{"title":"The Religious beliefs of Critias the Sophist: Rational Theology or Atheism?","authors":"Rustam Galanin","doi":"10.25205/1995-4328-2022-16-1-113-138","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25205/1995-4328-2022-16-1-113-138","url":null,"abstract":"Sextus Empiricus (Adv. Math. IX. 54. = B 25 DK) has preserved a fragment of a work attributed to the sophist and tyrant Critias. This fragment has long been considered a manifesto not only of atheism but also, perhaps, the first text in which religion is a purely political matter and the work of men's hands. Nevertheless, this text is still very problematic, because, taking into account the evidence of the primary sources, there is no real reason to believe that a) its author is precisely Critias who lead the Thirty Tyrants, b) that this is the fragment of the play \"Sisyphus\", c) that the \"Sisyphus\" is a satyr-play, d) that its author is not Euripides, and e) that it is indeed the manifesto of atheism and not a rational theological system that is completely loyal to everyday religious beliefs, which, without belittling religion, on the contrary, postulates its permanent benefit for any society. Whoever the author of this hypothetical \"Sisyphus\" might have been, he acted as a true sophist and rhetorician - by influencing one of the most important existential human experiences - the feeling of fear. And he had done it using logos and persuasion. The philosophical and moral issues of the fragment in question are entirely within the scope of intellectual debate in the second half of the fifth century BC. And one of the most important topics is the possibility of committing a secret crime that would not be detected not only by the law of the city of Athens but also by the gods.","PeriodicalId":228501,"journal":{"name":"ΣΧΟΛΗ. Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition","volume":"106 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125902722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A New Book on Sinesius of Cyrene","authors":"Mikhail Vedeshkin","doi":"10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-2-1151-1160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-2-1151-1160","url":null,"abstract":"A review of Miroshnichenko, E.I. (2021) Sinesij Kirenskij: lichnost' i jetiket v pozdneantichnoj jepistolografii [Synesius of Cyrene: Personality and Etiquette in Late Antique Epistolography]. St. Petersburg: Nestor-Istoria. 311 p.","PeriodicalId":228501,"journal":{"name":"ΣΧΟΛΗ. Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129845282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Heraclides of Pontus on the Soul","authors":"","doi":"10.25205/1995-4328-2019-13-1-349-357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25205/1995-4328-2019-13-1-349-357","url":null,"abstract":"Heraclides of Pontus (c. 388–310 BCE), a Platonic philosopher, worked in various literary genres. He discussed such typical Platonic topics as the transmigration of the soul, composed philosophical lives, dialogues or treaties about politics, literature, history, geography, etc., and wrote a series of works on astronomy and the philosophy of nature. Nothing is preserved. The present publication contains a collection of the testimonies about Heraclides’ lost psychological and eschatological writings. The evidences are translated and numbered according to a new edition by Schütrumpf et al. 2008.","PeriodicalId":228501,"journal":{"name":"ΣΧΟΛΗ. Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126970683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The principle of \"ars imitatur naturam\" in the genesis of philosophical and educational conceptions of Jan Amos Komensky and Grigory Skovoroda","authors":"A. Stepanova","doi":"10.25205/1995-4328-2022-16-1-172-190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25205/1995-4328-2022-16-1-172-190","url":null,"abstract":"The article is devoted to the study of the role and modification of the Aristotelian principle of ars imitatur naturam in the formation of the concept of the Czech thinker, teacher, and theologian Jan Amos Comenius. The variety of approaches of Protestant thinkers to Aristotle's principle, born in the discussion, allowed Comenius to address it critically, perceiving it comprehensively and extending the concept of art to the sphere of education. Campanella's ideas moved Comenius to remove the veneer of indeterminacy from nature, promoting an understanding of it as a friendly and creative beginning. The author notes the peculiarity of Comenius' interpretation of this principle, giving it the meaning of universal nature-humanitarian mechanism which suited his concept of pan-sophia to the fullest extent. Comenius and G. Skovoroda, who developed the concepts of kinship and wisdom in the light of the ideas of enlightenment, thus laying the foundations of humanistic philosophy and pedagogy of the New Age and Enlightenment era, make an analogy between the interpretations of the Aristotelian thesis.","PeriodicalId":228501,"journal":{"name":"ΣΧΟΛΗ. Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132414878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"About the \"theology\" of the early Greek philosophers","authors":"G. Drach, R. Frantsuzov","doi":"10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-2-748-759","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-2-748-759","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines W. Jaeger’s work The theology of the early Greek philosophers: The Gifford Lectures, 1936. We believe that in addition to an extensive introductory article by V. V. Prokopenko, several points should be clarified. The first point is to reveal the ideological context within which this work was created and which it belonged to. The second point is to understand how W. Jaeger views the early Greek philosophers and what picture of early ancient intellectualism he paints. The disclosure of these two moments in unity lets us both to take a fresh look at the early ancient tradition of philosophizing and, to some extent, extrapolate this view by shifting the emphasis from the myth and logos plane to the area where mythopoetics (mythical theology) turns into theopoetics (philosophical theology).","PeriodicalId":228501,"journal":{"name":"ΣΧΟΛΗ. Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130465098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Anti-Ethics of Socrates: Plato versus Aristotle","authors":"I. Protopopova","doi":"10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-1-351-360","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-1-351-360","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this article is to compare the ethics that can be found in Plato’s Socrates with the ethics of Aristotle in the context of Plato’s and Aristotle’s understanding of the good. The first part analyzes Aristotle’s understanding of ethics. He proceeds from the fact that there is no good in itself, there are many of them. The highest good, according to Aristotle, is the good of polis; his ethics is determined by politics. The highest happiness is to live according to virtue; moral (ethical) virtue (ἀρετὴ ἠθικὴ) can be taught by suggestion and repetition of certain actions; the nature of virtue is connected with the middle, it is necessary to avoid both excess and lack of passions and actions in order to acquire the habit of sticking to the middle. The second part demonstrates the difference between Aristotelian and Platonic concepts of virtue. For Plato, the main thing is the good in itself, which is beyond being (ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας), but at the same time it is the cause of all things, the cognizable and cognition as such (R. 509b6–10). Accordingly, the good of polis for him is by no means the topmost good; in general, polis and politics are only one of the levels of the so-called visible realm of existence, where opinion rules. Since the good itself goes beyond the limits of existence, a person striving for it must go beyond the limits of existence, and his own self: such transcendence is described in the dialogues “Symposium”, “Phaedrus”, “Phaedo”; in the “Symposium”, it is emphasized that only this transcendence allows to give birth to a genuine virtue, and not merely a ghost of it. Thus, virtue according to Plato can in no way be the middle, and it is also impossible to teach it; it is in this sense that the views of Plato’s Socrates may be called anti-ethics (the word “ethics” in Plato does not exist at all).","PeriodicalId":228501,"journal":{"name":"ΣΧΟΛΗ. Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121499171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rhétorique et justice dans l’œuvre du philosophe néoplatonicien Proclus","authors":"C. Térézis","doi":"10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-1-63-69","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-1-63-69","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I investigate the relationship between rhetoric and justice as it is presented in Proclus’ commentary of Plato’s dialogue Alcibiades I. The study is divided into three parts. In the first one, which is entitled “The political counsellor”, I elaborate how this institutional person, utilizing the possibilities of rhetoric, aims to exercise prudence to all those who intent to complete personally and politically themselves in the context of justice. In the second part, which is entitled “The refutation of the superficial syllogisms”, I focus on what rhetoric can provide to man so as to be able to think in a rational way when it comes to the precise content of justice as a moral and political virtue. In the third part, which is entitled “The justice and injustice and their relationship with benefit”, I discuss how rhetoric needs to be utilized in order to have new modes of connection of justice with benefit, excluding any beneficial criterion. The main conclusion that I draw is that according to Proclus rhetoric is for a political counsellor a tool of justice, which has to be the final purpose of his mission.","PeriodicalId":228501,"journal":{"name":"ΣΧΟΛΗ. Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125223932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Philosophy as ‘Holy Religion’ (sancta religio). The Essence of Hermetic Philosophy in Asclepius, sive Dialogus Hermetis Trismegisti","authors":"Kazimierz Pawłowski","doi":"10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-1-70-86","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-1-70-86","url":null,"abstract":"The paper deals with the concept of Hermetic philosophy presented in Pseudo-Apuleius' dialogue Asclepius, sive dialogus Hermetis Trismegisti. The attempt is made to describe the special characteristic of this philosophy and its spiritual dimension. Hermetic philosophy is not about solving complicated theoretical problems. Hermetic philosophy only wants to inspire and arouse the natural spiritual sensibility of its adept and open his mind to receiving the divine Mind (God).","PeriodicalId":228501,"journal":{"name":"ΣΧΟΛΗ. Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition","volume":"330 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122838581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neoplatonic Exegesis of Hermaic Chain: Some Reflections","authors":"J. M. Calvo","doi":"10.25205/1995-4328-2022-16-2-439-461","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25205/1995-4328-2022-16-2-439-461","url":null,"abstract":"In his exposition of the philosophical history of Neoplatonist School in Athens, Damascius attempts to prove that Isidore's soul was part of the Hermaic chain to which Proclus also belonged. According to Marinus (V. Procl. 28), Proclus had the revelation of this very fact and had learned from a dream that he possessed the soul of the Pythagorean Nicomachus of Gerasa. In the 4th and 6th centuries the expression “pattern of Hermes Logios” is transmitted through the various links of the Neoplatonic chain, Julian (Or. 7.237c), Proclus (in Parm. I.618), Damascius (V. Isid. Fr. 16) and Olympiodorus (in Gorg. 41.10.16–22; in Alc. 190.14–191.2). The formula that Aelius Aristides (Or. III.663) dedicates to the praise of Demosthenes, the best of Greek orators, arises in the context of an opposition between rhetoric and philosophy, and appears transferred and transmuted in the texts of the Neoplatonic schools to a philosophical context that defends an exegetical mode of teaching. Demosthenes, through his admirer Aristides, exerts an influence on Neoplatonism, introducing Hermes as the key piece that strengthens the chain of reason and eloquence. Hermes, the “eloquent” god or “friend of discourses”, transmits divine authority through the word of the exegete: an exceptional philosopher, a model of virtue to strive to rise to.","PeriodicalId":228501,"journal":{"name":"ΣΧΟΛΗ. Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131285388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Elements of the theological system of the Qumran community in correlation with the peculiarities of its “gnoseology”","authors":"I. Tantlevskij","doi":"10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-2-822-841","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.25205/1995-4328-2023-17-2-822-841","url":null,"abstract":"The article attempts to identify the specifics of the ways in which the Qumran authors “know” God, based on an analysis of a number of their key works. The Qumranites’ acquisition of “theological” Knowledge was mainly of direct intuitive “spiritual” comprehension, including elements of “noethics”. This cognitive phenomenon has sometimes been described directly as insight (cf., e. g., 1QHa 12:5-6, 27-29; 15:24-25). On the other hand, the Qumran teaching that God “formed understanding (bynh) for all who seek knowledge (d‘t)” and that “all reason (śkl) is from eternity” (4Q299, fr. 8, 7–8) suggests that human mind is initially a partaker of the eternal Mind of God. As one consequence of this, one has the potential gift of directly accessing the elements of Knowledge contained within the Divine Mind (śkl, bynh). There was also a mystical-“gnostic” way of knowing. Thus, the Qumranites probably practised some kind of mystical heavenly “voyages” in a kind of ecstatic state — in fact, probably implying mystical “death” and subsequent “rebirth”, involving the acquisition of heavenly Knowledge. The author has also tried to reconstruct elements of the Qumranite theological system and identify some features of the Qumran creationist doctrine and the closely related doctrine of predestination; views of history, eschatology and the creation of a new world; dualistic concepts in correlation with soteriology; the Qumran theology of Light and Darkness in ethical, gnoseological and soteriological aspects.","PeriodicalId":228501,"journal":{"name":"ΣΧΟΛΗ. Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127996651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}