Olga L.

Lizzini Introductory course on Ancient Philosophy A preamble or some useful general information Pre-Socratic Philosophy: The term pre-Socratic (or, as you will sometimes find, presocratic) indicates the earliest Greek philosophers. It has more of a doctrinal than a chronological meaning: some of the so-called pre-Socratic philosophers were contemporaries of Socrates. Thats why some scholars consider the term misleading. In any case, Socrates interests in ethics and in language as a philosophical tool can be regarded as a major revolution in philosophy. So in a sense pre-Socratic refers to those philosophers who were not influenced by Socrates. The works of the earliest Greek philosophers are lost. We know the philosophers' names, works and ideas through some later thinkers and historians who quoted from their works or reported on their contents. Thus we have "fragments" of the lost works (i.e. quotations or ispsissima verba) and "testimonies" or testimonia about what they said. In some cases we also have testimonies which take the philosophers as models (imitations, false testimonies or fallacies). By carefully analyzing these fragments and testimonies, scholars have attempted to reconstruct what the earliest Greek philosophers actually said. Reconstruction, of course, always involves interpretation. Among the most important sources of fragments (quotations) and testimonies or opinions ( doxai, whence doxography) related to the pre-Socratic philosophers we would mention: Plato (427-347 B.C.), Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), and his commentators, Cicero (1st century B.C.), Clement of Alexandria (2nd cent. A.D.), Sextus Empiricus (2nd cent. A.D.), Plutarch (2nd cent. A.D.), Diogenes Laertius (3rd cent. A.D.), Simplicius of Cilicia (6th cent. A.D.). The standard edition of fragments (ipsissima verba, referred to as B), doxai (referred to as A), and, as is sometimes the case, imitations (referred to as C) is that of Hermann Diels and Walther Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, (6th edition Berlin 1951; first ed. by Diels 1903), normally known as Diels-Kranz (DK). In classes we use mainly P. Curd, A Presocratics Reader, Hackett, Indianapolis, 20112 , in which fragments have both a new numeration and the original DK reference. For more Bibliography see Patricia Curds references and E. Navia Luis, The Presocratic Philosophers: An annotated Bibliography, NewYork/London 1993 ; L. Paquet, M. Roussel, Y. Lafrance, Les Prsocratiques: Bibliographie Analytique (1879-1980), Montral 1988 (vol.1) Socrates of Athens (469-399 B.C.). Socrates is, in many ways, the prototypical philosopher. He wrote nothing. Our knowledge is based on testimonia and perhaps on some quotations (see Gabriele Giannantoni's monumental, Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae, 4 vols., Bibliopolis, Naples, 1990-91). A major source is Plato's dialogues, particularly those that scholars call the Socratic dialogues. In fact, many scholars think that some of Plato's dialogues represent more or less the historical Socrates. In an early period Plato wrote about his master and his confutational ability and maieutic method; among the Socratic dialogues, we would particularly mention: the Apology, Crito, Laches, Euthyphro, Ion, Charmides and Lysis.

Plato (427-347 B.C.). In Plato's middle and late dialogues, Socrates is often still a central figure. Nevertheless, the doctrines and the concepts they convey no longer seem strictly dependent on the teaching of the master, Socrates. In some of these dialogues the "character" Socrates says things that apparently don't reflect what the real Socrates probably thought. In our classes we shan't be able to have more than a glimpse of Plato's remarkably inventive, varied and founding contributions to philosophy. Alfred North White head said that The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato (Process and Reality, from 1929, Free Press, 1979, p. 39). Plato's works are generally cited by their "Stephanus numbers," which are printed in the margins of every major text and translation of his works; these numbers represent the pagination of the first great scholarly edition of Plato's works in printed book form, by Henri Estienne (Latinized as "Stephanus") in 1578. The works are divided into numbers, and each number is divided into equal sections a, b, c, d and e. For example, Symposium 172a refers to one passage. More specific citations often add line numbers, e.g. Symposium 209a5-9, but these generally refer to John Burnet's Oxford Classical Text, not to Estienne's line divisions. Platos works are dialogues. They often contain stories or myths. This renders the analysis of his philosophy very problematic: many elements have to be taken into consideration: first of all the interpretation of its (often puzzling) form (the dialogue form and the stories the dialogues contain). In other words: why does Plato write dialogues, and why does he use myths and stories? Other questions concern the role played by Socrates, the indirectness of Plato (not only Socrates, but also other characters appear in the dialogues), and of course the chronology, the structure and the very contents of the works. Moreover, almost all we have of Plato is what he wrote to be published. We dont have what according to one tradition is his oral ( or esoteric) teaching. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) Aristotle studied in Plato's academy for some eighteen years. His way of explaining the world partially depends on Platos philosophy, but it is revolutionary. One might say that, for Aristotle, philosophy should be a scientific discipline. The influence of Aristotle's philosophy is huge: he shaped centuries of philosophy from Late Antiquity through the Renaissance. Even today, scholars study Aristotles works with keen, non -antiquarian interest. Almost all we have of Aristotle is what he wrote as a preparation for his lessons and/or a development of his theories. We have (almost) nothing of what he published. This is one of the elements which complicate the interpretation of his philosophy. Aristotle's works, often referred to by Latin forms of their titles (or by abbreviations derived from these Latin forms), are customarily cited by their "Bekker numbers", which appear in the margins of every reputable edition and translation. Bekker numbers reflect the pagination of the edition of Aristotle's works by Immanuel Bekker: Aristotelis Opera edidit Academia Regia Borussica, Berlin, 1831-1870. The numbers indicate the page, a letter indicates column 'a' or 'b', then further numbers refer to the line. For example, the beginning of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is 1094a1, which corresponds to page 1094 of Bekker's edition of the Greek text of Aristotle's works, first column, line 1. For a list of Aristotles works, according to the order elaborated by Andronicus of R hodes (1st cent. B.C.), and their abbreviations, see: http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/ariworks.htm

Neoplatonism: Plotinus (204/5 270 C.E.), is generally regarded as the founder of Neoplatonism. He is one of the most influential philosophers in antiquity after Plato and Aristotle. The term Neoplatonism is an invention of early 19th century European scholarship and indicates the penchant of historians for dividing periods in history. In this case, the term was intended to indicate that Plotinus initiated a new phase in the development of the Platonic tradition. What this newness amounted to, if anything, is controversial, largely because ones assessment of it depends upon one's assessment of what Platonism is. In fact, Plotinus (like all his successors) regarded himself simply as a Platonist, that is, as an expositor and defender of the philosophical position whose greatest exponent was Plato himself. Originality was thus not held as a premium by Plotinus. Nevertheless, Plotinus realized that Plato needed to be interpreted. In addition, between Plato and himself, Plotinus found roughly 600 years of philosophical writing, much of it reflecting engagement with Plato and the tradition of philosophy he initiated. Consequently, there were at least two avenues for originality open to Plotinus, even if it was not his intention to say fundamentally new things. The first was in trying to say what Plato meant on the basis of what he wrote or said or what others reported him to have said. This was the task of exploring the philosophical position that we happen to call Platonism. The second wa s in defending Plato against those who, Plotinus thought, had misunderstood him and therefore unfairly criticized him. Plotinus found himself, especially as a teacher, taking up these two avenues. His originality must be sought for by following his path. (L. Gerson, Stanford Encyclopeadia of Philosophy, s.v. Plotinus).

'Hellenistic'. The word 'Hellenistic' normally describes the culture of the Greek-speaking world during the time between the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.), with the consequent division of the Macedonian empire, and the start of the Roman Empire with Octavian's victory at Actium in 31 B.C. During this period, what had been Plato's academy continued to flourish, although it was different in character. The scholarchs of Platos academy decided that the real lesson of what Plato wrote was skepticism: the view that one should suspend judgment about everything and continue the philosophical inquiry (skeptikos means inquirer). We speak of skepticism anyhow also in the case of Pyrrho (d. 270 ca. B.C.). Some philosophers felt that this was not the right path for philosophy to follow, and they developed theories that are of particular importance for the treatment of ethical questions. The most outstanding figures in this context are Epicurus (d. 271 B.C.) and Zeno of Citium (263 B.C.). The former is regarded as the founder of the Epicurean school (very little is left of what he wrote: three letters and two collections of his maxims). Zeno and his followers were called "Stoics" : they gathered in the Athenian agora at the Stoa poikil (=painted portico). Skeptics, Epicureans and Stoics all had enormous influence on the subsequent history of Western philosophy. Unfortunately, however, what we have are brief accounts written at the very end of
the Hellenistic period or even later: summaries and quotations provided by later authors such as Cicero (106-43 B.C.) and Diogenes Laertius (3rd cent. A.D.).

Patristic philosophy is the locution that normally indicates the philosophy developed by the Fathers (patres: whence patristic) of the Christian Church, and divided (with reference to the Nicene Council in 325 A.D.) into the ante-Nicene period (basically a defense of the Christian faith), and the post-Nicene period up to St. Augustine. Patristic philosophy or, more precisely, religious-

philosophical patristic theories are profoundly influenced by Platonism and Neoplatonism. Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, who is thought to have died in 526 A.D.) is not a Father of the Church, but one of the most important intermediaries between ancient philosophy and the Latin Middle Ages. He was influenced by Neoplatonism and, therefore, by Aristotelian thought.
http://archive.org/details/dedoctrinachrist00augu http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/boethius.html

Links General Stanford Enclyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP): http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html The History of Philosophy without any gaps: http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/ (by Peter Adamson) The Perseus Project: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ The Internet Classic Archive: http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Plato.html The Greek alphabet: http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/alphabet.html Ancient Philosophy Search Engines: http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/433/433Search.html The Bryn Mawr Classical Review: http://www.bmcreview.org/

Pre-Socratics http://presocratics.daphnet.org http://www.scribd.com/doc/31170545/I-presocratici-edizione-Diels-Kranz-con-traduzione-parallela-di-GGiannantoni http://archive.org/details/diefragmenteder00krangoog

Plato Perseus Project (includes texts of Plato: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ The Internet Classic Archive : http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Plato.html Aristotle

Names and Abbreviations of Aristotles Works http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/ariworks.htm Perseus Project (includes texts http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ of Aristotle in both Greek and English) :

Complete Texts of Aristotle in English (MIT Tech Classics Archive) : http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/ Aristotles CATegories: http://www.uh.edu/~cfreelan/courses/categories.html Other links: http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/433/433Links.html