Philosophy Archive
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THUCYDIDES CONSTRUCTS HIS SPEAKERS: THE CASE OF DIODOTUS
Posted on March 8, 2013 | No CommentsIn a nutshell: there is no way to avoid the conclusion that Thucydides himself is responsible for the most important parts of his speakers' speeches, that is, that for all practical purposes he composed them. -
Plotinus: The Ineffable One
Posted on January 20, 2013 | No CommentsConsider the following objects: an army, a house, a giraffe, your immortal soul. What makes these things different from each other and might they have in common. Plotinus, the founder of neo-platonism, who lived in the third century, would say that a striking feature of these things is that some of them are more real than others. -
The Relationship of Philosophy and Art in Plato’s Republic
Posted on January 15, 2013 | No CommentsIn the Republic, Plato voices his ambivalence toward poetry and poesis in general. Plato admires art for its great inspirational power, but at the same time detests it because its creator has 'no grasp of the truth'. -
The Breath of Life in Aristotle
Posted on December 23, 2012 | No CommentsThus, answering the question, -
Heraclitus and the Work of Awakening
Posted on December 11, 2012 | No CommentsHeraclitus is universally regarded as one of the fathers of western philosophy. However, the characterization of the nature of his contribution varies widely. To some he is an early example of rational, empirical, scientific inquiry into the physical world. To others he was primarily a brilliantly innovative metaphysician. -
The First Principles of Latin Neoplatonism: Augustine, Macrobius, Boethius
Posted on October 21, 2012 | No CommentsThis essay attempts to provide more evidence for the notions that there actually is a Latin (as opposed to a Greek) Neoplatonic tradition in late antiquity, that this tradition includes a systematic theory of first principles, and that this tradition and theory are influential in Western Europe during the Middle Ages -
Philosophies of Imprisonment in Late Antiquity
Posted on October 11, 2012 | No CommentsIn order to understand how the conceptual perception of prisons changed with different social groups, one must first understand what prisons were meant to be and what they actually were. Prison structure was governed on logic, with different types of prisons to separate the accused from the condemned. From the structure, scholars can understand the purpose of the prison, and current scholarly debate revolves around the intention of the law-makers. -
Treason and Related Offenses in the Roman Germanic Law
Posted on September 13, 2012 | No CommentsIntellectual and spiritual treason represent the final depths of public crime in which the individual sets his personal will against the established legal order, representing the collec- tive wisdom of the race. Indeed, in a large philosophic sense treason underlies all crime, for the ultimate effect of crime is the subversion of society and the death of the state. -
Francis Bacon’s use of ancient myths in Novum Organum
Posted on September 8, 2012 | No CommentsIn this paper, I will show how the ancient myths of Pan, Perseus, Dionysius, and Prometheus have an impact on Book I of Francis Bacon's Novum Organum. -
Love, friendship and images : citizenship and necessity in Thucydides and Plato
Posted on September 5, 2012 | No CommentsThis dissertation is concerned with the responses of Thucydides and Plato to the phenomenon of motion in the political world which, for both, is understood to be more or less problematic.
