Classics

Erik Nis. Ostenfeld Human Wisdom. Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy. 2016. 386 S. 39,00 Euro. 14,8 x 21 cm. 978-3-89665-694-0. Academia Verlag, (Academia Philosophical Studies Bd. 53)


This book offers inter alia a systematic investigation of the actual argumentative strategy of Socratic conversation and explorations of Socratic and Platonic morality including an examination ofeudaimonia and the mental conception of health in the Republic as self-control, with a view to the relation of individual health/happiness to social order. The essays cover a period from 1968 to 2012. Some of them are now published for the first time. Self-motion in the later dialogues involves tripartition and tripartition in turn involves embodiment. The Philebus psychology too anticipates Aristotle. The Forms of the Timaeus are patterns, but the two-world picture is abandoned: there is one world constituted by Forms and Place. The Epinomis is arguably genuine. More generally, denying that Plato develops, e.g. exegetically and psychologically, is absurd. There are too many contradictions in the Corpus. The dialogues are artistic wholes and the author's message must be interpreted accordingly: hence in a sense every character is Plato's mouthpiece. Aristotle's idea of the human good or quality of life as optimal mental activity according to the special human capabilities is the root of the modern selfactualization projects. Panaetius (free reason) and Posidonius (science) mark the end of the older Stoa's hard-core materialism and the beginning of a new more 'modern' era.

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http://www.academia-verlag.de/titel/69694.htm

This book
offers an overview of Platonic-Aristotelian thought on man with a view to considering what its alternative conceptual framework may contribute to the modern debate which is dominated by the skepticism confronting modern reductionism.
The mind-body problem is central to the modern philosophical and cultural debate because we cannot understand what man is until we understand what consciousness is and how it interacts with the body. Although many suggestions have been offered, no convincing account has as yet appeared. Perhaps it was all mistaken ideology from the start? A crucial (and fatal?) distinction was made by modern natural science in the 17th century between the subjective/qualitative and the objective/quantitative.
The ancient Greeks, notably Plato and Aristotle, focused not on consciousness and experience, but on goal-directed reason/form, and the contrast was not mechanical matter, but the particular. The latter owed its intelligibility and being to reason and form and did not, therefore, constitute a realm of its own. Hence the ancient picture of man did not fall apart either: the soul is conceived of as a dynamic-telic aspect of the human organism.
Considering the problems and consequent skepticism that confronts modern reductionism and the recent appearance of holistic ideology in many areas it is suggested that we take a fresh look at the alternative conceptual framework of our ancient Greek ancestors.

Arbejderne i denne publikation er dels tidligere udgivne tidsskriftartikler, dels ikke før publiceret materiale. De afspejler en vedvarende og forhåbentlig relevant forskningsinteresse i antikkens opfattelse af psyken og af især den sokratiske samtale, som har gennemgribende indflydelse på mange forskellige områder i moderne tid: pædagogik, retsvæsen, sundhedsområdet, retorik, osv. De falder i fire grupper: Sokrates (samtalens logik), Platon (især moralfilosofi og psykologi), Aristoteles (moralfilosofi, gudsbegreb og hverdagsargumentation) og Senere Filosofi (stoisk naturfilosofi, nyplatonisme, Augustins erkendelsesteori, og sjæl-legeme opfattelsen i antikken).  I betragtning af den trods nedskæringer fornyede interesse for antikkens tænkning som bl.a. nyoversættelsen af Platon er udtryk for præsenteres her en række emner, der forhåbentlig kan interessere den, der ønsker at fordybe sig i de ‘evige’ spørgsmål.

This book offers a new interpretation of Plato's conception of man and of how it develops in the Corpus. Commonly, Plato's anthropology is considered to be a version of naïve Orphism with the soul being a heavenly, but fallen, daemon. This is shown to be a misleading oversimplification. An examination of three basic and interrelated strands in Plato's thought (Forms, Matter and Mind) demonstrates how Plato's conception of man is an integrated part of his metaphysics and develops with it. Thus, a change can be seen from a fairly unreflecting Socratic beginning via a transcendent soul to a rather sophisticated 'Aristotelianism'. What is at issue is a non-materialistic, or more precisely, a dualistic view of man that has been discredited in modern times by two preconceptions: a widespread opinion that dualism must mean or involve Cartesianism, which seems untenable, and an equally widespread and, until recently, unshaken belief that man can be exhaustively described in materialistic terms. Both assumptions are questioned today. The present work shows that Plato's view of man is fundamentally different from Cartesianism and furthermore that he rejects the materialist view as well. Hence, the book shows Plato's increasing relevance for the current debate on the nature and possibilities of man. https://link.springer.com/book/

Ancient Greek Psychology and the Modern Mind-Body Debate
offers an overview of Platonic-Aristotelian thought on man with a view to considering what its alternative conceptual framework may contribute to the modern debate which is dominated by the skepticism confronting modern reductionism.


The mind-body problem is central to the modern philosophical and cultural debate because we cannot understand what man is until we understand what consciousness is and how it interacts with the body. Although many suggestions have been offered, no convincing account has as yet appeared. Perhaps it was all mistaken ideology from the start? A crucial (and fatal?) distinction was made by modern natural science in the 17th century between the subjective/qualitative and the objective/quantitative.

The ancient Greeks, notably Plato and Aristotle, focused not on consciousness and experience, but on goal-directed reason/form, and the contrast was not mechanical matter, but the particular. The latter owed its intelligibility and being to reason and form and did not, therefore, constitute a realm of its own. Hence the ancient picture of man did not fall apart either: the soul is conceived of as a dynamic-telic aspect of the human organism.

Arbejderne i denne publikation er dels tidligere udgivne tidsskriftartikler, dels ikke før publiceret materiale. De afspejler en vedvarende og relevant forskning i antikkens opfattelse af psyken og af især den sokratiske samtale, som har gennemgribende indflydelse på mange forskellige områder i moderne tid: pædagogik, retsvæsen, sundhedsområdet, retorik osv.
Teksterne falder i fire grupper:
Sokrates (samtalens logik),
Platon (især moralfilosofi og psykologi),
Aristoteles(moralfilosofi, gudsbegreb og hverdagsargumentation)
og Senere Filosofi (stoisk naturfilosofi, nyplatonisme, Augustins erkendelsesteori, og sjæl-legeme-opfattelseni antikken).
Læseren præsenteres her for en række emner, der vil interessere den, der ønsker at fordybe sig ide ‘evige’ spørgsmål.

This is a defence of the authenticity of Plato's Epistula vii against the recent onslaught by Frede and Burnyeat (2015). It focusses on what Ep. vii has to say about writing and the embedded philosophical Digression and evaluates this in the context of other mainly late dialogues.

A SIGNED MOSAIC FROM A ROMAN VILLA BY LAKE NEMY, LOC. S. MARIA
Birte Poulsen
During the Nordic excavations of a Roman villa situated on the western side of Lake Nemi, a room with a signed mosaic floor was discovered. The Mosaic is made of black and white tesserae and has a figural medallion surrounded by a geometric pattern. However, a closer look at the mosaic revealed that the panel with the figural medallion and the inscription had been inserted at a later date. The medallion contains five different birds and the inscription – M PA(V)IMENTUM FECIT – and is meant to be read from the entrance. The restoration of the mosaic seems to have taken place during the early 2nd century AD. The room has previously been identified as a lararium, but the placing of the
inserted medallion could also indicate that the room was used as a triclinium during its later phase.

Recent archaeological investigation in Bodrum, ancient Halikarnassos, has in many ways changed our perception of the town during the centuries following its peak/golden age in the 4th century BC. Several architectural remains and mosaic floors now indicate that Halikarnassos had a second prosperous period during late antiquity. The archaeological evidence for the imperial period is still scarce, but the study of the architectural structures with mosaic floors in the Salmakis Fountain has increased the amount of material. These mosaics are the only ones preserved from the Imperial period in Halikarnassos.

Newton and many later scholars took their starting point for studying Halikarnassos from the ancient literary sources, in which the time of Maussollos, the period of strong Greek influence during the 4th century BC, was of paramount interest. According to the ancient authors, Halikarnassos was almost deserted and ruined during the Imperial period and later. This biassed representation of the history and urban development of Halikarnassos cannot be maintained, however, when taking into account the evidence of other sources such as the epigraphic and archaeological material

During excavations and restoration of the Myndos Gate in 1998-2000, there was revealed an extensive late antique necropolis with at least 22 monumental tombs, some decorated with mosaics. The tombs now stand in close proximity to the swimming pool of a modern hotel, but originally they faced onto the streets of the necropolis. although the size of the monuments varies, they display a common type. several of the larger tombs were two stories in height and above one or two barrel vaulted burial chambers, they had another, single room likewise spanned by a barrel vault. Three or four of the tombs were preceded by a porch or pronaos forming the entrance to the tomb, and three of these display mosaic pavements. The tombs probably contained multiple burials, and preserved inscriptions seem to indicate that these were family memorials. The imagery of the mosaic floors includes a hunting scene, a crater with emerging vine scrolls and birds pecking at bunches of grapes in addition to adjacent thyrsoi, and various geometric designs. The style and iconography of these floors are related to the mosaics of a late antique domus in halikarnassos, the so-called house of Charidemos, dated by various means to the mid-5th century a.D. The decorated tombs, along with other local structures and mosaics of the same period, indicate that halikarnassos (Bodrum) was a wealthy town in late antiquity.