{"title":"What is Gorgias’ ‘not being’? A brief journey through the Treatise, the Apology of Palamedes and the Encomium of Helen","authors":"Erminia Di Iulio","doi":"10.14195/1984-249x_31_26","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249x_31_26","url":null,"abstract":"Assuming that a nihilist reading of Gorgias’ thought is to be ruled out, the issue of ‘not being’ remains one of the thorniest in his philosophy; indeed, it is fair to conclude that Gorgias is deeply concerned with ‘not being’. But what, after all, is Gorgias’ ‘not being’? This paper aims to answer this crucial question, by taking into consideration Gorgias’ main texts (i.e. the Treatise, the Apology of Palamedes and the Encomium of Helen). Each of them provides a serious – although not always explicit – account of ‘not being’. Overall, the aim is to show that Gorgias’ account of ‘not being’ is not concerned with ‘non-existence’ at all. It is deeply concerned, however, with falsehood and language. The paper will, therefore, be structured as follows: in part 1, the Treatise and specifically the the first section of the Particular Proof will be addressed and its ‘linguistic’ conception of ‘not-being’ fully exploited; in part 2, the Apology of Palamedes will be taken into account, in order to enucleate its ‘not-being-as-falsehood’ argument; the results from part 1 and part 2 will allow us, in part 3, to provide an analysis of the Encomium of Helen which points at its underlying conception of ‘not-being’.","PeriodicalId":41249,"journal":{"name":"Archai-Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84027245","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":"Gorgias' Revising of Ancient Epistemology: on Non-Being by Gorgias and its Paraphrases","authors":"M. Volf","doi":"10.14195/1984-249x_31_27","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249x_31_27","url":null,"abstract":"The philosophical nature of the two versions of paraphrasing the Gorgias’ treatise On Non-Being — the skeptical version by Sextus Empiricus and the peripatetic version by an anonymous author — are discussed. The paper gives a comparative analysis of the arguments upheld by the informants enunciating Gorgias’ thoughts, demonstrates the range of philosophical problems, which Gorgias considered, judging by the reports of his speech, and shows how both versions add to and clarify each other in terms of philosophical issues. The work provides insights as to how Gorgias modernizes and transforms the initial attitudes of Parmenides, shifting the reasoning plan: from how thought can be directed to an object and the qualities of this object to how thought can be directed to the non-existent. Accordingly, the problems of intentionality in the Gorgias’ teaching are considered as well as the privileged status of any of mental states, the nature of word or speech as an autonomous way to develop knowledge about external objects, the issue of meaning as a reference, and inter-subjectivity in cognition. A conclusion is reached that giving preference to one of the paraphrasing versions impoverishes our understanding of the Gorgias’ teaching considerably, while the joint analysis of both versions demonstrates the engagement of the sophistic issues raised by Gorgias, in the philosophical and, particularly, the epistemological paradigm of the ancient as well as modern philosophy.","PeriodicalId":41249,"journal":{"name":"Archai-Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75678930","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":"Epistemerastes. The Platonic Philosopher in the Timaeus between True Opinion and Science","authors":"Federico Casella","doi":"10.14195/1984-249x_31_20","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249x_31_20","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. The aim of this paper is to analyse the ways in which the nature of true philosophers is described in Plato’s Timaeus. By examining the distinction between two kinds of opinion – one (produced by sensation) absolutely false, the other (developed through one of the soul’s rational faculties) reliably true – I will try to show that Plato coined a new term to denote both true philosophers and the characteristics of their knowledge. From being a ‘love of wisdom’, true philosophy came to be defined as a ‘passion for science’. Finally, I will try to illustrate the protreptic intent underlying this choice of words and how it concerns the main critical target of the Timaeus, the so-called Presocratics.","PeriodicalId":41249,"journal":{"name":"Archai-Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental","volume":"66 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83827021","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":"Superare Parmenide: Zenone, Melisso e Gorgia impegnati a fare ‘meglio di lui’","authors":"L. Rossetti","doi":"10.14195/1984-249x_31_25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249x_31_25","url":null,"abstract":"Durante il V secolo AC Parmenide ebbe molti e qualificati lettori, tra cui Zenone, Empedocle, Anassagora, Leucippo, Melisso, Protagora, Gorgia, Ippia. Tre di loro hanno cercato di fare molto di più di quello che è stato in grado di fare lui con l' ‘esercizio deduttivo’ che incontriamo in 28B8.1-33 (o, nel caso di Melisso, con l'intera dottrina dell'essere), e ci sono riusciti. In effetti, che si siano sforzati di superare l'elevato standard già raggiunto da Parmenide nell'invenzione dei passaggi strettamente deduttivi è sostanzialmente fuori discussione. Il mio articolo è dedicato a rendere conto degli ambiziosi obiettivi che Zenone, Melisso e Gorgia raggiunsero, ciascuno in modi molto differenti.","PeriodicalId":41249,"journal":{"name":"Archai-Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82453664","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":"Corporeality and Thickness: Back on Melissus’ Fragment B9","authors":"Mathilde Brémond","doi":"10.14195/1984-249x_31_23","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249x_31_23","url":null,"abstract":"Melissus’ fragment B9, where he claims that being has no body and no thickness, raises the question of how being can be extended and full and at the same time incorporeal. Most recent interpretations tried to avoid lending to “body” the meaning of “physical body”. My aim in this paper is to reconstruct Melissus’ notion of body, by examining its connection to “thickness”. I show that Melissus meant by “thick” something that has distinct parts and therefore supports in B9 the indivisibility of being. I then indicate that he relied on the contrast between soul and body for his conception of corporeality, by highlighting that by Presocratic thinkers, the soul was considered as “thin” and regarded as something that could be exempt of the division into parts. I conclude that even though Melissus’ notion of incorporeality is very different from the one Plato will develop, he made a huge step toward its conceptualization.","PeriodicalId":41249,"journal":{"name":"Archai-Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89461006","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":"Between Eleatics and Atomists: Gorgias’ Argument against Motion","authors":"Roberta Ioli","doi":"10.14195/1984-249x_31_28","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249x_31_28","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of my paper is to investigate Gorgias’ argument against motion, which is found in his Peri tou meontos and preserved only in MXG 980a18. I tried to shed new light both on this specific reflection and on the reliability of Pseudo-Aristotle’s version. By exploring the so called “change argument” and the “argument from divisibility”, I focused on the particular strategy used by the Sophist in his synthetike apodeixis, which should be investigated in relation to the dispute between monistic and pluralistic ontology. In this regard, the puzzle from “divisibility everywhere” and its connection with the void as not-being can provide new elements to grasp the philosophical background in which the Sophist moves. On the one hand, Gorgias’ argument against motion is part of a broader dispute on the divisibility/indivisibility of being; on the other, his original elaboration of this puzzle seems to be perfectly understandable within the controversy between Eleatics and Atomists, and coherent with the argumentative style of the Sophist.","PeriodicalId":41249,"journal":{"name":"Archai-Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental","volume":"69 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86408099","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":"Resenha de Torrano, J. Mito e imagens míticas. Hesíodo, homéricos, tragédia e Platão (2019)","authors":"Maria Aparecida De Oliveira Silva","doi":"10.14195/1984-249x_31_17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249x_31_17","url":null,"abstract":"Resenha de Jaa Torrano. (2019) Mito e imagens míticas. Hesíodo, homéricos, tragédia e Platão.São Paulo, Córrego.","PeriodicalId":41249,"journal":{"name":"Archai-Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73444613","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}
Cristina de Souza Agostini, I. Silveira, Cauê Cardoso Polla
{"title":"Scientific Evolution of Philosophical Concepts of the Origins of Universe and Life","authors":"Cristina de Souza Agostini, I. Silveira, Cauê Cardoso Polla","doi":"10.14195/1984-249x_31_16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249x_31_16","url":null,"abstract":"In order to demonstrate the great importance of Philosophy in the elaboration of current scientific theories, a parallel was drawn between concepts of pre-Socratic Philosophy and current modern theories. Thus, throughout this essay, the convergences between some elaborations developed by philosophers and their reinterpretation from a scientific point of view, supported by the scientific method and the present technological apparatuses, were exposed. In this sense, having as its core the reflection about the atomic theory of Leucippus and Democritus, we investigate the way in which atomism dialogues with the modern Atomic Theory to the Quantum Theory, through concepts of Kosmos and Cosmology. In a second moment, origin of life theories were revisited from the pre-Socratic concepts of Psykhe. Finally, Philosophy and Science are brought together as possible and complementary tools for the restoration of the amplification of thought and investigative processes.","PeriodicalId":41249,"journal":{"name":"Archai-Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81906514","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":"Platon et Plotin face au problème de la séparation","authors":"M. Fattal","doi":"10.14195/1984-249x_31_18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249x_31_18","url":null,"abstract":"Dans cette étude consacrée à Platon et Plotin, il s'agit de mettre au jour toute l'originalité de la pensée de Platon et de Plotin face au problème de la séparation (chôrismos) à travers l'analyse précises de certains dialogues de Platon et de Traités significatifs de Plotin.","PeriodicalId":41249,"journal":{"name":"Archai-Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental","volume":"121 6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88769885","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":"Les \"opinions des mortels\" de Parménide et un éventuel pythagorisme éléatique","authors":"N. Cordero","doi":"10.14195/1984-249x_31_14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249x_31_14","url":null,"abstract":"La Déesse de Parménide annonce toujours que les δόξαι sont un produit humain. Mais il y a un point qui n'a pas été en général remarqué dans les études consacrées à l'étude des δόξαι: elles décrivent une activité humaine qui consiste a expliquer la réalité par la présence de principes opposés, et qui est toujours en rapport avec la \"nomination\" (voir fr. 8.51, fr. 8.38-41, fr 9, fr. 19.3). Il y avait à l'époque de Parménide une école qui correspondait à ce portrait robot, ou s'agit-il d'un collage de Parménide? Quoi qu'il en soit, il est attesté la présence d'une branche du Pythagorisme qui se caractérisait, précisément, pour \"placer\" des noms sur les choses.","PeriodicalId":41249,"journal":{"name":"Archai-Revista de Estudos Sobre as Origens do Pensamento Ocidental","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88660581","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}