scholarly journals The Circle-Radii Analogy in Plotinus, Proclus, and Damascius, and Its Legacy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Greig
Keyword(s):  
Early Period ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Alexander Of Aphrodisias ◽  
Euclid’S Elements ◽  
The One ◽  
Circular Line ◽  
Divine Causality

In later Byzantine and Latin Christian works, divine causality would be commonly described using a geometrical motif: the relation of a circle’s center to the radii and circular line to describe God’s causality in relation to the plurality of creation. This imagery goes back to the pagan Neoplatonists, who employ it in their framework to describe the causality of their first principle, the One, in relation to the plurality of the Forms in Intellect. Given this, early-period Neoplatonists, like Plotinus, have a rather different view of the One’s causality compared to later Neoplatonists, like Proclus and Damascius: for Plotinus, the One directly produces Intellect; for later Neoplatonists, like Proclus and Damascius, the One indirectly produces Intellect through an intermediary. Given this, while the general analogy of the circle, radii, and center are the same for all of them, each figure has a different way of describing the analogy, which fits each one’s view of the One’s causality.This paper focuses particularly on Plotinus, Proclus, and Damascius and their description of the center’s relation and causality of the radii and circle, as part of the analogy to the One, in three particular passages: Plotinus’ Ennead VI.8.18, Proclus’ Commentary on Euclid’s Elements (154–155), and Damascius’ De Principiis I, 93–94. A brief survey will also be made on the sources of the metaphor in Aristotle and Alexander of Aphrodisias, as well as the legacy of the metaphor in Augustine, Eriugena, and Ps.-Dionysius.[Presentation for the Forschungsseminar Latinistik (Prof. Dr. Therese Fuhrer), 30.05.2017]

Freedom and Responsibility in Neoplatonist Thought

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Coope
Keyword(s):  
First Principle ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
The One ◽  
Freedom And Responsibility

The Neoplatonists have a perfectionist view of freedom: an entity is free to the extent that it succeeds in making itself good. Free entities are wholly in control of themselves: they are self-determining, self-constituting, and self-knowing. Neoplatonist philosophers argue that such freedom is only possible for nonbodily things. The human soul is free insofar as it rises above bodily things and engages in intellection, but when it turns its desires to bodily things, it is drawn under the sway of fate and becomes enslaved. This book discusses this notion of freedom, and its relation to questions about responsibility. It explains the important role of notions of self-reflexivity in Neoplatonist accounts of both freedom and responsibility. Part I sets out the puzzles Neoplatonist philosophers face about freedom and responsibility and explains how these puzzles arise from earlier discussions. Part II looks at the metaphysical underpinnings of the Neoplatonist notion of freedom (concentrating especially on the views of Plotinus and Proclus). In what sense (if any) is the ultimate first principle of everything (the One) free? If everything else is under this ultimate first principle, how can anything other than the One be free? What is the connection between freedom and nonbodiliness? Part III looks at questions about responsibility, arising from this perfectionist view of freedom. Why are human beings responsible for their behaviour, in a way that other animals are not? If we are enslaved when we act viciously, how can we be to blame for our vicious actions and choices?

THEMISTIUS AGAINST PORPHYRY (?) ON ‘WHY WE DO NOT REMEMBER’

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Robert Roreitner
Keyword(s):  
De Anima ◽  
Arabic Translation ◽  
Alexander Of Aphrodisias ◽  
Agent Intellect ◽  
The One

Abstract This article sheds new light on Themistius’ argument in what is philosophically the most original (and historically the most influential) section of his extant work, namely On Aristotle's On the Soul 100.16–109.3: here, Themistius offers a systematic interpretation of Aristotle's ‘agent’ intellect and its ‘potential’ and ‘passive’ counterparts. A solution to two textual difficulties at 101.36–102.2 is proposed, supported by the Arabic translation. This allows us to see that Themistius engages at length with a Platonizing reading of the enigmatic final lines of De anima III.5, where Aristotle explains ‘why we do not remember’ (without specifying when and what). This Platonizing reading (probably inspired by Aristotle's early dialogue Eudemus) can be safely identified with the one developed in a fragmentary text extant only in Arabic under the title Porphyry's treatise On the soul. While Themistius rejects this reading, he turns out to be heavily influenced by the author's interpretation of the ‘agent’, ‘potential’ and ‘passive’ intellect. These findings offer us a new glimpse into Themistius’ philosophical programme: he is searching for an alternative to both the austere (and, by Themistius’ lights, distorted) Aristotelianism of Alexander of Aphrodisias and the all too Platonizing reading of Aristotle adopted by thinkers such as Porphyry.

FEMINISM IN EUROPE: FACING NEW CHALLENGES

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-46
Author(s):  
DARIA POTAPOVA ◽  
◽  
SERGEY SHPAGIN
Keyword(s):  
European Society ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
Women's Equality ◽  
State Budgets ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The One

The article is devoted to topical issues of the development of the ideology of feminism in modern conditions. The purpose of the work is to identify the factors of the dynamics of the ideology of feminism at the beginning of the 21st century. The main versions of classical feminism are characterized: liberal, Marxist and radical. There is a close connection between the origins of feminism and Marxism, but even in the early period the interaction of these ideological and political movements was problematic. There is also an interaction of feminism with new social movements in the West in the 20th century. The contradictory consequences of the development of the women's movement for the ideology of feminism are noted: on the one hand, the actualization of the feminist agenda in Western countries created the conditions for significant successes in protecting women's rights and recognizing feminism as a real political force, on the other hand, these same successes reduced the relevance of the liberal version of feminism. Recent developments in Europe have a significant impact on the feminist agenda. Globalization and, in particular, the migration crisis of the 2010s are considered as one of the new factors in the ideological dynamics of feminism. The influx of migrants from Muslim countries not only places a burden on state budgets and reduces the level of security of life on the continent, but also erodes the civilizational identity of European society. Muslim migrants do not seek to integrate into European society, often ignore the fundamental values of European civilization, and above all, women's equality. This situation creates incentives not only to renew the political goals of feminists, but also to revise the ideological foundations of their ideology itself. In particular, it is possible to move away from the traditional reliance on left-wing political slogans and replace the popular Marxist phraseology among radical Islamists with values related to the protection of democratic gains of European society.

ANALISIS DAN MAKNA TEOLOGI KETUHANAN YANG MAHA ESA DALAM KONTEKS PLURALISME AGAMA DI INDONESIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Erman Sepniagus Saragih
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One

AbstrakIndonesia adalah bangsa yang majemuk. Keadaan ini berpeluang dan sensitif terhadap konflik sosial jika sikap toleran yang rendah, kepentingan politik dan fanatisme. Tujuan penulisan yaitu menemukan makna teologi “Ketuhanan” dalam konteks pluralisme agama. Metologi penelitian dilakukan dengan studi analisis isi. Kesimpulannya yaitu, pertama; kata ketuhanan tidak boleh difahami dari aspek agama tertentu saja dalam kemajemukan di Indonesia. Kedua; ketuhanan berarti sifat-sifat yang mengindahkan Tuhan sebagai tampilan antropomorfis oleh agama manapun. Ketiga; Ketuhanan merupakan hasil sejarah perumusan sila pertama Pancasila dengan kesadaran akan bhineka sebagai realita yang harus dirawat, dijunjung tinggi dan dihormati dalam berbagai aspek hidup melebihi agama. Kata Kunci : Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa, Pluralisme Agama, Teologi AbstractA plural nation these circumstances are likely and sensitive to social conflict if low tolerance, political interests and fanaticism. The purpose of writing is to find the meaning of theology of as mentioned earlier in the context of religious pluralism. The methodology by content analysis, further interpret theologically. The concludes the theological meaning of God in the first principle of the Pancasila; is first, the meaning of divinity should not be understood from certain aspects of religion only in the context of pluralism in Indonesian. Second; divinity means the properties of God or attributes that need the God as an anthropomorphic appereance of and for any religions. Third; the sentences of “belief in the one and only God is the achierement of reconciliation of the historical resultsof the first principle of pancasila with the awareness of the difference as a reality that must be nurtured, upheld and respected in various aspects of life beyond certain religious values. Keywords: Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa, Pluralism, Theology

The Centrality of the Idea of the Good in the Platonic System (2)

2020 ◽  
pp. 163-194
Author(s):  
Lloyd P. Gerson
Keyword(s):  
Nicomachean Ethics ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Integrative Unity ◽  
System 2 ◽  
Good For ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The One

This chapter investigates the centrality of the Idea of the Good for Plato's ethics. It is certainly a remarkable fact that just as the Idea of the Good has little presence in the bulk of Anglo-American scholarship on Plato's metaphysics, so it has little presence in accounts of Plato's ethics. The chapter demonstrates that any account of Platonic ethics is seriously deficient if the superordinate Idea of the Good is not the main focus and if the Good is not identified as the absolutely simple first principle of all, the One. There may be a number of reasons for the lack of interest in the Idea of the Good among students of Plato. At least one of these is that it is supposed that Aristotle's critique of the Form of the Good in his Nicomachean Ethics is decisive. The chapter then considers the knowledge of the Forms of the Virtues, and looks at goodness as integrative unity. It also studies the connection between eros and the Good, which is made explicitly by Plotinus in one of the most remarkable passages in his Enneads.

scholarly journals Rivalutare l’Etica Eudemia. A proposito di A. Kenny, The Aristotelian Ethics, II edizione

Elenchos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-164
Author(s):  
Carlo Natali
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Ethical Discourse ◽  
Alexander Of Aphrodisias ◽  
Aristotelian Ethics ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One

AbstractIn the paper I discuss three theses defended by A. Kenny: (1) in antiquity up to Aspasius or to Alexander of Aphrodisias the EE was considered the most important version of Aristotle’s ethical discourse; (2) the idea that the common books belonged to the one or to the other treatise; (3) the opposition between the theory of happiness of EN I and X and that of EE II and VIII.

Disagreement, design, and Thomas Reid

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. 224-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
René van Woudenberg
Keyword(s):  
First Principles ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Basic Design ◽  
Thomas Reid ◽  
Epistemology Of Disagreement ◽  
The One

This paper argues that Reid's first principle of design can be more widely accepted then one might suppose, due to the fact that it specifies no marks of design. Also it is explicated that the relation of the principle, on the one hand, and properly basic design beliefs on the other, is a relation of presupposition. It is furthermore suggested that Reid's discussion of what can be done in case of disagreement about first principles points to a position that is relevant to the current debates in the Epistemology of Disagreement literature and that merits further elaboration.

Selfdetermination in philosophy and factical life. Some considerations about an early Heidegger lecture

Methodus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-43
Author(s):  
Francisco Abalo
Keyword(s):  
Basic Problem ◽  
Methodological Problem ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Relevant Issue ◽  
The One ◽  
Intentional Structure ◽  
Intuitive Model

The main focus of this article is the methodological problem of the selfdetermination of the philosophy according to the phenomenological analysis carried out by Heidegger in one of the lectures of his early period (the so called Früh Freiburger Vorlesungen). The general frame of the current paper implies a hermeneutical thesis according to which the relevance of the well-known “factical life” is not solely thematic but mainly methodological. This function explains why these “phenomenological exercises” are some sort of genetical enquiries. In consequence, the specific aim of this article is, on the one hand, to show that the problem of the selfdetermination of the philosophy is the document of the more basic problem of the possibility of access to the intentional structures as such. On the other hand, this implies that the facticity as the primary horizon of comprehension constitutes in deed a redrawing of the intentional structure, in such a way that it is avoided the paradoxical consequences of the reflexive-intuitive model of access to one self and makes a relevant issue to the philosophy the problematic character of the intentionality itself.

The Attributed to Aristotle

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina D'Ancona
Keyword(s):  
Causal Chain ◽  
First Principle ◽  
The World ◽  
Great Chain Of Being ◽  
First Cause ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

The pseudo-Theology of Aristotle is the most important example of the exposure of the cultivated Arab readership to Neoplatonism in Aristotle’s garb. Plotinus’s doctrines are construed as the exposition genuinely made by Aristotle himself. Plotinus’s One and Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover merge, and the Plotinian principles Intellect and Soul are endowed with the task of letting the power of the First Cause expand until it reaches the world of coming-to-be and passing away. The great chain of being has its beginning in the First Principle: the One, the Pure Being, and Pure Good: every degree depends on it, and its power reaches the sublunar beings through the medium of Intellect and Soul. This causal chain is dominated by the pattern of the double journey of the soul, the way down along the necessary declension of the degrees of being, and the way back toward its homeland.

scholarly journals A Genealogycal Study of Islamic Education Science at the Faculty of Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan UIN Sunan Kalijaga

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-58
Author(s):  
Suyadi Suyadi ◽  
Sutrisno Sutrisno
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Early Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
Islamic Education ◽  
The One ◽  
Education In Turkey ◽  
Education Science

This study traces the genealogy of Islamic education at the Faculty of Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan (FITK) Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University Yogyakarta. The genealogycal approach used in Foucault’s terminology  means that the objectivity of science covers two aspects, namely the archeology of knowledge and power. Data is comprised of ideas and opinions that develop among lecturers at FITK. Data is analyized interpretatively, descriptively, and comparatively. Findings show that in the early period of its formation (1951), Islamic education science at FITK was influenced by religious teachings brought from the Middle East. But since the secularization of Islamic education in Turkey led by Fethullah Gülen (1990), the mecca of Islamic education has split into two poles; on the one side, it follows dogmatic religious teachings stemming from Middle East traditions, and on the other side, it needs to respond to the Western secular tradition. Since 2007 the dynamics of FITK has moved toward a dialectics of integrative Islamic education.[Tujuan penelitian ini adalah melacak akar genealogi integrasi keilmuan pendidikan Islam di Fakultas Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan (FITK) Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga. Pendekatan genealogi dalam terminologi Foucault dimaksudkan bahwa obyektivitas ilmu mencakup dua unsur, yakni arkeologi pengetahuan dan kekuasaan. Data-data berupa ide dan gagasan yang lahir dan berkembang dari para dosen FITK dianalisis secara interpretatif, deskriptif dan komparatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pada awal berdirinya (1951), embrio keilmuan pendidikan Islam di FITK dikuasai ilmu-ilmu agama dari Timur Tengah. Tetapi, sejak terjadi sekularisasi pendidikan Islam di Turki yang dipimpin Fethullah Gülen (1990), kiblat keilmuan pendidikan Islam terpecah dan dikotomi; di satu sisi harus tunduk pada kebenaran ilmu-ilmu agama dari Timur Tengah tetapi di sisi lain harus merespon ilmu pendidikan sekuler dari Barat. Dalam perkembangan mutakhir, tepatnya sejak 2007 dinamika keilmuan FITK bergerak menuju dialektika keilmuan pendidikan Islam yang integratif]Keywords: IntegratedIslamic Education, scientific genealogy, the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teaching.

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