The history of Pythagoreanism is littered with different and incompatible interpretations. This observation directs this book towards a fundamentally historiographical rather than philological approach, setting out to reconstruct the way in which the tradition established Pythagoreanism s image.".
La Ley de la Mujer discutida en el libro V de la República, conocida como la primera ola, es un ejemplo notorio de la intención reformista de Sócrates de lograr justicia en la pólis. La legislación de la mujer, en general, históricamente ha sido relegada por los intérpretes de la República. El objeto del artículo es analizar este pasaje, del 449a al 457c, a través de los argumentos propuestos por Sócrates al considerarlos cruciales para concebir la igualdad entre los sexos (...) y favorecer el cambio institucional según su naturaleza, katà phýsin, dejando espacio para que las mujeres gobiernen la pólis. Antes de partir hacia el enfrentamiento externo, Sócrates considera urgente que sus interlocutores, Adimanto, Glaucón y Polemarco, estén de acuerdo entre ellos. Así, los insta a iniciar la discusión cuestionando la naturaleza humana de la mujer y su capacidad para las mismas funciones que desempeñan los hombres en la ciudad. El examen de lo inteligible permitió que el lógos sobre la capacidad intelectual de las mujeres respaldara una legislación adecuada. Este nómos puesto en práctica demuestra ser lo mejor para la ciudad y sus guardianes. En esa medida, Sócrates puede concluir dicha investigación con un consenso sobre qué hacer y la voluntad de confrontar urgentemente las opiniones opuestas en la ciudad. (shrink)
No mês de Novembro de 2017, em ocasião do Dia Mundial da Filosofia da UNESCO, a Cátedra UNESCO Archai, do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Metafísica da Universidade de Brasilia, organizou um hangout Unesco sobre o tema Filosofia, gênero e feminismo, do qual participaram diversxs colegas brasileirxs, especialistas do tema, acima assinadxs. A gravação integral do hangout está disponível aqui: https://youtu.be/LH5LwTegGG4. Segue abaixo uma transcrição, revista e adaptada pelxs autorxs.
A presente obra é o resultado de dois seminários de pesquisa que reuniram a Cátedra UNESCO Archai da Universidade de Brasília, o Centro de Estudos Clássicos e Humanísticos da Universidade de Coimbra e o Grupo Filosofia Antiga da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais em dezembro de 2011 em Brasília e em março de 2012 na antiga cidade de Eleia, com o objetivo de realizar uma estudo exploratório tendo em vista a preparação de uma nova edição em língua portuguesa da obra (...) "Vidas e Doutrinas dos Filósofos Ilustres" de Diógenes Laércio. O estudo preparatório resultou nesta coleção de ensaios inéditos e ricos de estímulos e sugestões para a compreensão, imediatamente, da obra de Diógenes Laércio. O volume traz para o debate um panorama de questões sobre a obra e a sua recepção, assim como estudos mais específicos dedicados a uma passagem ou a uma das biografias, desejando desta forma constituir-se num trabalho de referência para os pesquisadores de Diógenes Laércio em língua portuguesa. (shrink)
The significance of Plato s literary style to the content of his ideas isone of the central problems in the study of Plato. Thisvolume presents some of the most recent scholarshipon the wide range of issues related to Plato s dialogue form. The essaysaddress general questions concerning Plato s literary style, the relation of his style to other genres and traditions in Ancient Greece, and Plato s characters and his purpose in using them. ".
The significance of Plato’s literary style to the content of his ideas is perhaps one of the central problems in the study of Plato and Ancient Philosophy as a whole. As Samuel Scolnicov points out in this collection, many other philosophers have employed literary techniques to express their ideas, just as many literary authors have exemplified philosophical ideas in their narratives, but for no other philosopher does the mode of expression play such a vital role in their thought as it (...) does for Plato. And yet, even after two thousand years there is still no consensus about why Plato expresses his ideas in this distinctive style. Selected from the first Latin American Area meeting of the International Plato Society in Brazil in 2012, the following collection of essays presents some of the most recent scholarship from around the world on the wide range of issues related to Plato’s dialogue form. The essays can be divided into three categories. The first addresses general questions concerning Plato’s literary style. The second concerns the relation of his style to other genres and traditions in Ancient Greece. And the third examines Plato’s characters and his purpose in using them. (shrink)
In Plato’s Symposium eros and paideia draw the fabric of dramatic and rhetorical speeches and, especially, the picture of the relation between Socrates and Alcibiades. This paper will focus, firstly, on two important facts, which are essential for the correct understanding of the dialogue, both of which appear at the beginning. First, it is said that Socrates, Alcibiades and the others were present at the famous banquet, and second, that the banquet and the erotic speeches of the participants were so (...) celebrated as to attract the attention for several decades to come. So, the memory of that symposium is thus the memory, far beyond the other symposiasts, and through the erotic speeches, of something precise: that is, a particularly significant relationship, that between Socrates and Alcibiades. What matters most for the aim of this paper is the fact that Alcibiades is considered one of the major reasons for the defeat of Athens and the main cause of the crisis into which the city was plunged during the last years of 5th century BC. Due to the distrust of the city towards the groups of ‘philosophers’ that remitted to Alcibiades’ group, it is no surprise that the so-called Socratics committed themselves to refuting the accusation of Socrates having been Alcibiades’ mentor, to the point of reversing the charge. In the same way as the others Plato, also a Socratic, concerns himself with what might be called the ‘Alcibiades’ Connection’. Realizing there obviously was no way to deny the deep connection between Socrates and Alcibiades, he uses a clever dramatic construction with the intention of operating a political intervention upon the memory of this relationship, that is, of rewriting history, with the intent of relieving him of a more precise charge, which must have especially weighed upon Plato andupon Socrates’ memory: of him having been Alcibiades’ lover/mentor. This Platonic apology is based, ultimately, in a clever rhetorical strategy, which emphasizes the now traditional sexual paranomia of Alcibiades, in order tomake him guilty of an attempted excessive and outrageous seduction not only of Socrates, but of the polis itself. Reusing comic and oratorical/rhetorical motifs of his time, therefore, Plato deepens the J’accuse against Alcibiades, trying to withdraw him from the orbit of Socrates and the Socratics. (shrink)
The paper deals with the "deuteros plous", literally ‘the second voyage’, proverbially ‘the next best way’, discussed in Plato’s "Phaedo", the key passage being Phd. 99e4–100a3. The second voyage refers to what Plato’s Socrates calls his “flight into the logoi”. Elaborating on the subject, the author first (I) provides a non-standard interpretation of the passage in question, and then (II) outlines the philosophical problem that it seems to imply, and, finally, (III) tries to apply this philosophical problem to the "ultimate (...) final proof" of immortality and to draw an analogy with the ontological argument for the existence of God, as proposed by Descartes in his 5th "Meditation". The main points are as follows: (a) the “flight into the logoi” can have two different interpretations, a common one and an astonishing one, and (b) there is a structural analogy between Descartes’s ontological argument for the existence of God in his 5th "Meditation" and the "ultimate final proof" for the immortality of the soul in the "Phaedo". (shrink)
Resumo: Propõe-se uma leitura de três episódios da Odisseia, nos quais há o uso de um phármakon. São Helena, Circe e Hermes as personagens que administram as phármaka. Trata-se de leitura: 1) vinculada a um projeto: o levantamento e a interpretação de discursos que se distanciem e/ou questionem a perspectiva da “guerra às drogas”, algo como um projeto de extração de elementos textuais que possam servir como ferramentas teóricas, na construção de uma perspectiva menos mortífera em relação às substâncias; 2) (...) guiada por três princípios, os quais podem ser ditos anticoloniais e antirracistas. Leitura centrada no phármakon, mas que o articula à comida floral dos lotófagos e à relação de xenía; dela, apresenta-se a proposta segundo a qual, no texto homérico, há a valorização de algo que pode ser chamado de multivalência.: The aim of this paper is to analyze three episodes of the Odyssey in which a pharmakon is used. Helen, Circe and Hermes are the characters that administer the pharmaka. This analysis is linked to a project - the survey of discourses that distance themselves and/or question the perspective of the “war on drugs”, a project that aims to extract textual elements that can serve as tools of thought in the construction of a less deadly path in relation to substances - and guided by three principles - which can be called anti-colonial and anti-racist. From this focus, centered on the pharmakon, also articulating it to the floral food of the lotophagi and the relationship of xenia, a thesis is put forward according to which, in the Homeric texts, one can find something that can be called multivalence. (shrink)
The aim of this article is to set forth conjectures that are likely to explain the inclusion of Plato and Hermes as heralds of Mani in the testimony of Ephrem of Syria. This incorporation should be set against the background of the Syrian religious milieu, which was influenced by both Hellenistic philosophy and Eastern religious traditions. Therefore, it would be better to seek a religious and philosophical environment wherein Plato and Hermes were associated. Keywords: Manichaeism, apocalypticism, theurgy, hermetism, Merkabah mysticism, (...) late platonism. (shrink)
This article proposes to address the relationship between philosophy and politics through the 5th-4th Century's intellectual debate on ethics and politics in Athens. A debate which takes place in the wake of the rise of a new individuality, marked by the discovery of the tragicity of the soul. What stands out in this debate is the redefinition of a philopolitical stand in all its historical ambiguity and ethical idealism. Aristophanes, Thucydides, Euripides, Gorgias and, obviously, Plato himself are striving to define (...) the possibility of the encounter between philosophy and the city, public and private, justice and interests, individual and community. The Platonic solution for the problem reveals complexity and articulation typical of his thought: the philosopher that shelters himself from the storm behind an academic wall is the same who "in order for himself not to seem nothing but words" sails towards the uncertain Syracusan project. (shrink)
Desde a Magna Grécia de Pitágoras, Empédocles e Parmênides, passando pelas relações “perigosas” entre a sabedoria nascente e as tradições órfico-dionisíacas, em nítida continuidade com a mitologia arcaica e as narrativas teogônicas, dialogando com as práticas médicas asclepíades, a filosofia antiga visita cavernas. A caverna da República, uma das mais poderosas e fecundas alegorias do pensamento ocidental, é simultaneamente herdeira e ponto de fuga da longa trajetória dessa metáfora. Não se pretende aqui, no entanto, compreender a imagem platônica como a (...) consumação de uma velha tradição filosófica que “pensa em cavernas”; procura-se, antes, iluminar essa alegoria com a interpretação oferecida pela filosofia acadêmica posterior. No Antro das Ninfas, Porfírio parte de 11 versos de Homero para habilmente desenhar uma exegese inspirada na teoria platônica da alma. A lectio porfiriana permite sugerir que a imagem da caverna revela algo mais que uma simples alegoria literária. Ela dá prova da existência de relações dialógicas e circulares entre a filosofia platônica e o imaginário religioso popular do mundo antigo. (shrink)