Proclus of Lycia was one of the greatest philosophers of antiquity, producing the most systematic version of late Neoplatonic thought. He exercised enormous influence on Byzantine, medieval, Renaissance and German Classical philosophy, ranking among the top five of ancient philosophers in terms of the number of preserved works. Despite this he is rarely studied now, the enormous intricacy of his system making the reading of his treatises difficult for beginners. This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to all the basic (...) areas of Proclus' thought. It carefully guides the reader through his metaphysics, theology, epistemology and theory of evil, as well as his sophisticated philosophy of religion. It also sets Proclus in the historical, social and religious context of late antiquity, offering a synthetic account that will appeal to historians and students of ancient religion. (shrink)

While the metaphysical aspects of Proclus' theory of evil have recently been studied by a number of scholars, its ethical implications have largely been neglected. In my paper I am analysing the moral consequences that Proclus' concept of evil has, at the same time using the ethical perspective to throw more light on Proclus' ontology. Most importantly, I argue that the difference between bodily and psychic evil is much more substantial that it might seem from On the Existence of Evils (...) alone. Though both kinds of evil are characterized by their 'parasitical existence' , evil in bodies is unavoidable, resulting from a wide network of cosmic corporeal interactions that no partial being can ever have control of. Psychic evil, on the other hand, is a product of human choice and is independent of external circumstances, depending wholly on the soul's ability to keep its proper vertical hierarchy. In this regard it is evil in a much more serious sense of the word, being actively caused rather than just passively suffered. In the last section of my paper I throw further light on this more dangerous kind of evil, showing it as resulting from an essential bi-dimensionality of human beings. (shrink)

The paper argues that one of the reasons the suppression of scientific dissent during the Covid pandemic has been so severe was because the dominant scientific Covid narrative has been turned into a political myth, i.e. a narrative mobilizing groups in support of key moral values. Taking the example of Covid vaccination, I show the key values with which it became linked in Czechia. Questioning vaccination came to be seen as endangering these values, which made scientific dissent appear as particularly (...) dangerous. I further analyse how this schematic discourse dealt with “free-vax” scientists, who were not against Covid vaccination as such but only against its blanket application. I show that their discreditation was mainly carried out by various fact-checking NGOs or social media influencers, who attempted to delegitimize them not by scientific arguments but rather by associating them with more dubious groups of social actors, or labelling their views as “disinformation”. This discrediting strategy was largely successful, but it also had some undesirable social and political backfire effects, in that it pushed some of the free-vaxxers out of the liberal democratic mainstream and forced them to seek alliance with more anti-systemic segments of the population in attempts at political resistance. (shrink)

Alegorický výklad patří v dějinách evropského myšlení k nejstarším a nejvlivnějším interpretačním metodám. Jeho počátky sahají do 6. stol. př. Kr. a velkého rozkvětu dosáhl zejména v rukou stoiků a středoplatoniků i novoplatoniků, jejichž prostřednictvím posléze hluboce pronikl i do křes_anské a židovské filosofie. Z dnešního hlediska se nicméně na první pohled jedná o výkladovou metodu značně problematickou. Jejím základním předpokladem je, že básník chce svými obraznými vyjádřeními „říci něco jiného“ . Cílem interpretace je stanovit, jaký byl skutečný „skrytý úmysl“ (...) autora. Vykladači přitom zpravidla samozřejmě předpokládají, že nalezené hlubší významy byly básníkem opravdu zamýšleny. Alegorický výklad díky tomu z našeho hlediska trpí slabinou, jež bývá v moderní literární kritice označována jako „intencionální před- sudek“ . Ve většině případů totiž, jak se zdá, tvrdí, že básníci „ve skutečnosti“ sami zastávali složité filosofické koncepce, které z jakéhosi neznámého důvodu nevyjadřovali přímo, ale pouze je obrazně naznačovali. Moderní čtenář naopak nepochybuje, že Homér ani jiný starý básník neměl o platónských či stoických koncepcích ani ponětí a je nemístné mu je podsouvat. Podobná kritika ostatně není až objevem moderní doby. Nalezneme ji už v Ciceronově spise O přirozenosti bohů, kde ji v debatě předkládá epikúrejec Velleius. Stoik Chrysippos podle něho Homérovy a Hésiodovy mýty přizpůsobuje svým vlastním filosofickým koncepcím, „takže se zdá, že i ti nejstarší básníci, kteří o těchto naukách neměli ani ponětí, jsou ve skutečnosti vyznavači stoicismu“. (shrink)

The article interprets Plutarch's dualism in the light of the Apollo-Dionysus opposition as presented in "De E" 388e-389c, arguing that Plutarch is no dualist in the strict sense of the word. A comparison of "De E" 393f-394a with "De Iside" 369b-d shows that it is only in the sublunary realm of Nature that Plutarch assumes a duality of two distinct Powers; at the higher levels of reality the divine is unified and harmonious. If Plutarch fails to emphasize this point clearly (...) enough, it is because his primary philosophical interests were ethical, not metaphysical. (shrink)

Taking the example of the Basel carnival Fasnacht, the paper shows in what way ritual can maintain the impression of being traditional and unchanging, and yet be open to changes and innovations. As the basic conceptual framework we use the notion of liminality, which Victor Turner identified as the creative moment of ritual. In Fasnacht, this liminal dimension appears in two degrees. The carnival as such represents a reflexive liminal counterpart to the standard social structure, yet it is itself also (...) highly structured and bound by conservative traditional rules. As a reaction to this, there arises within Fasnacht a second-order liminality in the form of the so-called wild Fasnacht, which turns the official antistructural Fasnacht rules upside down once again, testing their validity. While the carnival structure offers a regulated opportunity for questioning everyday social behaviour, wild Fasnacht questions even this regulated manner of questioning as such, opening space for its reflection and modification. We use detailed examples to demonstrate how the subtle dialectics of structure and antistructure keeps the tradition of Basel’s Fasnacht alive and allows it to evolve without destroying its aura of traditionality. (shrink)

During the last 100 years, several interpretations of the Thesmophoria have been advanced. Following the typology of H.S. Versnel, we can classify these interpretations as substantive, functionalist and cosmological. The three approaches can be seen as comple­mentary, but in practice they are hardly ever pursued simultaneously. This article examines how they fit together. In particular, it re-examines the subject of fertility, asking how it fits in with the wider social and ideological issues to which Detienne and others have drawn attention (...) and which, to our mind, have little connection with agriculture or human repro­duction. As a response this paper offers a synthetic interpretation that places fertility in a wider cosmological context and shows it as interconnected with all the other levels of the festival.Plusieurs interprétations des Thesmophories ont été proposées depuis un siècle. En suivant la typologie d’H.S. Versnel, on peut les qualifier de substantives, de fonctionnalistes et de cosmologiques. Les trois approches peuvent être complémentaires, mais, en pratique, elles sont difficilement assumées en même temps. L’article examine la manière dont elles fonctionnent ensemble. Il reprend en particulier le thème de la fertilité, en posant la question de savoir comment il s’insère dans les thèmes sociologiques et idéologiques plus larges sur lesquels Detienne et d’autres ont attiré l’attention et qui, dans notre esprit, ont peu de rapport avec l’agriculture et la reproduction humaine. En réponse à ce problème, on offre une interprétation synthétique qui situe la fertilité dans un contexte cosmologique plus vaste et en montre les relations avec les autres niveaux de la fête. (shrink)