The essay aims at demonstrating that it is dangerous to try to reconstruct a philosophical doctrine taking into account solely or predominantly the analysis of vocabulary. This is particularly true of the philosophical doctrines of the ancients, who generally did not feel obliged to adopt a coherent and unambiguous technical terminology. Starting from the essay of F. Camera, Sui molteplici significati di hermeneia in Platone, which was published in 2004 and then re-edited in 2011 with few modifications but with a (...) different title, the author shows that the method of facing Plato’s hermeneutics through the ἑρμηνεύειν-words is a source of distortions and over-interpretations; that is, it causes excessive density and conceptual significance to be attributed to words used instead in their current meaning. One must remember, even if it should be well known to anyone who devotes himself to these themes, that not all words, expressions and concepts become philosophical entities only because they appear in the works of an author tagged “philosophy.”. (shrink)

Three textual proposals on Diog. Laert. x 35-7 =Epicur. ep. Hrdt. 35- 7: (1) read 36 έν τῇ μνήμῃ with Von der Muehll, giving a strong oppositive sense; (2) transpose 36 έπεί καί τοṽ (τῷ) τετελεσιονργῃγένου (-ῳ) (…) δύνασθαι χρῇσθαι after 35 δεῖ μνῃμονεύειν (3) read 37 παρεγγνᾷ instead of παρεγγνῷν, retaining έγγαρλῃνίζον with the majority of mss.

Three textual proposals on Diog. Laert. x 35-7 =Epicur. ep. Hrdt. 35- 7: (1) read 36 έν τῇ μνήμῃ with Von der Muehll, giving a strong oppositive sense; (2) transpose 36 έπεί καί τοṽ (τῷ) τετελεσιονργῃγένου (-ῳ) (…) δύνασθαι χρῇσθαι after 35 δεῖ μνῃμονεύειν (3) read 37 παρεγγνᾷ instead of παρεγγνῷν, retaining έγγαρλῃνίζον with the majority of mss.

Pitagora maestro di scuola (P.Br.Libr. Add. Ms. 37516.1) -- Il carteggio fra Dario ed Eraclito (Diog. Laert. 9.13-14) -- Il sapiente e le città. Parmenide e una congettura involontaria su B 1.3 -- Empedocle e il tempo inestinguibile (B 16 DK) -- Empedocle e la lanterna (B 84.3 DK) -- Ippodamo de Mileto filosofo e architetto -- Tre note su Diogene di Apollonia (A 19.39; A 19.44-45; B 1 DK) -- Diogene di Sinope e le particelle vaporizzate (Diog. Laert. 6.73=SSR (...) B V 132). (shrink)