scholarly journals Hermarchus’ treatise Against Empedocles and the dispute of the Epicureans and the Stoics on the origin of morality

Author(s):  
Marianna M. Shakhnovich ◽  

The article analyzes the theory of the origin of morality, presented by the Epicurean Hermarchus in his treatise “Against Empedocles” (Porph. De abstin. I, 7–12). The author expresses doubt on the established point of view that Hermarchus, in criticizing Empedocles, actually meant to criticize the philosophical schools of his day, and did not polemicize with the Pythagoreans and the followers of Empedocles, but with the Stoics, whom he did not name, but had in mind. Exploring the Peripatetic and Epicurean tradition of using terms close to the concept of oikeiōsis, which was introduced by Hermarchus to explain the prohibition of killing a person by another person, the author of the article expresses the opinion that Stoic Chrysippus, criticizing the teaching of the Epicureans about the aspiration for pleasure as a person’s primary impulse in his essay “On the ultimate goal”, used this Epicurean term in his theory of the origin of morality (Diog. Laert. VII, 85). Such an “interception” or reinterpretation of concepts was a fairly common device used by the Stoics in a polemic against Epicureanism. Hermarchus, unlike the Stoics, who understood oikeiōsis exclusively in the context of the emergence of individual self-awareness and feelings of self-preservation, spoke about the social meaning of oikeiōsis, which described people’s perception of each other within the human community and shows the impossibility of such an attitude towards living beings outside this community (to animals). Later, the term oikeiōsis was considered to be Stoic, and its creation was attributed to Zeno.

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 93-146

Culture and awareness are two flexible concepts that are related to the social nature and its development, and the creative and scientific activities of humans since time immemorial. Awareness is developed by humans living their social life, the way they react towards their environment that consists of people, the average of their knowledge and the way they react to the things around them. What distinguishing the individual self-awareness is the human's ability to make any decision and their knowledge of their general behavior. in the light of taking what we need of the information, data, properties and characteristics, we give the youth their needs of activities, movement, awareness and culture through setting codified thoughtful programs. Therefore, we need to know the following: Are the attitudes of the males differ from the attitudes of the females of practicing sports? The importance of the research lies in the fact that it is one of the few studies that takes into consideration sport culture and health of an important segment, which is the youth. One of the results of the research is that the physical activity that the youth do in sports centers (gyms) that brings important benefits like prevention of diseases. The research was conducted on (202) of males which is 63.3% and (98) females which is (32.7). The results of the research show that most of those whom the research was conducted on were from the age of 18 to 25, which makes 47% of the study sample.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Rinofner-Kreidl

This essay tries to elaborate an accurate description of shame and guilt from the agent’s point of view by focusing on typical cases of such experiences. In a first step, we approach the peculiarity of a phenomenological investigation by introducing three methodical directions. All of them are formulated in a negative mode, i.e., in terms of prohibition, namely: the instruction not to adhere to a naïve notion of phenomenon, not to project reflective attitudes into the prereflectively given, and not to go beyond the relevant situation of experience. Following these methodological considerations, we discuss the familiar characteristics of shame and guilt. According to a wide-spread view, we are faced with self-related feelings that are, more or less overwhelmingly, encountered as troublesome. These feelings either, in case of guilt, trigger special types of social interaction (avowal and reparation) or, in case of shame, entail isolation, an intensified self-perception and introspective embarrassment. Whether and to what extent this current picture can be sustained, will be discussed on phenomenological grounds. We take it that the social features of shame and guilt result from their inherent self-relatedness. Thereto, we try to answer, among others, the following questions: Do feelings of shame and guilt, apart from their social functions, represent characteristic modes of self-awareness? How are they correlated with specific modes of time-consciousness? Can a phenomenological description contribute to our understanding of the moral impact of shame and guilt?


1950 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Pieper

My intention is: to try to face a certain central social problem in its connection with the concept of leisure. And I hope that a solution of that problem, or at least some ways towards a solution, may become more clear and visible. This is a rather modest purpose (because problems are still not solved when a solution has become visible or even when some ways of a solution have become more clear than before).I shall not consider the social problem from a formally sociological point of view or from a formally political point of view, but from a philosophical point of view. It shall not be spoken of in such a way that the field of vision is completely filled with it. The point-of-view does not lie so close to the concrete phenomena that our attention is occupied and consumed by their immediate impact. Philosophical consideration means that a certain subject is considered within the horizon of the total and universal reality; it belongs to the essence and nature of a really philosophical question, that not only this question itself comes into play, but that—onsidering, meditating this question—one is obliged to bring into play the totality of the world, even God and the world. In such a view the discussion loses perhaps some actual interest for the politician or for an immediately-involved man. But on the other hand, it might be that deeper possibilities of a solution become perceivable, just because the totality of the real world, especially the totality of human nature, comes into the range of vision. It might be, too, that there are social and political problems which, from the mere viewpoint of sociology and politics, cannot be solved. And perhaps this possibility is relevant to our present case. I would like to formulate the claim very modestly. In question is a sort of attempt, a proposal, to view the problem from a new and familiar standpoint. There may result an insight into the social problem—which possibly can become useful within the sphere of politics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-135
Author(s):  
Margarete Afonso ◽  
Ernane Pedro Matos Barros ◽  
Matheus Paiva Emidio Cavalcanti ◽  
Mariane Albuquerque Lima Ribeiro

There are several understandings about the role of human gender identity in the scientific field, this discussion correlates definitions of both social and biological basis. The current confusion in the conceptualization of “sex” and “gender” demonstrates the need for a comparative analysis of the scientific dynamic vocabulary, as well as the insertion of an interdisciplinary historical, social and cultural point of view together with the biological view outside the normative binary logic. The word “gender” can be defined as the social construction of sex, differing from the variable “sex” because it refers to a biological dimension of the anatomo-physiological characterization of humans, recognized as essential and innate in determining the distinctions between male and female. Therefore, the JHGD presents a thematic diversity that focuses on issues related to public health, demonstrating the need to develop knowledge to generate impact on public policy strategies, aiming at universality, equity and comprehensiveness in scientific research involving sexand gender and their impacts on health sciences.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Besin Gaspar

This research deals with the development of  self concept of Hiroko as the main character in Namaku Hiroko by Nh. Dini and tries to identify how Hiroko is portrayed in the story, how she interacts with other characters and whether she is portrayed as a character dominated by ”I” element or  ”Me”  element seen  from sociological and cultural point of view. As a qualitative research in nature, the source of data in this research is the novel Namaku Hiroko (1967) and the data ara analyzed and presented deductively. The result of this analysis shows that in the novel, Hiroko as a fictional character is  portrayed as a girl whose personality  develops and changes drastically from ”Me”  to ”I”. When she was still in the village  l iving with her parents, she was portrayed as a obedient girl who was loyal to the parents, polite and acted in accordance with the social customs. In short, her personality was dominated by ”Me”  self concept. On the other hand, when she moved to the city (Kyoto), she was portrayed as a wild girl  no longer controlled by the social customs. She was  firm and determined totake decisions of  her won  for her future without considering what other people would say about her. She did not want to be treated as object. To put it in another way, her personality is more dominated by the ”I” self concept.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Sina Saeedy ◽  
Mojtaba Amiri ◽  
Mohammad Mahdi Zolfagharzadeh ◽  
Mohammad Rahim Eyvazi

Quality of life and satisfaction with life as tightly interconnected concepts have become of much importance in the urbanism era. No doubt, it is one of the most important goals of every human society to enhance a citizen’s quality of life and to increase their satisfaction with life. However, there are many signs which demonstrate the low level of life satisfaction of Iranian citizens especially among the youth. Thus, considering the temporal concept of life satisfaction, this research aims to make a futures study in this field. Therefore, using a mixed model and employing research methods from futures studies, life satisfaction among the students of the University of Tehran were measured and their views on this subject investigated. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analysed together in order to test the hypotheses and to address the research questions on the youth discontentment with quality of life. Findings showed that the level of life satisfaction among students is relatively low and their image of the future is not positive and not optimistic. These views were elicited and discussed in the social, economic, political, environmental and technological perspectives. Keywords:  futures studies, quality of life, satisfaction with life, youth


Author(s):  
António Calheiros

Leadership has long been a topic of interest for both academics (Hiller, DeChurch, Murase, & Doty, 2011; Sanders & Davey, 2011) and practitioners (Bennis, 2007; George, 2003). Academics have tried to understand the concept and identify its consequences and determinants. Practitioners have focused their efforts in its training and development hoping to reap its promised benefits. Over the last decade, authentic leadership has emerged as the fashionable leadership theory. More than just promising impacts on performance and subordinates’ work satisfaction, authentic leadership addresses management’s long term demand for and ethic and moral commitment (Ghoshal, 2005; Rosenthal et al., 2007). Authentic leadership is “a process that draws from both positive psychological capacities and a highly developed organizational context, which results in both greater self-awareness and self-regulated positive behaviors on the part of leaders and associates, fostering positive self-development” (Luthans and Avolio, 2003). The components of authentic leadership’s self-regulated authentic positive behaviours are balanced (non-prejudice) processing, relational orientation and internalized moral perspetive. One key point of authentic leadership is the authenticity of leaders, which can be defined as “knowing, accepting, and remaining true to one’s self” (Avolio et al., 2004). Recent research (Ford & Harding, 2011) have argued that this demand for one’s true self privileges a collective (organizational) self over an individual self and thereby hampers subjectivity to both leaders and followers, and could lead to destructive dynamics within organizations. This paper discusses the seeming paradox of developing authenticity in leaders, (namely addressing the issues raised by Ford & Harding) and clarifies the aim of authentic leadership development. It also assesses the suitability of traditional leadership development methodologies in meeting the challenges posed by a process-based approach to leadership with a focus on individual and social identification.


Author(s):  
Oksana Galchuk

The theme of illegitimacy Guy de Maupassant evolved in his works this article perceives as one of the factors of the author’s concept of a person and the plane of intersection of the most typical motifs of his short stories. The study of the author’s concept of a person through the prism of polivariability of the motif of a bastard is relevant in today’s revision of traditional values, transformation of the usual social institutions and search for identities, etc. The purpose of the study is to give a definition to the existence specifics of the bastard motif in the Maupassant’s short stories by using historical and literary, comparative, structural methods of analysis as dominant. To do this, I analyze the content, variability and the role of this motive in the formation of the Maupassant’s concept of a person, the author’s innovations in its interpretation from the point of view of literary diachrony. Maupassant interprets the bastard motif in the social, psychological and metaphorical-symbolic sense. For the short stories with the presentation of this motif, I suggest the typology based on the role of it in the structure of the work and the ideological and thematic content: the short stories with a motif-fragment, the ones with the bastard’s leitmotif and the group where the bastard motif becomes a central theme. The Maupassant’s interpretation of the bastard motif combines the general tendencies of its existence in the world’s literary tradition and individual reading. The latter is the result of the author’s understanding of the relevant for the era issues: the transformation of the family model, the interest in the theory of heredity, the strengthening of atheistic sentiments, the growth of frustration in the system of traditional social and moral values etc. This study sets the ground for a prospective analysis of the evolution the bastard motif in the short-story collections of different years or a comparative study of the motif in short stories and novels by Maupassant.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Fellmann

In this paper I claim that the metaphysical concept of culture has come to an end. Among the European authors Georg Simmel is the foremost who has deconstructed the myth of culture as a substantial totality beyond relations or prior to them. Two tenets of research have prepared the end of all-inclusive culture: First, Simmel’s formal access that considers society as the modality of interactions and relations between individuals, thus overcoming the social evolutionism of Auguste Comte; second, his critical exegesis of idealistic philosophy of history, thus leaving behind the Hegelian tradition. Although Simmel adheres in some statements to the out-dated idea of morphological unity, his sociological and epistemological thinking paved the way for the concept of social identity as a network of series connected loosely by contiguity. This type of connection is confirmed by the present feeling of life as individual self-invention according to changing situations.


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