This book deals with some Peripatetic philosophers of the Hellenistic age who were direct and indirect pupils of Aristotle. The main focus of the book is Aristotle's school in the Hellenistic period, a subject not particularly explored by the scholars. Three main issues are addressed in the chapters of the book: the problem of knowledge, the question of time, and the doctrine of the soul. More specifically the topics addressed are: the problem of sense-perception and the method of multiple explanations (...) in the field of meteorology in Aristotle, Theophrastus and Epicurus, the epistemology of Strato, the notion of time in Eudemus and Strato, the conception of sleep in Clearchus, the doctrine of divination in Cratippus. Finally, the Appendix examines the probable influence of the physics of Strato on the medicine of Asclepiades of Bithynia. These themes are investigated by comparing the positions of the Peripatetics with Aristotle's philosophy, but above all by contextualising the doctrines of the Peripatetics within the broader framework of Hellenistic philosophies. (shrink)

This paper presents qualitative research that focus on the Reading Groups. The aim is to understand the values of reading and discussing books in group, during the months of lockdown, caused by the Covid-19 health emergency. Using written and structured interviews, we collected the experiences of 73 adult participants in Reading Group in Milan and Bergamo provinces. The results show how, even by the unusual online mode, the Reading Group was a way to defend oneself from the pain of reality, (...) a space of relationship in isolation and a possibility of self-assertion, in situation of strong limitation of individual freedom. Starting from the analysis of what happened, this study wants to outline the potential of Reading Groups as pedagogical environments to produce change. (shrink)

Belief bias is the tendency for prior beliefs to influence people's deductive reasoning in two ways: through the application of a simple belief-heuristic and through the application of more effortful reasoning for unbelievable conclusions. Previous research indicates that cognitive ability is the primary determinant of the effect of beliefs on accuracy. In the current study, we show that the mere tendency to engage analytic reasoning is responsible for the effect of cognitive ability on motivated reasoning. The implications of this finding (...) for our understanding of the impact of individual differences on belief bias are discussed. (shrink)

The focus of this paper is the analysis of the epistemological and practical role played bypathe/affections in Epicurus’ philosophy. Epicurus firstly considered the affections not as emotional/passional conditions, but as firm criteria of truth and more specifically as the third criterion of the canonic (i.e. the epistemological part of his philosophical system). In this article the critical reactions (in particular by the Peripatetic side: Aristocles of Messene) against the Epicurean position about the function of the affections will be investigated too. (...) Finally, two parts of this paper are devoted to the Cyrenaic tripartition ofpathe(in all likelihood, a subject criticized by Epicurus) and to the probable doctrinal relationship between Epicurus’patheand Aristotle’sNicomachean EthicsBook 2. (shrink)

Jane Addams ha sido considerada una de las personas más importantes e influyentes en la historia de los Estados Unidos y esta categorización, en especial para una mujer nacida en el siglo XIX, nos incita a pensar en una personalidad apasionante. Ahondar en la vida y obra de esta mujer no defrauda, aunque dificulta ofrecer una imagen completa – si eso fuese posible – de su poliédrica figura. En este artículo esbozamos algunos rasgos biográficos de Jane Addams en el contexto (...) donde desarrolla principalmente su labor – el centro social Hull House en Chicago – para detenernos en su concepción sobre la acción social de su tiempo y los presupuestos epistemológicos, éticos y políticos que fundan su trabajo social. Pretendemos abordar la faceta de Addams en tanto que trabajadora social (sólo a efectos analíticos dada la interseccionalidad de su producción) a través de algunos tópicos como el debate sobre la responsabilidad individual o social de la pobreza; Hull House como instrumento de abordaje de la cuestión social; la cooperación interclasista, el igualitarismo, y la participación de la comunidad en la resolución de sus problemas; los fundamentos empíricos y pragmáticos de su pensamiento y acción; y el carácter antiopresivo y reformista del Trabajo social que Addams focaliza en los niveles de intervención grupal y comunitaria ya que son desde los que se podrá llevar a cabo la reforma social. (shrink)

Paracelsian medicine and natural philosophy was formed during the Radical Reformation and incorporated metaphysical propositions that were incompatible with the Lutheran confession as codified in the Confessio Augustana and elaborated in the ultra-orthodox Formula of Concord. Although Paracelsian ideas and practices were endorsed by important philosophers and physicians in late-sixteenth century Denmark without raising serious alarm, the imposition of strict Lutheran orthodoxy in the Danish Church and a concomitant resurgence of Aristotelian philosophy drew attention to the religious heterodoxies inherent in (...) Paracelsianism. Unacceptable theological and religious propositions, which reached Denmark in Rosicrucian texts and were implicit in certain medical and philosophical treatises, were in many cases inseparable from core Paracelsian concepts, with the result that Danish academic philosophers, physicians, and theologians rejected Paracelsian ideas except where they could be accommodated to acceptable Galenic and Aristotelian interpretations. When this was done, such ideas are arguably no longer Paracelsian in any meaningful way. (shrink)

"Questo volume esamina la dottrina epicurea dei minimi che rappresenta un nodo cruciale della filosofia di Epicuro e un autentico punto di svolta rispetto all'atomismo di Leucippo e Democrito. Il libro è organizzato in tre capitoli dedicati rispettivamente: all'analisi filologica e teorica delle fonti primarie, alla ricostruzione del contesto storico-filosofico a cui la dottrina dei minimi verosimilmente fa riferimento, e, infine, all'approfondimento dello sviluppo della teoria dei minimi in ambito prevalentemente geometrico all'interno della scuola di Epicuro. L'esame critico delle fonti (...) antiche, anche attraverso l'attenta analisi della letteratura secondaria, conferma il ruolo decisivo giocato dai minimi nella scienza della natura epicurea. Si tratta della prima monografia interamente consacrata allo studio di questa significativa dottrina in tutta la sua ampiezza storica e teorica."--Provided by publisher. (shrink)

Cet article se concentre principalement sur Boéthos, philosophe épicurien qui a été souvent négligé : aucune source ancienne, excepté Plutarque, ne le mentionne. L’étude tente d’examiner la perspective philosophique de Boéthos et, plus particulièrement, son attitude envers la géométrie.

The present contribution focuses on two testimonia regarding Timasagoras, who is generally regarded as an Epicurean dissident: Cicero, acad. ii 25, 80 and Aet. iv 13, 6, p. 403, 22 Diels. The two passages are remarkably different and the evidence from Cicero is far more complex. The context of the passage suggests that Cicero considers Timasagoras as an ``orthodox'' Epicurean. In order to shed light on Timasagoras' philosophical stance, it is necessary to examine briefly the notion of "Epicurean dissidence''. Timasagoras' (...) position within the Epicurean tradition emerges as intrinsically ambiguous and problematic. (shrink)

According to a testimony of Sextus Empiricus's Against the Physicists, Epicurus began to study philosophy because his grammar teacher, dealing with the birth of Chaos in Hesiod's Theogony, was not able to explain what the cause and origin of Chaos were. If this evidence is reliable, the question of disorder was extremely significant for Epicurean philosophy. Usually, ancient pagan and Christian critics of materialistic philosophies accused Democritus and Epicurus of denying the power of providence. To Dante, Democritus is the philosopher (...) who 'l mondo a caso pone in the sense that, according to the Atomist, the world derives from chance.Eva Marie Noller's book—specifically devoted... (shrink)

PIERRE BOURDIEU OR A CON-ARTIST'S SOCIOLOGY It seems daring, even pretentious — and perhaps useless — to attempt to show how limited are Pierre Bourdieu's ...

This short paper is a critical note of the recent volume on the pseudo-Platonic dialogue Axiochus edited by A. Beghini ([Platone], Assioco. Saggio introduttivo, edizione critica, traduzione e commento, Baden-Baden: Academia Verlag, 2020). This scholar assumes the possibility of attributing the dialogue to Philo of Larissa or his circle. This hypothesis, although well argued in the book, faces some exegetical difficulties concerning the content of the dialogue and the hardly reconstructible philosophy of Philo himself. In this note I will critically (...) discuss the conclusions reached by Beghini in his prestigious book starting from the (alleged) sceptical vein which would be present in the pseudo-Platonic work, whose dating likely presupposes (also) the Epicurean conception of death. (shrink)

Los juegos funerales en honor de Patroclo presentan como componente estructural el catálogo de los contrincantes en tres versiones diferentes. El presente trabajo analiza el modo en que este componente estructural revela los aspectos accidentales o inexplicables de la existencia humana desde la perspectiva de la ética homérica The Funeral Games in honor of Patroclus shows the catalogue of contenders as a structural component in three different versions. The present work analyzes the way in which this structural component reveals accidentals (...) or unexplainable aspects of human life from the point of view of Homeric Ethic. (shrink)

This short note deals with an epigram preserved by the Anthologia Palatina Book IX (360) attributed to a Metrodorus whom, especially for chronological reasons, one tends to identify with the Epicurean Metrodorus of Lampsacus, at least from the Phoinix von Kolophon by Gustav Adolph Gerhard (1909). This epigram looks like a “symmetrical” polemical reply to the immediately preceding one (AP IX 359), which can be attributed (but not without difficulty) to the Hellenistic poet Posidippus. The careful historical-philosophical examination of the (...) contents of this alleged Epicurean epigram (360) leads to believe that it is basically impossible that the author is an Epicurean philosopher such as Metrodorus. (shrink)