ARTICLES
Ilia Rushkin
Independent researcher, Cambridge, MA
iliarushkin@gmail.com
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 504-511
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-504-511
Keywords: Rainbow, color, meteorology, ancient science, ancient optics, Ammianus Marcellinus, Aristotle, Seneca.
Abstract: We examine Ammianus Marcellinus' scientific digression on the rainbow, where the rainbow colors are listed in an unusual order. We suggest an explanation for the order and conclude that, according to a scientific theory current at the time, the rainbow was viewed as a three-dimensional arrangement in the sky, with colored bands positioned at different distances from the observer. This perspective aligns with the rejection of the Aristotelean rainbow theory, which is an evolution of ideas observable in its intermediate stages in Seneca’s “Natural Questions” and in the commentary on Aristotle’s “Meteorology” written by Alexander of Aphrodisias.
Vasileios Spanos
University of Western Macedonia, Greece
doriantribe@gmail.com
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 512-538
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-512-538
Keywords: Achilles, afterlife, Leuke, cult, panHellenism, deification.
Abstract. Based on approach, which stems from neoanalysis and intertextuality, the paper aims to highlight the suitability of Achilles’ afterlife place through escalation of alternatives. Beginning with the Underworld, the research goes on with the Elysian Fields, the Islands of the Blessed and Mount Olympus and ends up with Leuke Island, presenting an updated information about it, carrying out a comparative analysis and justifying it as the most appropriate afterlife place for the hero via a holistic context whose focal points are cult, caliber, mythological and symbolic reasons.
Paulo Alexandre Lima
IFILNOVA/NOVA University Lisbon
plima@fcsh.unl.pt
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 539-569
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-539-569
Keywords: Antigone, the human, the divine.
Abstract. The first stasimon of the Antigone has the second antistrophe as its key moment. If read in connection with the whole of the play, the second antistrophe points in advance to a conflict between two inadequate forms of relationship between the human and the divine as the reason for the catastrophe that befalls Thebes. It represents a microcosm of the whole play, which deals with a conflict between Antigone’s and Creon’s inadequate forms of relating to the divine. It does not refer to just one of the protagonists but to both simultaneously. By referring to what an adequate relationship between the human and the divine is and what it is not, it establishes a decisive criterion from which not only the play’s outcome but also the meaning of every human society can be assessed.
Emile Alexandrov
University of Tyumen (Russia)
Emile931@gmail.com
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 570-592
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-570-592
Keywords: Denys, Eriugena, Anselm, Aquinas, darkness, Neoplatonism, intellect, Middle Ages, beauty, non-objectifying thinking.
Abstract. This paper studies the differing approaches to pursuing God during the Middle Ages to show the latent Neoplatonism inherent to four prominent thinkers from the Early to High Middle Ages. Beginning with Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, God’s darkness is equated with an ineffable light. Pseudo-Dionysius used darkness to describe God exceeding the bounds of the intellect; a metaphor also used to illustrate the non-objectifying imperative for union with God. In union, Pseudo-Dionysius outlines an apophatic process concurrently with a ladder of ascent. Eriugena appropriates Pseudo-Dionysius’ darkness, albeit dialectically. In accepting the limitations of the intellect, Eriugena maps the boundaries of the intellect using binary oppositions between being and non-being and the created and uncreated. Eriugena concludes we can achieve union only by meditating upon God’s theophanies. By distinguishing reason from faith, we observe the turn to reason in Anselm. In signifying the start of the High Middle Ages, Anselm makes the unprecedented claim that God is proveable through reason alone, although such proof requires arduous contemplative work. Anselm nevertheless understood prayer and faith as prerequisites for pursuing God. Anselm’s view of the limitations of the intellect later becomes the backbone of his Ontological Argument, which Aquinas takes up and revises by focusing on Anselm’s definition of contemplation. For Aquinas, the non-objective vision of God, which he calls a beatific vision, is the ground for union with God. The very limitations of the intellect for Aquinas prove the need for beatific vision as the prerequisite for bridging the infinite gap between God and intellect. Throughout this investigation, we uncover the intrinsic Neoplatonism in the Middle Ages philosophers exhibited in their pursuit of God.
Junyan Song
University of Iowa (USA)
Junyan-song@uiowa.edu
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 593-606
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-593-606
Keywords: Damascius, Orphism, First Principles, the Ineffable, the One.
Abstract. This paper offers a detailed analysis of Damascius' discourse on Orphic theology in Chapter 123 of On First Principles, focusing on how Damascius correlates the first principles of Rhapsodic and Hieronyman theogonies to his own Neoplatonic first principles. Through detailed textual analysis, it presents a schematic alignment of Damascian principles with Orphic theology.
Maksim Kholod
St. Petersburg State University
m.holod@spbu.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 607-629
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-607-629
Keywords: John of Nikiu, Cambyses, Persian empire, ancient Egypt, Copts, Cambyses Romance
Abstract. The article analyses one of the stories given in the Chronicle of John of Nikiu (late 7th century AD), namely his story of the Persian king Cambyses (530–522 BC). The author shows that when John wrote it, he used a number of sources, of which only Josephus Flavius’ Antiquities of the Jews and the Old Testament, in particular the Book of Ezekiel, can be clearly recognized. It is difficult to identify exactly his other sources, however it is obvious that they were of Egyptian origin. It is likely that for his description of Cambyses’ conquest of Egypt John used three such sources that did not survive to the present time. These sources seem to have been part of the tradition that took form in Egypt not until the 3rd century AD (perhaps shortly after 451) and then became spread in this country.
Svetlana Mesyats
Institute of Philosophy RAS (Moscow)
messiats@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 630-661
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-630-661
Keywords: Aristotle, Parva naturalia, sleep and wakefulness, theory of four causes, definition of sleep, formal cause of sleep, soul and its faculties, activities involving soul and body, sense perception, material cause of sleep, hypothetical necessity, effective cause of sleep, heart, inherent heat, digestion, food evaporation.
Abstract. For more than half a century, scholars have been debating how many causes of sleep were discussed by Aristotle in the treatise On Sleep and Wakefulness (De Somno et Vigilia). Some commentators believed that Aristotle did not offer a formal explanation of sleep, others argued that sleep has no material cause, still others do not find either effective or final cause of it. The controversy is provoked by the very course of reasoning in the treatise, in the middle of which Aristotle promises to investigate all four causes of the sleep, but further on doesn’t say a word about either its form or matter. As for the efficient cause of sleep, it also remains highly controversial. Scholars disagree as to what physiological change in the animal body makes the central organ of perception incapable of perceiving – whether it is due to the heart being cooled, or warmed, or compressed by blood in a mixed condition. In the present paper I intend to propose a new interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of sleep in the light of recent discussions about the causes of sleep in Parva naturalia. To achieve this goal, I examine Aristotle’s explanatory method in the De anima, focusing on the question of whether sleep along with other living being’s activities involving soul and body (λόγοι ἔνυλοι), can be explained in terms of formal, final, material and effective causes. Particular attention is paid to the role of material and effective causes in the physiological explanation of sleep. While reconstructing Aristotle’s explanatory method I clarify the structure of the argument in the De Somno and resolve some of the problems concerning the unity of this work.
Vladimir Brovkin
Institute of Philosophy and Law SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
vbrovkin1980@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 662-680
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-662-680
Keywords: Epicurus, stoics, Peripatetics, apathy, metriopathy, fears of the forces of nature, love passion, anger, greed, joy.
Abstract. The article deals with the question of Epicurus' attitude to the passions. It is established that the doctrine of passions plays an important role in the philosophy of Epicurus. It is shown that Epicurus sees the greatest danger to peace of mind in fears of the forces of nature, in love passion and greed. Therefore, these passions must be completely eliminated. Anger, according to Epicurus, should be restrained, because in some cases it can be natural. Epicurus approves of the pleasant sadness of remembering dead friends and compassion for loved ones. Epicurus also welcomes the joy and even rejoicing associated with spiritual goods. Thus, on the question of passions, Epicurus managed to develop a position that differs from both the Stoic doctrine of dispassion (apathy) and the peripatetic doctrine of moderation in passions (metriopathy).
Igor Tantlevskij
St. Petersburg State University (Russia)
i.tantlevsky@spbu.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 681-695
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-681-695
Keywords: Qumran community, Dead Sea scrolls, Yehudah, Judeans, Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Oral Law, begetting of the Messianic world, IV Eclogue of Virgil’s “Bucolics”.
Abstract. The author attempts to identify the influence of messianic-eschatological and soteriological doctrines reflected in the Dead Sea manuscripts on the formation of Jewish identity among the members of the Qumran community. In particular, the author concludes that through identifying themselves with the true Israel, considering only themselves as the true Yehudah (sc. Judeans/Jews), worthy of salvation at the End of Days, the Qumranites approach the idea of individual election, the adherents of which later turn out to be Judeo-Christians. Particular attention is paid to analysing the allegory of the “begetting” of the new Messianic world of justice (through the naturalistic image of the birth of “miraculous” “Man”) through the pious activity of the Qumran congregants in the Judean desert (1QHa 11:7–10; cf. also 1QSa (1Q28a) 2:11–15; 4Q Commentary on Genesis A (4Q252) 5:2–5). This Qumran representation is compared to the similar eschatological allegory of the birth of miraculous “Man” who personifies the transfigured world in Eclogue IV of Virgil’s “Bucolics”. The author does not exclude the possibility that Virgil may have learnt elements of Biblical prophetic eschatology (naturally, in the formulations of ancient imagery) through Philodemus of Gadara, whose Epicurean school in Herculaneum he, judging from the papyrus P.Herc. Paris. 2, attended. Gadara was taken about 97 B.C.E. by the Judean High Priest and King Alexander Jannaeus (Antt., XIII, 356, 396; BJ, I, 87), and its population was thoroughly Judaized (cf., e.g., Antt., XIII, 396). Thus, whoever Philodemus was by ethnic origin, he must have been a Judaist already in his childhood (early youth). The books of the Prophets had been canonized and recognized as sacred in Judaism for at least a hundred years by then, they were to be read and studied, so Philodemus must have known their contents in detail. The concept of actual prophecy among the Qumranites is also analyzed against the background of the process of the formation of the Oral Law in the Pharisaic milieu. Besides, а number of additional arguments in favor of identifying the Qumran community with the Essenes described by ancient authors are presented.
Pavel Butakov
Institute of Philosophy and Law SB RAS
pavelbutakov@academ.org
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 696-708
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-696-708
Keywords: person, Tertullian, Trinity, narrative, modalism.
Abstract. Tertullian employs two distinct ways of describing the Trinity in his work Adversus Praxean: a metaphysical and a narrative description. He specifically uses the term “persona” to refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit only in the narrative description, indicating a character in the story. In a dogmatic context, he prefers the metaphysical term “gradus” instead. It was later generations of Christian theologians who transformed Tertullian’s narrative term ‘person’ into a dogmatic term. Tertullian would have objected to the formula “one God in three Persons.” Therefore, the widely held belief that he authored the formula is misleading.
Aleksey Bogomolov
Minin Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University (Minin University)
ensestens@mail.ru
Roman Svetlov
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
spatha@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 709-717
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-709-717
Keywords: non-being, other, nature of other, apophaticism, «Parmenides», hypotheses
Abstract. The article is devoted to the problem of the correlation of apophatic issues in the dialogues "Sophist" and "Parmenides". The article substantiates the position that the doctrine of non-being, presented in the Sophist, is one of the foundations of the first two hypotheses of Parmenides. An important point in the Sophist is the distinction between the other (ἕτερον) and the nature of the other (θατέρου φύσιν), which serves as a prerequisite for the dialectic of the one and many in the second hypothesis. It is suggested that the other six hypotheses are determined by the understanding of the other in the Sophist.
Oleg Donskikh
Novosibirsk State University
Novosibirsk State Technical University (Russia)
olegdonskikh@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 718-736
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-718-736
Keywords: Persian Empire, state ideology, monotheism, Zoroastrianism, social justice, moral choice.
Abstract. The Persian Empire was formed in political and cultural unity only in the 6th century BC. The article examines the position of the individual as a subject of state-legal relations in the empire, which was in a sense the successor of Media, and where, unlike, for example, Egypt, society was quite poorly structured. Cyrus II, and after him Darius I directed their policy to position everyone towards loyalty to the king, and to dissociate other possible attachments. Therefore, the position of an aristocrat in society was determined by proximity to the king, and then by merit, family, etc., accordingly, there was a constant struggle to define and maintain his place. Darius I, on the one hand, relied on already existing laws and lists of precedents dating back to the heyday of Elam and Sumer, and, on the other hand, formulated the principles of his rule on the basis of Zoroastrianism. He proclaims himself the chosen one of Ahuramazda, and asserts the principles of social justice uniform for all strata of the population. To strengthen his power, Darius I supplements Zarathushtra's peculiar monotheism with the idea of the power of a single monarch over a multitude of lands, making certain changes in the traditional images. He strengthens the image of Ahuramazda by adopting the solar symbol as his attribute and by powerfully reinforcing the Indo-Iranian concept of khvarnah (king’s luck). Through this he legitimizes his right to the loyalty of the faithful and the punishment of the unfaithful. The significance of Zoroastrianism, adopted as the official religion of the Persians, was that each person had to accept the necessity of a constant personal choice between good and evil, between two spirits - the spirit of good and the spirit of evil. Within the legal system, Persian kings made a fundamental step from the religious ethics of Zoroastrianism to politics. Lye began to be understood not as a moral category, but as a negative force, always set up to destroy the established state order. Great importance was attached to the formation of ethical consciousness in schools, where justice was taught, forcing children to get used to reflect upon their consciousness evaluating their own behavior from a moral point of view.
Mikhail Vedeshkin
The Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The School of Public Policy RANEPA
balatar@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 737-756
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-737-756
Keywords: Late Antiquity, Late Roman Empire, paganism, crypto-paganism, Christianity, cult of saints, hagiography.
Abstract. The study examines the nature of ritual practices adopted by the pagans of the late Roman Empire under the conditions of a complete legislative ban on all forms of traditional worship. Based on several reports about religious rites performed in the places, which were once occupied by pagan sanctuaries, it is argued that from the point of view of worshippers of the ancient gods the ruins and remnants of the decoration of their former shrines continued to retain religious significance even after their desacralisation. Moreover, idolaters continued to venerate the locations where the pagan cult had once taken place, even if these sites were occupied by Christian sanctuaries. Analyses of hagiographic accounts allow us to assert that pagans or crypto pagans visited Christian temples to offer prayers to the gods, and even attempted to perform ancient rituals in the sanctuaries of the new faith. Since the harsh anti-pagan legislation prevented them from revealing their motives for visiting churches, they averted suspicion of performing forbidden rites by pretending to appeal to the Christian God and His saints.
Dmitry Shcheglov
Independent researcher, St. Petersburg
shcheglov@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 757-822
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-757-822
Keywords: history of geography, ancient geography, ancient science.
Abstract. The article aims to assess the extent to which our understanding of the history of ancient geography (defined as a list of authors who contributed to it) is shaped by extant sources, and how different this history could have appeared, if we account for their limitations and selectivity? Consequently, an analysis of sources and references to authors of lost works yields divergent outcomes. Source analysis demonstrates that our knowledge of ancient geography is largely conditioned by random factors and thus must have significantly differed from its ancient perception. Conversely, citation analysis reveals that we know the majority of geographers who were famous in antiquity. This divergence can be explained, in part, by the tendency to cite the famous authors instead of those whose information was actually used. Comparing historiographic lists of geographers from different sources reveals more discrepancies than similarities between them, indicating that its version from our primary sources (Eratosthenes, Strabo, Stephanus of Byzantium) lacks widespread support. However, a consistent pattern emerges: the primary sources tend to draw upon the most famous authors and vice versa. A kind of “stress test” allows us to assess how sensitive our knowledge of the prominent geographers is to the loss of individual sources and, conversely, how many more geographers could have been included among them if better represented by sources. The overall conclusion is that alterations to our source pool would significantly impact our evaluations of most geographers but have minimal effect on their total number. Lastly, it is argued that the period in the history of geography from Strabo to Ptolemy lies in our “blind spot,” being the least illuminated by sources yet concealing some crucial missing links.
Vyacheslav G. Telminov
National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow)
telminoff@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 823-841
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-823-841
Keywords: Kang Youwei, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Memorabilia.
Abstract. The article deals with the reconstruction of the most likely touristic itinerary taken by the famous Chinese confucianist thinker Kang Youwei, based on his memoirs “Collection of travel impressions of Kang Youwei “Travel to Italy” (1904)”. Recollections of Kang Youwei are confronted with Vesuvian topographical reality. The author identifies specific buildings and structures that attracted the attention of Kang Youwei. This is the first reconstruction of the route of the famous Chinese philosopher of the early 20th century. The article is accompanied by an interactive map with pinpoints and comments, freely accessible on the Internet.
Alexander A. Sinitsyn
The Dostoevsky Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities (St Petersburg, Russia)
aa.sinizin@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 842-859
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-842-859
Keywords: Russian poet, A. S. Kushner, ancient thinkers, philosophy, Socrates, The Symposium, Diotima, death, love, Eros, irony, reception, poem analysis.
Abstract. The article examines a poem written by a contemporary Petersburg poet, Alexander Semyonovich Kushner “And what a foreign lady said…” The poet mentions the Athenian thinker Socrates and a foreign lady, never giving her name. It is clear that he speaks about the priestess Diotima of Mantinea (an ancient city in Arcadia), with whom Socrates, a character in Plato’s dialogue Symposium (Plato, Symp. 201d–212b) conversed. Why should the story of love told by the Mantinean priestess have failed to inspire the Russian poet when he read it for the second time (“this time”)? Why did Kushner think that Symposium is “less about ardour, / Than a long invocation of wits”? It is the most erotic not only in Plato’s works but also in the whole classical philosophy. Diotima praises Eros’s might and valour, she calls him a great genius, a mediator between the immortal and the mortal. Socrates’ educator in “the philosophy of love” says that love is an ascent from the contemplation of the physical beauty to the contemplation of the beauty proper (Plato, Symp. 210а–212а). What the priestess in the ancient Greek philosopher’s dialogue tells about love, virtue, aspiration to engender the beautiful and the immortal, Kushner “applies” to the experience of earthborn sentiment. In his “antiquity-oriented” poem he does not agree with the “formula of love” proposed by Diotima (Socrates = Plato). The poet seems to regard “the Diotima formula” as abstract, divorced from reality, which is more multifaceted and complicated than any theory. In this “non-platonic” work, Kushner estranges himself from Plato’s Symposium and says that love cannot comply with any “formula”.
Nikola D. Lečić
HSE University (Moscow, Russia)
nlecic@hse.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 860-887
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-860-887
Keywords. “Phaedo”, “real/true Earth”, axiology, smooth, transparent, color, sphere, dodecahedron, soul, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Early Pythagoreans.
Abstract. The article is devoted to the identification and description of a speculative innovation that was clearly formed in Plato, which we designate as “the axiology of the smooth and the rugged.” According to this speculative innovation, smoothness is seen as a sign of perfection — as understood by Plato and the philosophers who influenced him — and the opposite characteristics of smoothness, such as ruggedness or roughness, as the absence of this perfection. The “axiology of the smooth and the rugged” is first explicitly stated in the passage about the “true Earth” from the “Phaedo”, as a part of Socrates’ visualization of the afterworld awaiting philosophizing souls after death (Pl. Phaed. 110a–e). The fantastic landscape from the “Phaedo” contains descriptions of smooth, transparent and beautifully colored stones and mountains, as well as a description of the Earth as a “sphere of twelve pentagons” (dodecahedron), equally beautifully coloured. The article undertakes an analysis of all of the listed visual signs of perfection, with an emphasis on their connection with smoothness. Despite the fact that highlighting the special status of smoothness is Plato’s innovation, we present it as part of a more ancient speculative field, which include (i) the special status of the “perfectly rounded Sphere” in Parmenides, (ii) Heraclitean ontologization of precious materials (gold) and (iii) early Pythagorean ideas related to the special status of the dodecahedron. A distinction is made between this field and the ideas of Empedocles and Democritus that do not belong to it. All visual elements of the “true Earth” are presented as visual philosophy and their interpretation as “metaphors” is criticized. At the end, an outline is made of possible applications of the “axiology of smooth and rugged” in the interpretation of various phenomena in the history of philosophy and visual culture. Although there are countless interpretations of the “Phaedo”, analyzes of the visual component of the myth of the afterlife are very rare, and among them there is not a single one that draws attention to the importance of smoothness. Accordingly, our analysis is being done for the first time.
Ilya Guryanov
Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Moscow),
Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow)
ilgur@yandex.ru.
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 888-925
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-888-925
Keywords: plague, epidemics, Paracelsus, pseudo-Paracelsus, ens astralis, poison.
Abstract. The positivist-oriented historiography of medical history based on the idea of “progress” has bequeathed us with a legacy of perceiving Paracelsus as a great reformer of sixteenth-century medical theory and practice, heralding modern “science”. This model has been subjected to scathing critique by the intellectual history of medicine. Relying on historical and philological methods, this approach have illuminated the semantic gaps between “Paracelsianism” and Paracelsus' own doctrines. In consonance with intellectual history of medicine, recent years have witnessed a trend towards a more pronounced distinction between the theories of “plague” epidemics from Paracelsus' treatises and pseudo-Paracelsian works. Researchers identify three principal difficulties in reconstructing Paracelsus' medical theories: his obscure style, the “inconsistency” of ideas across treatises, and the “vagueness” of conceptual foundations. The article elucidates these problems by reconstructing key elements of the “plague” theory in Volumen medicinæ Paramirum, partially resolving them through philosophical hermeneutics. Paracelsus uses the “plague” example to expose the ignorance of medical authorities like Galen and Avicenna, while appropriating and redefining conventional medical concepts, particularly “plague” and its “causes.” His alternative theory links epidemics and diseases to five entities (entia), conceptualised within paraconsistent logic and his microcosm-macrocosm doctrine. Particular attention is paid to the concept of astral essence (ens astralis). The appendix presents a commented Russian translation of several sections of the treatise.
Daniil Dorofeev
Saint Petersburg Mining University
dorofeev61@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 926-959
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-926-959
Keywords: iconography of ancient philosophers, aesthetics of the image, Hermitage, Waldhauer O.F., ancient portrait, Socrates, Demosthenes, Cleanthes.
Abstract The article continues the author’s research on the iconography of ancient philosophers. This time attention is drawn to the ancient philosophers of the main museum of Russia, the Hermitage. The author carefully and in detail talks about how his antique collection was formed during the 18th-19th centuries, dwelling on interesting and important pages in the history of the reception of ancient culture and art in Russia (especially highlighting in this regard the purchase of the collection of the Marquis Campana in 1861). Of central importance in this story is the personality of Oscar Ferdinandovich Waldhauer (1883-1935), one of the most important figures in Russian study of ancient art and museology throughout history, who largely determined the high level of presentation and research of the Hermitage’s ancient collection. The author believes that this personality is still underestimated and seeks to emphasize his great role in the domestic and European study of ancient art, especially sculpture, in particular, portrait images of ancient philosophers. In the article, through reference to the key works of O.F. Waldhauer reveals the peculiarities of his understanding of the ancient portrait. The author explores in more detail the history, formation of the image, iconography, problems of attribution, stylistic features, analogues of the busts of Socrates and Demosthenes, together with the headless statues of an unknown philosopher and a seated philosopher that did not belong to them, but were artificially connected at the beginning of the 19th century (the separation of which was carried out just Waldhauer); statues of a seated philosopher; and a bust of a Stoic philosopher, possibly Cleanthes.
Eugene Afonasin
Saint Petersburg State University
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (Kaliningrad, Russia)
afonasin@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 960-979
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-960-979
Keywords: Jewish mystical philosophy, Kabbalah, Hermeticism, Italian Renaissance, Pico della Mirandola.
Abstract. Hermes of Pico della Mirandola has nothing in common with the hero of the treatise Asclepius and the texts of the Hermetic Corpus. Pico's gaze is directed deep into the medieval Jewish and, eventually, Arabic tradition. More precisely, through the cabbalistic works, for the first time available to the bright representative of the Italian Renaissance, there came to life the fruits of another Renaissance, the Spanish Renaissance of Alfonso X de Castilla (1252–1284), while through the “Sabian” magic Hermeticism became an integral part of Jewish mystical philosophy. According to modern studies, by this time we can speak of the beginning of the synthesis of Kabbalah and Hermeticism in mystical Jewish philosophy (Idel 2003, 395 sq.). So one can now qualify Frances Yates's (1964) famous statement that only by the efforts of Pico della Mirandola that Hermeticism was “supplemented” by Kabbalah. To what extent than one can argue that the connection between Hermeticism and Kabbalah is not accidental, but prepared by contacts between Jewish philosophy and Hermeticism at the earliest stages of their formation, perhaps as early as the Hellenistic period? Such a connection is assumed by many authors, since, from the point of view of the internal criterion, we cannot be sure that all the textual inconsistencies in the treatises of the Hermetic corpus are necessarily later interpolations, much less the interventions of the later and practically oriented astrologer, as Ch. Wildberg (2013) believes, because there is nothing in them that could not have been written by a philosopher of the Hellenistic or Roman period. It is nevertheless clear that, originally being a mystical anthropological doctrine, Hermeticism steadily moved in an astrological direction, which made it attractive to the most diverse authors from antiquity to modern times, and one of the most enigmatic and colorful philosophers of the Italian Renaissance, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, thought himself to be their successor.
Dmitri Panchenko
St Petersburg State University
Higher School of Economics (St Petersburg)
dmpanchenko@yahoo.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 980-995
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-980-995
Keywords: Cleomedes, Wang Chong, ancient astronomy, measurement of the Earth, inter-cultural contacts, Greek comedy, Aristophanes.
Abstract. In the works of Wang Chong and Cleomedes there are coinciding numerical parameters related to the determination of the size of the Earth. In Wang Chong, the numerical data appear partly arbitrary, partly insufficiently substantiated. In the corresponding passage of Cleomedes, the argument pretends to be scientific, but in fact turns out to be internally contradictory and almost illogical. Painstaking reconstruction of the reasonable core in Cleomedes’ account reveals that the numerical parameters given by him go back to a certain early system of Greek astronomy. This system assumed a flat Earth, the movement of the luminaries only above the Earth, the principle of the limited spread of sunlight; it employed the measurement of distances along the meridian based on the proportional change in the length of the shadow and the use of the archaic stadium of 100 single steps. It is about the system of Anaximenes and his followers. In Chinese material, this system is known as the gai tian, and I repeatedly argued its Greek origin. Wang Chong is also an adherent of the gai tian. All this makes it very likely – but still not proven – that the numerical parameters presented by Wang Chong came to him ultimately from Greek sources.
Timur Shchukin
The Sociological Institute of the RAS – Branch of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint Petersburg)
tim_ibif@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 996-1010
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-996-1010
Keywords: Michael Psellos, Symeon the New Theologian, love, communion with God, epistemology, deification, exegesis.
Abstract. The paper deals with the theme of love and communion with God in the writings of Michael Psellos and Symeon the New Theologian. In the first case, the material for analysis was the poetical interpretation by Michael Psellus on the Song of Songs. In the Christian tradition, the text is interpreted as a story about the mystical union of God and the soul. In the second case, the I Catechetical Discourse is analyzed, containing a detailed teaching about love as divine energy. It is concluded that Michael Psellos understands love for God and, accordingly, union with Him in a mystical marriage as a moral imitation of the human soul to God, who is genuine love and who is in the proper sense unknowable. Symeon the New Theologian, on the contrary, interprets love as something that belongs to God, but embraces both the divine and the created spheres, due to which it is possible not only to imitate an intelligent creature to the Creator, but to perceive His contemplation and ultimately union with Christ as the bodily embodiment of divine love. The difference in the ecclesiological views of the two thinkers is especially emphasized: if Michael Psellos understands the Church as a union of those who imitate Christ, then Symeon the New Theologian as a community of those who visibly see Christ and strive to unite with Him.
Konstantin Shevtsov
St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia
shvkst@list.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 1011-1027
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-1011-1027
Keywords: Plato, dialectics, myth, catastrophe, transition, dimension of space, figure of the philosopher
Abstract. Plato defines dialectics as a transition from many to one and from one to many, as well as an ascent from limited premises to a non-presupposed beginning. The problem is posed by the fact that the transition that Plato talks about is essentially a transition from the corporeal to the incorporeal and from the human to the divine. This means that we cannot have a simple method of this transition and we have to look for help in other approaches that Plato also uses. In the article, we take as the subject of analysis Plato's way of using analogy and myth. In a number of Plato's dialogues (Republic, Phaedrus), one can see an appeal to the analogy of cognition with the transition from a flat to a three-dimensional space. Mythological narratives about the catastrophe that happened to the cosmos in the past (Politician, Timaeus) allow us to assume the interaction of the cosmos with the divine space, which has a different dimension than a three-dimensional body. The image of a three-dimensional body on a plane inevitably carries a lot of contradictions that are removed in three-dimensional space, and also exactly the contradictions of the corporeal cosmos can be removed in the surrounding body of the hyperourania region, which can only be seen by the disembodied gaze of the mind. Thus, analogy and myth are not separated from dialectics, but, on the contrary, are invoked by it as a necessary complement that gives support to the mind for the transition from human knowledge to pure knowledge of things in themselves. This knowledge changes the thinker himself; the article shows how the figures of thinkers in Plato's dialogues change depending on whether he acts as a researcher or someone who has already acquired higher knowledge.
Georgy Morgunov
Novosibirsk State Technical University (Russia)
coliseygm@mail.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 1028-1045
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-1028-1045
Keywords: education, Plato, daimonion, synousia, aporia, dialogue.
Abstract. The article examines Plato's dialogue Theages. By meticulously preserving the dialogue, the author concludes that various perplexities found in other Plato dialogues, such as the Symposium and Theaetetus, can be unraveled. The interconnection between them becomes apparent in the shared interpretation of concepts like daimonion in the Theages, Eros in the Symposium, and the nameless god in the Theaetetus. This deity influences Socrates' approach to wisdom, suggesting that the pursuit of philosophy is the art of love. Synousia, defining Socrates' relationship with his students and encompassing, among other things, erotic practices, is crucial for such training. The author proposes that a careful examination of the Symposium and Theaetetus can elucidate the enigmatic fragments in the Theages, thereby acknowledging the educational and disciplinary system of antiquity reflected in these dialogues.
TRANSLATIONS
Timothey Myakin
Novosibirsk State University
miackin.timof@yandex.ru
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 1046-1058
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-1045-1046-1058
Keywords: the epithet ποικιλόθρονος in Sappho’ poetry, Sapphic’s religious community religion of archaic Lesbos, cult of the goddes Cybele in archaic Mytilene.
Abstract. This article about epithet ποικιλόθρονος exposes some new arguments in the light of the latest archaeological data, which support the latest views on the female circle of Sappho as a religious community confirmed historically. This epithet can be best understood if it is correlated with the figurines from the Temple of the Mother, whose temple in the era of Sappho was the main cult center of Mytilene (7th–6th centuries BC, cf. Rungu 2013, 138). The first part of this epithet (ποικιλό-), therefore, most likely refers to the lion figure that lies on the lap of this goddess. Cf. Bolling 1958.
REVIEWS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Oksana Egorova
oksana12egorova@gmail.com
Language: Russian
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 1059-1082
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-1059-1082
Keywords: Aristotle, classics in Russia, Russian philosophy, university journals, specialized journals.
Abstracts. In the article, using the example of thematic publications contained in large specialized and university journals published in Russia in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries, the reception of Aristotle’s heritage is studied. It is shown that during the period from 1843 to 1915 no less than 94 scientific works related to Aristotle were published. Among them are articles (series of articles), book reviews, translations of Aristotle’s treatises into Russian, and scientific presentations. Moreover, most of the publications date from the 1890s, and thematically, the largest number of works relate to “Athenian Constitution” and Aristotle’s “Politics”. The article is devoted to the analysis of these thematic publications. A “Bibliographic List” of works related to Aristotle is published in the appendix to the article.
PUBLICATIONS
Andrey Schetnikov
a.schetnikov@gmail.com
Language: English
Issue: ΣΧΟΛΗ 18.2 (2024) 1083-1104
DOI: 10.25205/1995-4328-2024-18-2-1083-1104
Keywords: Architectural ornament, Islamic geometric patterns, girih.
Abstract. Archaeological expedition of Moscow Museum of Oriental Cultures, which worked in the 1930s at the site of Old Termez, excavated the ruins of a building identified as the Palace of Termez rulers. The interior of this building was decorated with stucco slabs contained various geometric patterns, together giving a rich collection of geometric design of the pre-Mongol era. This article classifies and analyzes the entire set of these patterns, numbering about three dozen. They are compared with geometric patterns of the same era on other architectural monuments of Khorasan.
