This papers tries to show at first that the dualism Plutarchus attributed in the De Iside et Osiride to most ancient thinkers, mainly «presocratics», has been largely influenced by the doxographical overview given by Aristotle at the beginning of the Metaphysics, which not only assumed that Empedocles was the first to introduce principles of Good and Evil, but also compared the theory of Anaxagoras to the alleged platonic dualism of the One and the Other. If dualities are quite present and (...) important in some of the main theories of the so‑called presocratic philosophers, the question remains to determine in which cases these dualities can be compared to dualism in the sense this word has taken since Hyde. The second part of this article will thus consist to try to answer this question on the ground of three examples of thinkers for whom dualities played a crucial role : Alcmaeon, Parmenides and, chiefly, Empedocles, who had obviously linked Love and Strife to an axiological pattern in his Katharmoi. (shrink)

Alors qu’un certain scepticisme, pour ne pas dire plus, tend aujourd’hui à devenir majoritaire à l’égard du rôle de Thalès dans la naissance de la science et de la philosophie grecques, le livre de D. Panchenko s’efforce de prendre le contrepied de cette tendance. Son titre, Thalès, Les origines du raisonnement théorique et la naissance de la science, nous indique déjà la voie choisie par l’auteur. Selon la thèse introductive, Thalès aurait compté en adoptant « la procédure intellectuelle qui...

Les deux thèses principales de ce livre sont d’une part que les premiers penseurs ioniens, Anaximandre, Anaximène, Héraclite, ne furent pas des partisans du « monisme matériel », comme le voulait Aristote, d’autre part que les physiciens du ve siècle, Anaxagore et Empédocle, et dans un second temps les atomistes, loin de s’opposer à Parménide, furent en réalité ses héritiers : ils acceptèrent sa critique de la théorie du changement défendue par les premiers Ioniens (nommée par l’auteur Genera...

Annoncé depuis plus de dix ans, ce second volume des Aëtiana de J. Mansfeld et D. Runia (M&R) propose la première reconstruction de l’ouvrage doxographique d’Aétius depuis celle de Diels, limitée pour le moment au livre II. L’ouvrage est divisé en deux tomes dont le premier comporte des études générales, dues à J. Mansfeld, sur Aétius et plus généralement sur la doxographie (je n’en rendrai pas spécifiquement compte ici) ; le second a été rédigé par D. Runia. Mais les auteurs, (...) qui collaborent... (shrink)

Abstract The great german Scholar, Eduard Zeller, suggested that the reference to male and female in Parmenides B12.5-6 was probably an allusion to the physical principles of `mortal opinion': Night and Light. This suggestion has been rejected by some scholars because such an association would lead us to admit that, in B12, male was associated with Night and female with Light, a theory which would be at odds with the supposed misogyny of Greek culture. However, Parmenides' account of `mortal opinion' (...) certainly associates male with coldness and density, the attributes of Night, and female with hotness and greater rarity, the attibutes of Light. The aims of this paper are, then, first, to show that the association of female with Light and of male with Night is in fact right; and secondly to investigate the main dualistic features of Parmenides' `mortal opinion' (embryology, sleep, death, knowledge) in relation to this theme. This will lead us, finally, to focus our attention on the Proem, which introduces us to a world full of female divinities, among whom - beyond the gates of the ways of day and night - is the unnamed goddess who will initiate her young male auditor into the two `ways'. (shrink)