Articles with keyword: Plato

This paper will focus on women as philosophers in the Graeco-roman world: its time span will be extended , roughly, from the 6th c BC to the end of the 4th c AD. This rather elongated time span is due to the scarcity of the sources: Although there is a significant progress on the subject of the role of ancient Greek and Roman women in religion, economy and –even-politics, this is due to the bulk of information which can be gathered from- both - inscriptions and papyri. We cannot be so lucky on the subject of women ‘s share in intellectual life. The surviving material written by women is flimsy and fragmented: we know the names of some female poets and some fragments of their poems, but what about female philosophers? Of course, there is a list which –according to Richard Hauley –records the names of sixtythree women philosophers of antiquity. The problem with that list is: were these women genuine philosophers or they were simply ciphers or heroines of anecdotes? In other words, did those women produce philosophical work? This seems to be a moot point in the historical research: For most of them, we cannot be sure about anything else except their name and some short story, usually in connection with a male philosopher and of anecdotal character. There were some female students in various schools of philosophical thought, starting from the Pythagorean ones, through Plato’s academia to the various epicurean “gardens”. Some women, even taught, though this is a rather rare phenomenon. But the only philosophical works which survives under a woman’s Konstantinos Mantas ELECTRYONE (2022) Vol.8, Iss. 2, 48-60 http://www.electryone.gr-ISSN: 2241-4061 49 name consists of a few epistles by Pythagorean women sent to other women who sought their advice. These epistles present problems to the researcher: Some deny that they could have been written by women, thus considering them as having been written by men using female pseudonyms. This is an argument colored by sexist prejudice: if we accept that, we should deny all female authorship in antiquity. Of course, women philosophers can be connected to female mathematicians : in antiquity, a philosopher had had to be well-versed in mathematics and there are references to female mathematicians from the mythological era(Aethra, the mother of Theseus) up to late antiquity(Hypatia). Also, some women in postclassical Alexandria were alchemists and theurgoi. This is another aspect of female spirituality : it seems that it was easier for women to participate in philosophical work of a metaphysical nature(close to witchcraft). The story of Sosipatra(4th c AD), as it has been recorded by Eunapius in his Lives of the sophists is simila to fairy tales and apocryphal texts. Another important aspect of the history of women philosophers is that they were closely linked to a male philosopher: usually , as his wife or daughter(Theano, Hipparchia, , Sosipatra, Hypatia).Like most of women doctors, female philosophers seem to have profited due to this kind of nepotism which was prevalent in antiquity. So, the fact that women, even, when they taught philosophy seem to have done so in their home, needs not to surprise us. In the Hellenistic and Roman era, women could act in various civic roles , as benefactors and titular office –holders but only as members of local aristocratic dynasties and in a “privatized’ civic system of rule. Last but not least: who should we call a philosopher in antiquity? The epigraphical material shows, that most of the inscriptions engraved on tombs, honouring women as philosophers, imply that the deceased were honored as educated women- not as creators of genuine philosophical works. The same seems to apply to the empress Julia Doman, wife of the emperor Septimius Severus-she was given the honorific title of philosophos, but she did not write anything. Her contribution to philosophy is limited to the foundation of a philosophical salon and to her commission of the writing of the biography of the legendary sophist and magician Apollonius of Tyana.

The main aim of the study is to identify the Hesiodian motifs in Plato’s philosophy. Thus the study is founded on the assumption that myth (the poetic tradition) and logos (the philosophical tradition) do not represent two distinct paradigms in ancient Greek thought, but more a kind of thought continuity. We will look for these motives or analogies at the level of organisation of the world (kosmos) and at the level of organisation of society (polis). We will deal primarily with Plato’s dialogues Timaeus, Republic and Symposium. The goal of the submitted study is to answer the question of whether and to what extent did Hesiod’s work influence Plato’s ideas about the organisation of the world and society as such.

The best-known historical character who is connected to Socratic education is Alcibiades. The link between this pedagogical relationship and the ancient notion of παιδεία can be found in almost every author of Σωκρατικοὶ λόγοι. Scholars of ancient philosophy concur that all Socratic works on Alcibiades were meant as a unified response of sorts, on the part of Socrates’ circle, to Polycrates’ Accusation, with the objective of demonstrating Socrates’ innocence. There would seem to be no reason to doubt Socrates’ positive effect on Alcibiades. On the other hand, we cannot question the Alcibiades’ undeniable negative side of Alcibiades. The aim of this paper is to answer a controversial question: how could Socrates the philosopher have been educated by the arrogant Alcibiades? Whereas most contemporary scholars consider Alcibiades solely as a student of Socrates (as receiving a Socratic education), we approach the matter from the other way around: we wish to establish the extent to which Alcibiades acted on Socrates, in a certain sense, thus educating him (even if unintentionally). In our paper, we focus on Aeschines’ and Plato’s portrayals of Alcibiades.

The recent announcement (11 Feb 2016) of the detection of gravitational waves caused by the collision of two black holes, verified Einstein’s theory of their existence. Since this discovery is a pre-view of the creation of gravitational waves at the Big Bang, it urges us to investigate if this was predicted in Plato’s Timaeus where the creation of the universe is described. In the space-time, which is an “ocean” of energy-matter and which by being curved is perceived as the creation of particles and sensible things, the movement is not a spacial movement, but it is actually propagation of a perturbation and hence transmission of properties. The perturbation that is caused by the quantic fluctuations at the Big Bang should also produce, in theory, gravitational waves. Since the description of the “chora” in Plato’s Timaeus refers clearly to the space-time, the whole process that is narrated in the Timaeus, among other things, describes actually the creation of such waves. Being that as it may, a further study and elaboration in the cosmological view of Plato, may reveal very important new philosophical aspects related to modern Cosmology.

Plato recounts the myth of Gyges (Republic), forefather of King Croesus, who served the then archon of Lydia. Gyges found a magic ring that gave him the ability to become invisible to others. Wearing the ring, he went to the palace, made the queen his lover, killed the king and took his riches. Thus, the shepherd, with the help of the ring, annihilated the king and took the throne himself. The obvious message of the myth is pointed out by Plato himself: Those who apply justice do so not of desire but because they cannot do otherwise. But if license were given to both the just and the unjust to do as they wished with impunity and we observed where their desire led them, we would ‘catch’ the just one selecting the same path as the unjust. This, is because every person, by nature, aspires to avarice as something good, and only by law is forced to respect equality. If, therefore, such a ring is worn by both the just and unjust man, neither would appear such an upstanding character so as to remain true to justice, if he had the ability to, without fear, do anything he desired, Plato maintains. The myth of Gyges has corresponding applications in the field of modern-day sport, as a ‘record’ turns the athlete into a Croesus, who has everything at his feet. But the myth, has analogous applications in modern world as well. How many, in truth, wearing Gyges’ wondrous ring and being able to use the advantage it offers with impunity would not do so? They are very few, those who, although possessors of the ‘magic’ ring, have the strength of character, the moral fortitude, to resist the temptation. These few, the only ones capable of rejecting the lure of avarice, are the chaste, Plato intimates.

The aim of this paper is the examination of the relationship between the Protagoras' description about basic educational procedures in classical Greece and depicted ones on the kylix of Douris which is a unique and well preserved pottery revealing aspects of an ancient school interior. This study is based on bibliographical and phenomenological analysis. The depicted images are interpreted in comparison to written references related to Platonic thought about education. After that, teaching procedures of classical Greece related to communication styles are discussed comparatively (between) the ancient and modern instructional circumstances of primary education. Written evidence and painting analysis conclude that various differences exist in many educational levels including courses, teaching styles and instructional strategies. The roles of teachers, students and pedagogues are totally revealed. Those roles are comparable to the modern ones and relative to the procedures of individualization and personalization of learning.

In the 4th century B.C, Aristotle was to highlight the healing power of drama. He argued in the Poetics that drama has a therapeutic effect on the spectators, since it exposes them to a high level of emotional pressure, so much so that when the dramatic tension is resolved, the spectators eventually attain catharsis. His formulations were basically a reaction against Plato’s vehement attack on poetry. In the 20th century, Jacob L. Moreno, an Austrian-American psychiatrist, who is widely recognized as the founder of both psychodrama and sociodrama, realized the therapeutic effect of drama on his patients and was to use it as a means of treatment. Despite the fact that Aristotle and Moreno are separated by many centuries, their theories seem to converge as both stress the remedial influence of drama and its cathartic effect. Moreno, however, argued that there were differences between psychodramatic catharsis, on the one hand, and Aristotlean catharsis on the other, as the former drew on dramatic sources from the Near East. It is the aim of this paper to highlight how Aristotle and Moreno came to formulate their respective theories concerning catharsis, discussing the similarities and differences regarding their proposed catharses, and tracing Aristotlean echoes in Moreno’s theory.

The paper deals with the understanding of equality in the context of democracy in Plato’s philosophy. At first it clarifies kinds of equality which can be found in Plato’s dialogues especially Laws, Gorgias and Republic. Then it focuses on democracy – its origin and characteristics and it also analyses Plato’s criticism of democracy through equality. The paper concerns human nature, requirement for the rule of experts in relation to equality.