Antikkens filosofi

Themistios, ein anerkannter Philosoph seiner Zeit, gilt als einer der erfolgreichsten Lobredner des 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhunderts. Lange Zeit wurde ihm vor allem die Rolle eines Regierungssprechers zugeschrieben und seine Behauptung, dass er den Kaiser als Philosoph lobt, für reine Rhetorik gehalten. Diese Arbeit geht unter der Prämisse des Akzeptanzmodells vor allem der Frage nach, wie der große Erfolg Themistios' zu erklären ist, der immerhin Hauptredner auf vier aufeinanderfolgende Kaiser war. Die textnahe Untersuchung der Reden zeigt, dass sich Themistios als nicht-christlicher Philosoph stark von den neuplatonischen Philosophen seiner Zeit unterscheidet und vor allem diese Themistios abgesprochen haben, als Philosoph zu sprechen. Ein Ergebnis der Untersuchung ist, dass die Gruppe der nicht-christlichen Philosophen weniger homogen war als bisher vermutet, und es bei Themistios eine größere Nähe zu den christlichen Herrschaftsvorstellungen, gibt als bislang angenommen. Es zeigt sich, dass Themistios' Vorstellung eines guten Herrschers mit dem der Neuplatoniker nicht zu vereinbaren ist und diese jedoch bei dem Gros der Eliten großen Anklang fand. Themistios kann damit als einer der ersten politischen Philosophen gelten.

This volume offers authoritative discussions of all aspects of the philosophy of Epicurus (340-271 BCE) and then traces Epicurean influences throughout the Western tradition. It is an unmatched resource for those wishing to deepen their knowledge of Epicureanism's powerful arguments about death, happiness, and the nature of the material world.

A compilation of ancient wisdom sourced from ancient and medieval philosophers. Words of wisdom and advice for leading a good life have long been part of society, handed down from one generation to the next. Many of these wise observations originated from the philosophers of Ancient Greece and Rome and went on to circulate widely among the Arabic-speaking communities of the Middle Ages, who added new sayings of their own. Wisdom from the Ancients features over four hundred sayings, riddles, and aphorisms from the ancient and medieval world in English translation. Grouped by themes including medicine, food, politics, and nature, they derive from a range of philosophers and physicians, from Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato to al-Kindī, Ibn Hindū, and al-Rāzī. Packed with timeless advice to contemplate, share, and enjoy, this entertaining book offers readers a gateway to ancient and medieval cultures whose musings on philosophy, health, and life are just as authoritative and relevant today.

In 1458 George of Trebizond transferred the Plato-Aristotle controversy from the Byzantine world to the Latin by publishing his Comparatio Philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis et Praestantia Aristotelis, a full-scale attack on Plato and the Platonic tradition from antiquity to the present day, ending with a violent diatribe on the dangers posed by the influence of Cardinal Bessarion's recently deceased teacher, George Gemistus Pletho. To respond, Bessarion knew that he would have to do so in Latin, but in actuality, he composed his response in Greek and then translated it into Latin. The result was the Liber Defensionum contra Obiectiones in Platonem, which was ready for publication by 1466. At that point, however, he withdrew it from publication in order to expand its content as well as to refine its Latinity. Bessarion's response finally appeared in 1469 as the In Calumniatorem Platonis. But it was in the Liber Defensionum that Bessarion made his major decisions on what to include as well as what to exclude from his original Greek text and exactly how he would render the Greek into Latin. Thus, to understand the language and structure of the In Calumniatorem Platonis one must turn first to the Liber Defensionum.

Ciceros De officiis, geschrieben 44 v. Chr., gehört zu den anerkannten Klassikern der Philosophie, ist aber in seinen philosophischen Dimensionen und Gehalten bisher nicht hinreichend für ein breiter interessiertes Fachpublikum im deutschsprachigen Raum erschlossen. Die Schrift behandelt zentrale Themen der antiken Moralphilosophie und ist eine der wichtigsten Quellen zur stoischen Ethik. Die Konzepte des Tugendhaften (honestum) und des Nützlichen (utile) werden sowohl begrifflich als auch kasuistisch untersucht und ihr Verhältnis genauer bestimmt. So entwickelt Cicero eine differenzierte Pflichtenethik, die im Rahmen der berühmten Vier-Personen-Lehre auch ein Schlaglicht auf die philosophischen Wurzeln des Konzepts der Menschenwürde wirft. Das Werk ist eine Gelenkstelle in der Geschichte der Ethik und hat nicht zuletzt die Entwicklung der neuzeitlichen Deontologie (etwa bei Ch. Garve und I. Kant) entscheidend beeinflusst. Im Rahmen dieses Bandes erfährt De officiis zum ersten Mal eine philosophisch orientierte kooperative Kommentierung aus der Feder renommierter Fachleute, die das Werk sowohl für Studierende und Dozierende in Philosophie sowie Klassischer Philologie als auch für interessierte Laien zugänglich macht.

This book of deals with the drawings of mythical animals on buildings and applied Islamic artifacts, especially the drawings of the dragon, which spread in a way that attracts attention, whether on buildings or on various arts.The book revolves around several axes, including defining the mythical animals that Muslims used as decorative elements, as well as the mythical animals in Islamic art, where drawings of the phoenix (simurgh), the bird with a human face, drawings of birds with human heads, the winged horse, and the eagle (griffon) that appeared in two pictures: the first is in the form of a winged animal with a bird's head, two wings, a long neck and a bird's head, and the winged animal with a human head, the two-headed eagle, dragon shapes, birds' drawings, and facing dragons forms, along with the sirenah or mermaid.The research dealt with the element of the dragon on Islamic artifacts, the definition of the dragon, and its transfer to Islamic arts on stones, marble, metal artifacts, ceramics, textiles and carpets, in addition to the pictures of manuscripts, such as Mughal and Timurid pictures, and Safavid pictures.

The Virtuous Physician: A Brief Medical History of Moral Inquiry from Hippocrates to COVID-19 traces the origin and development of practical moral inquiry as viewed through a lens of medical history. The cornerstone of the book is a translation of, and commentary on, the second century BC pseudo-Hippocratic Greek text, Precepts, a work not translated into English since 1921, which introduces the idea of the 'virtuous physician', and the 'art' of medicine. Precepts describes the ideal way of being of the physician, and a pragmatic, very modern code of ethics. Through the examination of other early texts the book locates the physician as a seminal figure in ancient society, first with religious significance, and later with increasingly philosophico-intellectual meaning, the physical embodiment of the search for moral-pragmatic professional standardization. This inquiry is put to the test as applied to the existential threat and crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.The new, updated translation of Precepts makes the book interesting to classicists; and the detailed discussion of the cross-cultural influences between East and West in the Ancient World, especially of the influence of the Ancient Near East on Greek and Roman thought, to historians. It provides an outline of the history of the field for bioethicists and biomedical ethicists, and a seminal reference piece for physicians, from which to ground their own daily decision-making. It can be seen as a more valuable guide than the Hippocratic Oath, in this regard.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is one of the greatest philosophical works of all time. A collection of personal reflections written by Marcus Aurelius during his reign as one of Rome's greatest emperors, Meditations delves into topics that are as relevant today as they were more than two thousand years ago. Aurelius expresses his insights on the nature of virtue, the impermanence of existence, and the importance of mindfulness. He offers a Stoic's perspective on life, which emphasizes self-control, rationality, and acceptance of the world as it is. Stoicism teaches that while we cannot control external events, we can control our responses to them. With exceptional clarity and elegance Aurelius asserts that the cultivation of virtues such as wisdom, courage, justice, and moderation is the foundation of a richly meaningful and contented life. Simple, powerful, and persuasive, Meditations is essential reading for anyone interested in questions of happiness, leadership, and personal freedom. This Warbler Classics edition is based on the meticulous, time-honored translation by George Long and includes a succinct introduction to Stoicism and its practical application to daily life by Massimo Pigliucci as well as a biographical essay on the life of Marcus Aurelius.

This book, Thales and the Beginnings of European Reflection, is more than a field guide to all major testimonies about Thales. It does not merely contain a summary and critique of the available literature on the subject, but also lays down a new, holistic interpretation of Thales from a perspective that brings to light several important, but previously overlooked issues. An emphasis on mythology in Thales¿ thought combined with discourse analysis and a comprehensive treatment of his thinking in its pre-philosophical and pre-scientific unity is hoped to offer a unique and deeper insight into Thales¿ genius and the beginnings of European reflection.

"Like many people today, Brigid Delaney was searching for answers to timeless questions: How can we be good? Find inner peace? Properly grieve? Tame our insecurities, such as the fear of missing out? Determine what truly matters? Centuries ago, the Stoics pondered many of these same questions. And so, at an important inflection point in her own life, Brigid decided to let these ancient philosophers be her guide. Brigid is rash where the Stoics are logical; she runs on chaos, while the Stoics relinquish control of things beyond their reach. Over the course of a year, she dedicated herself to following the wisdom of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. She hoped to discover how best to live, how she could use the wisdom of these ancient thinkers to navigate life in the modern world. Here, Brigid shares what she learned, showing us how we, too, can draw on the Stoics to regain a sense of agency and tranquility and find meaning in our lives. From learning to relinquish control to cultivating daily awareness of our mortality to building community, Brigid's insights are very funny and very wise."--

The homogeneity of the Epicurean Garden and the unchangeability of the texts of Epicurus has traditionally been interpreted as a form of orthodoxy towards the authority of the master and his authoritative texts. In this volume, an unprecedented combination of general approaches and case studies on specific individuals, texts, and phenomena will discuss the topic from different perspectives.

This book explores the imaginative processes at work in the artefacts of Classical Athens. When ancient Athenians strove to grasp 'justice' or 'war' or 'death', when they dreamt or deliberated, how did they do it? Did they think about what they were doing? Did they imagine an imagining mind?European histories of the imagination have often begun with thinkers like Plato and Aristotle. By contrast, this volume is premised upon the idea that imaginative activity, and especially efforts to articulate it, can take place in the absence of technical terminology. In exploring an ancient culture of imagination mediated by art and literature, the book scopes out the roots of later, more explicit, theoretical enquiry. Chapters hone in on a range of visual and verbal artefacts from the Classical period. Approaching the topic from different angles - philosophical, historical, philological, literary, and art historical - they also investigate how these artefacts stimulate affective, sensory, meditative - in short, 'imaginative' - encounters between imagining bodies and their world.The Imagination of the Mind in Classical Athens offers a ground-breaking reassessment of 'imagination' in ancient Greek culture and thought: it will be essential reading for those interested in not only philosophies of mind, but also ancient Greek image, text, and culture more broadly.

This book asks what the world would look like if we adopted agent relativity wholeheartedly, clinging to no shred of absolute morality.

Private associations abounded in the ancient Greek world and beyond, and this volume provides the first large-scale study of the strategies of governance which they employed. Emphasis is placed on the values fostered by the regulations of associations, the complexities of the private-public divide (and that divide's impact on polis institutions) and the dynamics of regional and global networks and group identity. The attested links between rules and religious sanctions also illuminate the relationship between legal history and religion. Moreover, possible links between ancient associations and the early Christian churches will prove particularly valuable for scholars of the New Testament. The book concludes by using the regulations of associations to explore a novel and revealing aspect of the interaction between the Mediterranean world, India and China.

Stefan Szymik analyses New Testament texts in terms of polemic and anti-Epicurean rhetoric. To what extent and how did Epicurus and his philosophical thought influence the first Christian Churches? How did Christians react to Epicureanism? Although the New Testament only includes one account of an encounter between the Apostle Paul and the Epicureans (Acts 17:18), the probability of their contacts was high, given the popularity of Epicureanism in the Roman Empire in the first century CE. As a vital component of Hellenistic-Roman culture, Epicureanism should be taken into account in research on the New Testament, becoming a point of reference and part of the content of comparative analyses.

Seneca: Von der Kürze des Lebens»De brevitate vitae«, verfasst um 49 n. Chr. Hier in der Übersetzung von Otto Apelt, »Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, Philosophus: Philosophische Schriften. 2: Der Dialoge zweiter Teil«, Leipzig, Meiner, 1923.Neuausgabe.Herausgegeben von Karl-Maria Guth.Berlin 2023.Der Text dieser Ausgabe wurde behutsam an die neue deutsche Rechtschreibung angepasst.Umschlaggestaltung von Thomas Schultz-Overhage unter Verwendung des Bildes: Peter Paul Rubens, Der sterbende Seneca (Ausschnitt), 1613.Gesetzt aus der Minion Pro, 11.5 pt.Henricus - Edition Deutsche Klassik GmbH

On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians, also known as the Theurgia and under its abbreviated Latin title De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum, is a work of Neoplatonic philosophy primarily concerned with ritual and theurgy and attributed to Iamblichus.

Everything has a point of origin, and the formation of civilization is no exception. For Western culture, the vestigial epoch of cultural birth in Greece contains the best archaeological heritage of societal development, meticulously preserved by scholars. Equally unprecedented is the spectacular rise of Chanakya/Kautilya and the Mauryan Empire in India, which is one of antiquity's most astonishing political systems and continues to exert an enormous influence worldwide. Both ancient Greek and Indian civilizations have left an enduring legacy through Socrates, Plato, and Chanakya/Kautilya. In the West, Plato (and, by default, Socrates) is regarded as the most influential philosopher in history, so much so that many philosophical concepts are mere 'footnotes to Plato.' No less extensive is the influence of Chanakya, whose ideas are still studied today. In the West, Chanakya is often referred to as the 'Indian Machiavelli' due to his political treatise, the Arthashastra. Accordingly, the book is split into two sections - one of which chronicles the rise and fall of Greek aristocracy and the philosophical concepts this relates to; the principles of areté, timé, and hybris. The second section outlines the concept of sacred kingship in India, which arises from Vedic tradition and is continued by Chanakya, who revitalizes and innovates upon older ideas. Both Socrates and Chanakya have a legendary quality, which at times, borders on being mythological more than mortal, such is the extent of their influence. However, they are also much more complex than a casual glance would imply, exhibiting an extraordinary depth of character and spiritual qualities, which this book will explain.

Does the soul have parts? What kind of parts? And how do all the parts make together a whole? Many ancient, medieval and early modern philosophers discussed these questions, thus providing a mereological analysis of the soul. Their starting point was a simple observation: we tend to describe the soul of human beings by referring to different types of activities (perceiving, imagining, thinking, etc.). Each type of activity seems to be produced by a special part of the soul. But how can a simple, undivided soul have parts? Classical thinkers gave radically different answers to this question. While some claimed that there are indeed parts, thus assigning an internal complexity to the soul, others emphasized that there can only be a plurality of functions that should not be conflated with a plurality of parts. The eleven chapters reconstruct and critically examine these answers. They make clear that the metaphysical structure of the soul was a crucial issue for ancient, medieval and early modern philosophers.

This book (a) describes the Ancient Greek Maxims of pre-classical Greece and their role in the development of philosophy in the ancient Greek world, (b) describes the role of the Oracle of Delphi and lists its 147 maxims, and (c) presents the known quotations and some biographical data of the seven sages of ancient Greece (Thales, Pittacos, Bias, Solon, Cleovoulos, Periandros, and Chilon), before the era of classical philosophy of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.