The Ancient Philosopher. By a Literary Medium, William Prowse (1868)

This chapter focuses on Peter Abelard, the first thinker, since Augustine and Boethius, for whom the Problem of Paganism was a central concern. Two of his works in particular are among the most remarkable of all medieval treatments of the area. Abelard's first theological work, written c. 1121, was the Theologia Summi Boni (later rewritten as the Theologia Christiana), gives a golden picture of the wise and virtuous men and women of ancient Greece and Rome, the philosophers especially. Probably just a few years later, Abelard wrote his Collationes, a dialogue, into which he introduces, as the central figure, an ancient philosopher redivivus, unambiguously outside Jewish and Christian revelation. But for Abelard the Problem of Paganism extends beyond these texts, since it is bound up with the aims of the whole theological project which occupied the second of the two stages of his career.

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Porphyry (c.233–309 AD)

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy ◽

10.4324/9780415249126-a093-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Lucas Siorvanes

Keyword(s):

Literary Criticism ◽

Middle Ages ◽

Eating Habits ◽

Greek Philosophy ◽

Destructive Effect ◽

Intellectual Activity ◽

Living Species ◽

The One ◽

Ecological Preservation ◽

Ancient Philosopher

The late ancient philosopher Porphyry was one of the founders of Neoplatonism. He edited the teachings of Plotinus into the form in which they are now known, clarified them with insights of his own and established them in the thought of his time. But, in reaction to Plotinus, he also advanced the cause of Aristotle’s philosophical logic. Indeed, Porphyry is responsible for the resurgence of interest in Aristotle, which continued to the Middle Ages and beyond. Because of Porphyry, later Greek philosophy recovered both its Platonic and its Aristotelian roots, and Neoplatonism aimed to combine inspired thought with academic precision. He was a scholar of great learning, with interests ranging from literary criticism and history to religion. An example is his defence of vegetarianism, which anticipated the modern debate on ecological preservation. Humans and animals belong to the same family. Seeking to preserve life is a matter of extending philanthropy and respect to all living species, which are our natural siblings. Ideally we ought to display ‘harmlessness’ even towards plants, except that our bodies, being composite and mortal, need to consume something else for food. Thus we should be ever conscious of the destructive effect that our eating habits and consumerism have on the creation of which we are part, and should try to keep to a simple lifestyle. Porphyry’s attention to logic, metaphysics and all other topics was driven by his firm belief that reason exercised by pure mind leads to the true essence of things, the One God. Intellectual activity detaches the soul from passions and confusions, and concentrates its activity on the real things. Porphyry attacked Christianity and Gnosticism because he thought they appealed to the irrational. Mysteries and rituals are fitted for those who are unable to practise inward contemplation. Salvation comes to those leading the life of the philosopher-priest.

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The Debate about methodus medendi during the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century in England

Early Science and Medicine ◽

10.1163/15733823-1845p0002 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 18 (4-5) ◽

pp. 339-359 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Claire Crignon

Keyword(s):

Seventeenth Century ◽

Comparative Anatomy ◽

Medical Knowledge ◽

The Body ◽

Ancient Medicine ◽

History Of ◽

Definition Of ◽

Ancient Philosopher ◽

Active Investigation

Following a recent trend in the field of the history of philosophy and medicine, this paper stresses the necessity of recognizing empiricism’s patent indebtedness to the sciences of the body. While the tribute paid to the Hippocratic method of observation in the work of Thomas Sydenham is well known, it seems necessary to take into account a trend more critical of ancient medicine developed by followers of chemical medicine who considered the doctrine of elements and humours to be a typical example of the idols that hinder the improvement of medical knowledge and defend the necessity of experimentation (comparative anatomy, dissection, autopsy, chemical analysis of bodies). In light of the fact that modern discoveries (blood circulation, the lymphatic system, theory of fevers) resulted in a “new frame of human nature,” they developed a critical reading of ancient empiricism. As a consequence, we can distinguish between two distinct anti-speculative traditions in the genesis of philosophical empiricism. The first (which includes Bacon, Boyle and Willis) recommends an active investigation into nature and refers to the figure of Democritus, the ancient philosopher who devoted himself to the dissection of beasts. Defenders of this first tradition refuse point-blank to be called ‘empiricists’, a label which had a very negative meaning during the seventeenth century, when it was used to dismiss charlatans and quacks. The other tradition (including Sydenham and Locke), stressing as it does the role of description and observation, is more sceptical of the ability of dissection or anatomy to give us access to causes of diseases. This later tradition comes closer to the definition of ancient empiricism and to the figure of Hippocrates. 

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The sustainability of society in the Aristotle’s socio-philosophical doctrine

Науково-теоретичний альманах Грані ◽

10.15421/171933 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 62-76

Author(s):

O. І. Плаксіна

Keyword(s):

Historical Period ◽

Poor People ◽

Close Attention ◽

The Poor ◽

Social Scale ◽

The Social ◽

The Rich ◽

Social Components ◽

Free People ◽

Ancient Philosopher

The article is devoted to the analysis of Aristotelian ideas about the society’s sustainability. The work showed that Aristotle was one of the first who touched the problem of the society’s sustainability and he is a pioneer in the use of the term “sustainability” in relation to social reality. From the described by Aristotle phenomena we outlined those phenomena, which ensure the sustainability of the polis as a whole and, thus, have a general social scale. Those phenomena are: 1) reliance on the law, 2) a certain combination of two types of people’s equality – the equality in quantity and the equality in dignity, they also are “equalizing” and “distributive” justice, arithmetic and geometric equalities. The analysis and search showed that Aristotle considered: the main source of in-stability of the society, ancient in particular, is the conflict of rich and poor free people, without taking into account the slave mass. According to Stagirite, the guarantor of the society’s sustainability and the social subjects, which conditioned it, are free citizens of average wealth. The ancient philosopher classified the six kinds of state systems; from them a polity has the greatest stsustainability. The article also fixed that Stagirite marked the link between the society’s sustainability and an autarky. On this foundation there is established that Aristotle presents precisely the social components of the society’s sustainability as key, defining. The environmental com-ponent (by the “society-nature” line) in the ancient era was on the periphery of attention, because it did not mature in that historical period. The article substantiates the conclusion that the principles of proportionality, balance and mediety are fundamental for the society’s sustainability, according to Aristotle’s doctrine. The Aristotle’s achievements on the society’s sustainability are historically crosscutting and socially fundamental. So, UN materials pay close attention to the confrontation between the rich and the poor people and widely use such indicator as the ratio of the incomes of the richest to the incomes of the poorest, which is also known as an index of socio-economic disharmony. Provisions from the 2016 UN re-port “Human Development for Everyone” confirm the importance for combining of two types of equality / justice for the modern society’s sustainability.

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