Schole. Философское антиковедение и классическая традиция @classics-nsu-schole
Статьи журнала - Schole. Философское антиковедение и классическая традиция
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Статья научная
The author reveals the following sequence in the formation of the Jewish doctrine of the bodily resurrection of the dead: during the Babylonian captivity of the Judaeans, a naturalistic allegory of their revival upon their expected return to their Motherland arises (Ezek. 37:1-14, Isa. 26:19, 41:14); by the end of the period of exile / at the very beginning of the Persian period, the personified image of the people’s rising from the dead is developing (the allegory of the Servant of the Lord in Isa. 42:1-9, 49: 1-7, 50:4-9, 52:13-53:12; perhaps also the image of Job, cf. especially: Job 19:25-27a and 42:5, 7-17). In the time of another national catastrophe - the persecution of the faithful Jews under Antiochus IV Epiphanes - the concept of an individual eschatological resurrection in the flesh arises; at this receiving of the afterlife requital is assumed to be realized in the body (Dan. 12:1b-3, 13).
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The Book epigrams on Prometheus, ascribed to John Tzetzes
Статья научная
This article presents the Byzantine book of epigrams on Prometheus, found at the end of Prometheus Bound in a considerable part of Aeschylean manuscripts. It offers a critical edition, translation, analysis, commentary, and demonstrates John Tzetzes’ authorship. The detailed reading of the text aims at showing the presence of theatrical effects which characterise these poems, as well as illustrating the author’s poetic technique and interpreting his reproach to Aeschylus. By doing so we will touch upon broader issues, such as the interpretation of Prometheus from a Byzantine perspective and the authorship of the A-commentary on Aeschylus, the most popular among mediaeval students.
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The Early Stoa on Two Kinds of “Pleasure”
Статья научная
In this paper, I want to offer a detailed justification of the thesis that the early Stoics made a significant distinction between two types of hedone (i.e. “pleasure”), namely, physical pleasure and pleasurable emotion, despite using the same term for both. To this end, I first summarize the arguments in favour of this thesis that have already been presented in scholarly literature: emotion is a mental activity, while physical pleasure is one of the possible objects of this activity; the opposite of pleasure as an emotion is lype (“distress”), whereas the opposite of physical pleasure is ponos (“pain”); emotion is a moral evil, whereas physical pleasure is an indifferent. I then offer further arguments to demonstrate that, in early Stoic thought, physical pleasure should be understood as a bodily affection rather than a mental activity. Finally, I analyze and criticize the views of those scholars who argue that the early Stoics regarded physical pleasure either as a mental activity or as a component of emotion.
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Статья научная
The paper deals with the topic of secrecy of the philosophical message in the VII Letter of Plato. The theme suggests spiritual contexts close to the Greek Mysteries, because the secrecy was one of the key elements of Greek Mysteries, especially Eleusinian and Orphic ones, which played a special role in the formation of Greek philosophy.
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Статья научная
The theological contribution of Leontius of Byzantium played a crucial role in adapting the notions of substance and hypostasis from their original Trinitarian to a Christological context. The Leontian concepts, such as enhypostasized substance, distinction between the principle of substance and mode of existence, as well as “relational” ontology of reversed unions and distinctions at the levels of substances and hypostases was adopted by Maximus the Confessor and John of Damascus in their polemical application of Neo-Chalcedonian Christology, as well as the by the Iconophiles of the Second Iconoclasm in support of the circumscribability of Christ.
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The Tombs of the Patriarchs in Hebron: A Herodian Heroon-Temenos
Статья научная
Researchers estimated that the complex built above the Cave of the Patriarchs was built by Herod. A new carbon-14 date reinforces this opinion. The complex was built over a cave, seemingly a natural karst void, possibly modified by humans, traditionally associated with the burial Cave, where Judaism's Patriarchs and Matriarchs are interred - defining the compound as a Heroon, enclosed by a "temenos". A concealed burial loculus meant for a single ossuary was discovered in the system below the floor of the temenos. Considering all the data, we would like to suggest that the Heroon-temenos was built at the beginning of Herod's reign and the individual burial loculus was set apart for Herod himself before he opted for burial in Herodium.
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The anthropological model in the Platonic dialogue Charmides
Статья научная
In this study we investigate the extract 154b8-156c9 from the introductory chapters of the Platonic dialogue Charmides so that to examine how the terms of Aesthetics are formed, which focuses on the selfhood and makes it the core of dialectics. Specifically, we structure our study in two chapters each of which includes two subchapters. In the first subchapter we focus on the soul, which in the Platonic text appears to be the criterion for moral perfectness. In the second subchapter, which systematizes the former, we show how Socrates contrives to do the transition from subjective judgments to logical propositions and the terms of the authentic Aesthetics. In the third subchapter, paying attention to the first communication between Socrates and Charmides, we discuss how the Athenian philosopher sets beauty within its true boundaries and activates the logical part of the soul. In the fourth subchapter, we follow the introduction in dialectics, which will lead anyone involved in truth. The main contribution of our study is that we show how in this dialogue Plato succeeds to go from vulgar hedonism to the beauty of the soul, which is a requirement for the inner transformation of selfhood.
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Статья научная
The theories accounting for cognition based on formal schemata often claim that there is a logic in the human mind. From the thesis on the river given by Heraclitus of Ephesus, in this paper, it is argued that, if that logic exists, it cannot be simple, and that, at a minimum, it requires the assumption of some kind of temporal elements, which, in general, seem not to be considered in such theories. In particular, some reflections about possible ways those elements could be taken into account are presented.
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The beauty of the world in Plato’s "Timaeus"
Статья научная
In the Timaeus Plato describes the world as the ‘most beautiful’ ( kallistos, 29a5) of generated things. Perhaps indeed this is the first systematic description of the beauty of the world. It is, at any rate, one of the most influential statements of the theme. The Stoics were deeply convinced by it and later, in the third century A.D., at a time when contempt and hate for the world were propagated by Gnostic movements, Plotinus, interpreting the Timaeus, would write magnificent passages on the beauty and value of the world. But what does Plato mean by the ‘beauty’ of the world? What makes the world beautiful? In this paper these questions are approached first (1) by a brief discussion of the distinction which Plato appears to make in the Timaeus between beauty and the good. In one passage ( Tim. 87c) ‘measure’ seems to relate to this distinction. It is suitable then (2) to look at a section of another late work of Plato, the Philebus, where the themes of beauty, goodness and measure may be compared in more detail. The theme of measure then takes us back (3) to the Timaeus, in order to examine the role played by measure, in particular mathematical measure, in constituting the beauty of the world. I discuss in detail the way in which mathematical structures make for the beauty of soul and body in the living whole that is the world.
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The cosmography and cosmology of Wang Chong in the light of Greek and Latin parallels
Статья научная
In his extensive work, the Lunheng Wang Chong (27–ca. 102) repeatedly criticizes the views of certain literati. We consider the possibility that some of the views of both the literati and the critic go back to Greek scientific and philosophical traditions. Various statements in the Lunheng have clear analogies in Greek and Latin texts. For instance, to illustrate the contrary motion of the sun and moon relative to the fixed stars Wang Chong compares their movement to that of ants crawling on a rolling mill-stone. The same comparison appears in Vitruvius and a number of Greek writers. There was an early Greek theory of Air that knows everything everywhere; Wang Chong cites precisely the same idea in respect to qi, barely distinguishable from air in the context. Wang Chong knows the extravagant Chinese theory that involves seasonal rise and fall of the sun attached to heaven. However, if the sun is not attached to heaven the corresponding theory turns ingenious. Precisely such a version of the theory is attested for Anaximenes whose views display many links with the views that circulated in China. Moreover, Wang Chong holds the same basic cosmographic views as Anaximenes. Wang Chong has a correct idea of the distance between the observer and the horizon, but this normally requires knowledge of the radius of the spherical earth, which suggests the Greek origin of the numerical data available to Wang Chong.
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The dialogue on Aristotle categories by porphyry as a platonic dialogue
Статья научная
The paper focuses on interactive dialogue-form strategies in the framework of the late antique Greek and early Byzantine logical traditions. The dialogue by Porphyry On Aristotle Categories is a perfect example of the Neoplatonic approach to build logic in a Plato style. The main protagonistresses of the dialogue are The Question and The Answer, who act as collocutors do in traditional Platonic dialogues. It is proposed to consider the dialogue in the context of three perspectives: in accordance with the tradition of the Platonic dialogue; in the light of Aristotle's education system; in its relation to the late antique and medieval Greek logical dialogue experiments.
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The discussion of human nature in the 5th and 4th centuries bce in the so-called sophistic movement
Статья научная
The paper discusses the debate on the human nature in the sophistic thought. Focusing on the "nature - culture" controversy it presents the evolution of the views of the sophists: from Protagoras’ optimistic contention of the progress of mankind and his appraisal of culture to its criticism and the radical turn to nature in Antiphon, Hippias, Trasymachos, and Callicles. The paper aims at presenting the analysis of the ongoing discussion, with the stress laid on reconstruction of the arguments and concepts as well as the attitudes that are associated with various positions of this debate.
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The houses of philosophical schools in Athens
Статья научная
In the first and second parts of the article we look at two archaeological sites excavated in the center of Athens, a building, located on the Southern slope of the Acropolis and now buried under the Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, known as House Chi, or the “House of Proclus”, and Houses A, B and C at the slope of the Areopagus overlooking the Athenian Agora. We outline and illustrate the basic finds and reexamine the principal arguments in favor of identifying these constructions as the houses of philosophical schools and, in the third part of the paper, offer a remark on religious practice in the Neoplatonic school.
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The human and the divine in the first stasimon of Sophocles’ Antigone
Статья научная
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.
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The model of holy sovereign in encomia of Eusebius of Caesarea
Статья научная
The article examines the hagiographic model of a Holy Emperor, formed by Eusebius of Caesarea in his later encomiastic speeches “In Praise of Constantine”, “On Christ’s Sepulchre”, and in the laudatory biographical work “Life of Constantine”. In contrast with the literal, rhetorical and political interpretation of Eusebius’ concept of Holy Emperor, the author takes a new approach to the symbolism of the figure of Emperor Constantine. The article’s task is to reveal and trace the image of Constantine as a working “symbolical mechanism”, associating profound religious and philosophical concepts, such as the relationship between eternity and history. The investigation highlights the originality of Eusebius’ symbolical thinking, which, in contrast to the ancient traditions and customs, provides the Christian-philosophical view of the problem related to preserving the examples of holiness in the memory of descendants. It is this that consists of the tasks of hagiography. The proposed model of a Holy Emperor is based on two main components: the ruler as a sacred image, and the ruler as a subject of sacred history. Eusebius finds the sacred image in the very soul of Emperor Constantine, which reflects the eternal ideas and is likened to the Word of God. In the light of the sacred history, the Basileus acts as an “interpreter” of the Word of God, revealing it in his politics, the understanding of divine providence and his place in it. The Christian emperor opens the logos-like principle in people through his deeds, transferring it from the intelligible realm to the empirical sphere that is the sphere of history.
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The neoplatonic pursuit of God in the Middle Ages
Статья научная
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.
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Статья научная
In this paper, I argue against Jack Visnjic’s claim (in his recent book “The Invention of Duty”) that the Stoic term καθῆκον conveys the idea of moral duty. First, I examine Visnjic’s explicit argumentation and find it inconclusive. Then, I provide additional objections based on the evidence which Visnjic, in my opinion, either underestimates or completely disregards. Basically, I believe that at least the early Stoics regarded καθήκοντα as morally neutral activities that can become both morally right and wrong depending on the agent’s motivation.
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The ordinal numbers in Hesiod's myth of the races
Статья научная
To understand the meaning and function of the ordinal numbers in the myth of the races it is essential to have a full grasp of how the myth is composed and its structure is supposed to be perceived by a listener or reader. There is a general silence among Hesiod scholars about the meaning and function of the ordinal numbers in the myth. A tacit agreement may be inferred from such a silence: the ordinal numbers are implicitly taken to merely express the chronological order of the races. In this article, we examine each and every one of the ordinal numbers that appear in Hesiod’s myth. We demonstrate that the ordinal numbers preserve their hierarchical dimension even in the cases in which this appears to be less convincing.
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The origins of Platonists' dogmatism
Статья научная
John Dillon (Trinity College, Dublin) again turns to the problem of the origins of platonic dogmatism in the Ancient Academy. See also Rus. trans. his books The heirs of Plato (St. Petersburg, 2003) and the Middle Platonists (St. Petersburg, 2001). School controversy and rivalry between schools, initially between the Academy and Peripat, and then between Platonists, Stoics and Aristotelians, led to the fact that Platonism eventually became more formal than it was at the time of Plato, with Xenocrates primarily responsible for this development, which, in a number of treatises of a general and a private nature, laid the foundation for a new integral doctrine. It can not be asserted that the Platonists were inclined to monolithic orthodoxy. The teachings of Plato did not seem to them as something that came from above. Most likely, the school was a self-regulating system in which everyone as a whole understood what it meant to be a Platonist (and later a Pythagorean) and, from his point of view, passionately polemicized both with his colleagues and with representatives of other schools.
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The philosophical initiation in Plato's Phaedrus
Статья научная
The article deals with the topic of "initiations" in Plato's Phaedrus. The idea of initiation was characteristic of Greek mysteries, especially the Eleusinian and Orphic mysteries, which played a large role in the formation of Greek philosophy. The essence of initiations was the experience of divinity. The motive of initiations in Plato's Phaedrus seems to have a similar meaning. This is also suggested by the allegory of human souls as chariots and the mystical “epopteia” motif woven into it, suggesting Eleusinian analogies.
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