute et vita et morte). This text is conventionally included in the so-called “small scientific works” (Parva naturalia). In the article I considers the title variants testified in the sources as well as the place the treatise occupies within the set of Aristotle’s scientific works. I trace the parallels of this treatise with another Aristotle’s works, such as “De longitudine et brevitate vitae” and “De anima”. The treatise is further compared with Aristotle’s works on physics and biology, esp. “De partibus animalium”, “De motu animalium”, “De generatione animalium”. I discuss the concept of life, functions of the vegetative soul, its “medial” location, and Aristotle’s definition of the soul’s and body’s «midpoint» in respect to the «upward» and «downward» directions. For understanding the meaning of the term «innate natural heat» it is proposed to compare it with the terminology of such Aristotelian works as “De motu animalium” and “De generatione animalium”.
Eugene Afonasin
Tomsk State University, Novosibirsk State University, Russia, afonasin@post.nsu.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 182–206
Keywords: the school of Aristotle, pneuma, vital spirit, Empedocles, physiology, breath.
Abstract. The Peripatetic treatise Peri pneumatos has recently received a great deal of scholarly attention. Some authors, predominantly A. Bos and R. Ferwerda (2008), try to prove that the treatise is a genuine work of Aristotle and all the theories advanced in the text can be ultimately explained by references to this or that Aristotelian doctrine. Quite on the contrary, P. Gregoric, O. Lewis and M. Kuhar (2015) are firmly convinced that the treatise contains some physiological ideas introduced after Aristotle and are inclined to support the traditional dating of the treatise to the time after Praxagoras of Cos (ci. 300 BCE). Largely in agreement with the latter proposition, in the present study I tentatively place this earliest and unique witness of the discussions on the source of growth and nourishment of the so-called connate pneuma in the context of the Peripatetic tradition of the Early Hellenistic period. The treatise is translated into the Russian for the first time.
Oleg Donskikh
Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management, olegdonskikh@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 207–219
Keywords: Aristotle, integrity of knowledge, wonder, oral communication, knowledge as value, ‘theoretical way of life’.
Abstract. In the article, I discuss the significance of the Aristotle’s approach to education. Four aspects of his approach are of special importance: 1. the integrity of knowledge, 2. wonder as the beginning of knowledge, 3. oral communication as a specific way of accessing knowledge and operating with it, 4. knowledge as a necessary element of way of life. While nowadays the individuality is the primary value, and the accessibility of information is becoming almost absolute, these points of the Aristotle’s way of teaching are becoming crucial. Taking the Aristotelian approach to teaching as a model we observe the following significant changes: information is becoming structured only if it is well organized, the ability to wonder develops the ability to ask questions correctly and to have answers which are valued and well memorized, oral communication trains memory and involves pupils into the dialogue with teacher, and knowledge itself is taken as a necessary element of the ethical way of life rather than just as additional bit of information.
Victoria Pichugina
Institute for Strategy of Education Development of the Russian Academy of Education
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 220–242
Keywords: Seneca, Medea, hierarchy of man’s virtues in Roman drama.
Abstract. Seneca’s tragedy is considered from the point of view of the intertextual relations with other Greek and Roman literary works, connected with the Corinthian history about Jason and Medea. Seneca represents a special view of the hierarchy of male virtues: Jason is a husband, a father and a mentor. The rage of Medea is ‘legalized,’ the reaction of Jason is depicted in the Stoic terms. The main characters of the tragedy are represented by the Roman writer in a pedagogical rather than a heroic posture: the adults seek to educate each other in the process of their conflict over custody of their children.
Oleg Bazaluk
Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky Hryhoriy Skovoroda State Pedagogical University (Kyiv)
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 243–258
Keywords: paideia, Plato, Isocrates, education, Ancient Greece, Middle Ages, Augustine, Socrates, Origen
Abstract. In the article, the author asserts that the transition of world history from Ancient Greece to the Middle Ages is connected precisely with the changed understanding and evaluation of the fundamental meanings of Being, but not with their replacement. The ancient paideia with all its achievements and peculiarities did not disappear in the history of culture. It transformed into the “paideia of Christ,” in which the second birth took place. After reviving in the new socio-cultural reality, Greek paideia retained its fundamental meanings, which continued to be expounded through the conceptual apparatus of Christian theology in the theories of education in the Middle Ages.
Mikhail A. Vedeshkin
Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration,
balatar@mail.ru
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 259–275
Key worlds: Late Antiquity, bureaucracy, clergy, corruption, paganism, suffragium.
Abstract: The article discusses the corruption of the state administration and clergy as one of the factors of persistence of paganism in Later Roman Empire. The spread of the practice of bribing state officials and clergymen by pagans, coming from different social strata of the Late Roman Society is demonstrated by various examples. It is suggested that this phenomenon was a result of the spread of suffragium.
Anna Afonasina
Tomsk State University, Novosibirsk State University, Russia, afonasina@gmail.com
A commented translation into the Russian
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 276–286
Key words: Pseudopythagorica, Pythagorean letters, ancient education, upbringing, women’s education, family life, ancient medicine.
Abstract. Two letters of the “Pythagorean” women Melissa and Myia, addressed to their female friends, are translated into the Russian for the first time. In the introduction, the reader will find background information about the origin of the letters, their textual tradition, their discovery in the beginning of the 19th century, and, finally, the formation of a critical approach to them in the context of the emerging studies of so-called Pseudopythagorica. In the complementary notes to the text, I am placing the letters in the context of an appropriate philosophical tradition and making some textual observations. The translation of these two letters is a part of the research project called on to open a much-neglected page in the history of philosophy, and to show that ignoring secondary sources can often lead to a serious narrow-mindedness in our understanding of ancient philosophical tradition.
Marina Volf
Institute of philosophy and law SB RAS
Tomsk State University, Russia, rina.volf@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 12.1 (2018) 287–296
Keywords: Education in Greece, rhetoric, schools, the sophists, teaching manuals.
Abstract. The Sophistry, not a school in any ordinary sense, set new pedagogical standards in Greek educational practice, being as it were the highest stage of educational system. Two innovations of the sophistic education are of special interest: first, its professionalism, which presupposes a systematic transfer of specialized knowledge and includes such forms of “in-calls” learning as lectures and discussion in small groups and, second, the appearance of special rhetorical handbook or written manuals (technai), actively used in the class.
