Alexandre dʼAphrodise et la κίνησις ἀναίτιος

1 Supplementum Aristotelicum II.ii 164-212, ed. I. Bruns, Berlin 1892; cf. also pp. 169-186 Bruns of the de anima libri mantissa, in Supplementum Aristotelicum II.i (1887). All references will be to these editions. On the interpretation of the de fato (as opposed to discussion primarily concerned with textual points) cf.: R. A. Pack, 'A Passage in Alexander of Aphrodisias relating to the theory of Tragedy', AJP 58 (1937) 418-436; E. Valgiglio, 'II Fato nel Pensiero Classico Antico', Riv. Stud. Class. 15 (1967) 305-330 and 16 (1968) 56-84 (pp. 309-319 are devoted to Alexander's de fato); G. Verbeke, 'Aristot,lisme et Stoicisme dans le de fato d'Alexandre d'Aphrodise', AGPh 50 (1968) 73-100; A. A. Long, 'Stoic Determinism and Alexander of Aphrodisias de fato (i-xiv)', AGPh 52 (1970) 247-268; P. L. Donini, Tre studi sull' aristotelismo nel II secolo d.C. (Torino, 1974) 127-185. There is one translation of the de fato into English, by A. FitzGerald (London, 1931), but this is in places rather inadequate; I hope myself to produce a translation at a later date. P. Thillet has indicated in the introduction to his edition of the medieval Latin translation attributed to William of Moerbeke (Attudes de Philosophie Medidvale 51, Paris, 1963, p. 61) that he intends to produce a new edition of the Greek text. Reference will be made in this article to passages from the mantissa and also to some from the Quaestiones attributed to Alexander (Supplementum Aristotelicum II.ii). It is very possible that not all the texts in these collections are by Alexander (cf. P. Moraux, Alexandre d'Aphrodise: Ex6gNte de la Noetique d'Aristote, (Liege-Paris 1942), 19-28; P. Merlan, 'Zwei Untersuchungen zu Alexander von Aphrodisias', Philologus 113 (1969) 85-88; R. B. Todd, 'Alexander of Aphrodisias and the Alexandrian Quaestiones 2.12', Philologus 116 (1972) 293305), but it seems generally agreed that they show his influence, and even texts which may not be by Alexander himself may serve to bring out tensions in the Peripatetic position on the issues to be discussed in this article. I am particularly grateful to Professor Todd for sending me a copy of a bibliography on Alexander that he has prepared.

It is widely agreed on that the key text to interpreting Plotinus' notion of ἐφ’ ἡμĩν, Ennead VI.8, starts off from a criticism of the notion as understood by Aristotle in the first chapters of Ethica Nicomachea (EN) III. This chapter analyses the development of the notion of ἐφ’ ἡμĩν within the Aristotelian tradition before Plotinus. First of all, it gives an account of the notion of ἐφ’ ἡμĩν in Aristotle. The focus lies on the EN and Eudemian Ethics (EE). The chapter then investigates later developments of the notion in the three earliest relevant Aristotelian 'commentaries' on the EN. Thus, it discusses Aspasius' In Ethica Nicomachea commentaria. The chapter then continues with the Anonymous' In Ethica Nicomachea II-V commentaria. Finally, the chapter analyses the development of the notion in Alexander of Aphrodisias' De fato. It ends with a general conclusion regarding the Aristotelian notion(s) of ἐφ’ ἡμĩν.Keywords:ἐφ’ ἡμĩν; Alexander of Aphrodisias; Aristotle; Aspasius; Ethica Nicomachea (EN); Eudemian Ethics (EE); Plotinus

Scholars generally agree that Alexander of Aphrodisias' objections to Stoic determinism in De fato are unconvincing. I show that there is one argument, however, that is more successful than Alexander's other arguments. This argument is an innovative version of the so-called "Lazy Argument". Traditional versions of the Lazy Argument claim that actions and deliberations would not matter in a deterministic world and that for this reason Stoic determinism cannot be true. By contrast, Alexander's new version asserts that it is too risky to believe in Stoic determinism because it can give average rational agents good reasons to be lazy. Since we cannot know whether Stoic determinism is true, it is safer not to believe it.

There is what might be called a ‘majority position’ in the history of Western philosophy according to which causes are sufficient for or ‘necessitate’ their effects. However, there is also a singificant ‘minority position’ according to which causes are necessary relative to their effects. The second/third century A.D. Peripatetic Alexander of Aphrodisias is an ancient representative of the minority position. He attributes his own view — with some justification, I shall suggest – to Aristotle. This paper has two, somewhat loosely connected purposes. The first is to explore the origin of the conception of ‘causes’ (aitia) as necessary conditions in Aristotle, particularly in On Generation and Corruption 2.11 and Posterior Analytics 2.12, and the development and use of the conception in Alexander's De fato. The second purpose of the paper is to explore and criticize a sophisticated contemporary version of the conception of causes as ‘necessary in the circumstances,’ that of J.L. Mackie.

This article contributes to the scant knowledge about what people believe to be the economic, moral, social and migration consequences of the welfare state. Data from a 2006 Dutch survey show, first, that in the eyes of most Dutch people the positive social consequences of the welfare state outweigh the negative economic and moral consequences. Second, the personal interests that people may have in the provisions made by the welfare state, for instance arising from the level of their income, play a minor role in understanding differences in perceptions. Instead, a set of ideational determinants proved to be more important. Consequence perceptions are consistently influenced by people’s political stance, perceptions of the deservingness of welfare target groups and their attitudes towards the role of government.

This paper sets out to analyze Proclus’ exegesis of Socrates’ suggestion in Parmenides 132d1-3 that Forms stand fixed as patterns (παραδείγματα), as it were, in the nature, with the other things being images and likenesses of them. Proclus’ analysis of the notion of being pattern reveals the impact of the Aristotelian conception of the form as paradigm on his views, as we can infer from Alexander of Aphrodisias’ and Simplicius’ explanation of the paradigmatic character of the Aristotelian form. Whereas Aristotle and Alexander of Aphrodisias refute the efficient causality of the Platonic Forms and support that μέθεξις is just a metaphor, Syrianus, Proclus and Asclepius defend the Platonic theory, and specifically Proclus, who brings to the fore the multilateral role of the Forms as patterns with regard to the secondary things of this realm.[1]
 
 [1] An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Symposium Platonicum XII: Plato’s Parmenides, organized by the International Plato Society, Paris, 15-19 July 2019.

Domestic violence is sequential, developmental and dynamic. The aim of this study was to examine whether, in the perceptions of students in Poland and Belarus, there is a relationship between involvement in violence and the legal and social consequences for the perpetrators. A total of 482 university students took part in the study, including 251 students from Poland and 231 students from Belarus. Statistically, Polish respondents were more frequently involved in domestic violence as witnesses and victims, which was confirmed by χ2 test. Based on the 95% confidence interval (CI), it can be concluded that the largest number of respondents from both countries surveyed who have been involved in violence as witnesses (85.2–94.8) indicated that an adequate punishment for perpetrators of violence is imprisonment. Students who have never been involved in domestic violence indicated social consequences as appropriate punishment for the use of violence more often than those who have been involved in violence as witnesses, victims or perpetrators. Witnesses and victims were not found to be in favour of more severe punishment or more serious moral and social consequences than perpetrators. The largest number of respondents indicated that the appropriate consequence of using violence should be imprisonment, followed by a restraining order and eviction from the place of residence.

The tenth chapter of Alexander of Aphrodisias' De Fato' contains a treatment of fatalism and future truth which clearly harks back to Aristotle's famous 'Sea Battle' discussion in De Interpretatione (DI) 9.2 Alexander's discussion has not yet been satisfatorily interpreted: this paper is intended to help remedy this lack. On the traditional interpretation of Aristotle's argument, he accepted the fatalist's inference from the truth of a statement about a future contingency (which I will call a future contingent statement, FCS for short) to its necessity, but sought to counter necessitarianism by denying the principle of bivalence (PB) on which the fatalist's inference rests.3 This interpretation has in recent times been challenged from two quarters. According to one view (the 'modern' interpretation), Aristotle does not seek to restrict PB; rather, he rebuts fatalism by distinguishing between the truth/falsity of a FCS and its necessity, allowing the former but refusing the latter, and in particular banning any inference from a necessary disjunction of FCSs (such as 'There will be a sea battle tomorrow or there will not be a sea battle tomorrow') to the several necessities of the disjuncts.4 Others

The aim of this work is to present the Peripatetic doctrine of fate (heimarmene) according to Alexander of Aphrodisias in his treatise Peri heimarmenes or De fato. The central thesis of this Alexandrian work is that everything that occurs kata ten physin (in accordance with nature) occurs kath’ heimarmenen (in accordance with fate). In order to reconstruct the doctrine underlying this claim, I alternate between an exposition of the Aristotelian concepts addressed in Alexander’s writings and his own theoretical elaborations. The paper begins by outlining the terms of the debate on fate as presented by Alexander. It then reconstructs the Alexandrian account of the causality of fate, along with the Aristotelian presuppositions that support it. Finally, it examines specific aspects and limits of Alexander’s notion of fate, particularly in relation to other key concepts in his philosophy, such as what occurs katà symbebekos, human proairesis, and divine pronoia. De fato is the main reference for this paper, but other relevant works, including the Quaestiones and De Providentia, are also considered.

The British Socialist Ill-fare State: an Examination of its Political, Social, Moral, and Economic Consequences The British Socialist Ill-fare State: an Examination of its Political, Social, Moral, and Economic Consequences. By Cecil Palmer. Caldwell, Idaho, Caxton Printers, 1952. xxxviii+618 pp. Index. 812′​′×512′​′⁠. $6. H. C. Hillmann H. C. Hillmann Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 29, Issue 2, April 1953, Page 239, https://doi.org/10.2307/2609052 Published: 01 April 1953

The Book of the Laws of the Countries is one of the most important sources for our knowledge of Syriac Christianity in the late second century. In 1979 Albrecht Dihle has depicted Bardesanes as an ingenious christian philosopher. The sources of his theory of free will are the middle-platonic and peripatetic philosophy, mainly Alexander of Aphrodisias and his dialog De fato. This new german translation of the Book of the Laws of the Countries gives an introduction into the Bardesanes research.

Amid the growing recognition of the limits of excessive criminal punishment, scholars have begun to assess public support for restrictive and punitive laws and other collateral consequences of a criminal conviction. Building on this work, we analyze data from an original survey of U.S. residents (N = 1,002) to assess support for 23 specific social, legal, and health consequences across 11 life domains, many of which hold important implications for desistance and life-course criminology. Descriptive analyses reveal that support for specific consequences and prohibitions varies greatly, yet it generally follows a similar pattern across conviction types. General linear regression models indicate that those who perceive society as more just, hold more punitive outlooks, and perceive a higher risk of crime victimization are more supportive of social and legal consequences. We discuss the findings’ implications for policy and practice within a society that may be in the beginning stages of a correctional turning point.

This article is part of a broader project, namely a doctoral research in social anthropology on the production, exchange, and circulation of erotic digital images of women (nudes), their possible spread (leaks) as well as their legal, political, social and moral consequences. Here, I dedicate myself to critically presenting a certain taxonomy present in the debates about nudes and leaks, approaching the different ways of naming the phenomenon brought by the media, by feminist activists, by academic incursions, as well as by my research interlocutors. I pay special attention to the potentialities and limits of terms employed and disputed, embedded in gendered semantic, political and moral connections.

Shortly after the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster in Sheffield, England, sixteen people brought actions claiming to suffer a “nervous shock” as a result of learning from the media about the fatal human crush that occurred during a soccer match. The plaintiffs, most of whom were relatives of the victims, demanded compensations as secondary victims, arguing that their injury was within the “immediate aftermath”—a category recognized by British law as having been involved in the consequences of a tragic event. The court rejected the claim, but not before speculating on the hypothetical possibility of a traumatic live broadcast. Numerous claims for psychiatric injury had been filed prior to this case, yet this is probably one of the first to consider whether media could cause trauma to viewers, and consequently be compensable by law. Were such a case to be heard today, however, it might find support from recent developments in psychiatric research. For there is now a growing acceptance among mental health experts that trauma could transfer, under certain conditions, through visual media. Referring to notions such as “distant trauma,” “traumatic media exposure,” and “vicarious traumatization,” clinicians and researchers are now willing to acknowledge that witnessing disastrous events through the media could cause a reaction that complies with existing PTSD clinical criteria. How did this development come about? How does such mediated trauma manifest itself? What are its social, legal, and moral consequences? And what are the implications for our understanding of both media and trauma? These are the questions this chapter sets out to explore. Psychiatry has long been in the business of understanding how external violence affects mental processes. While operating under various nomenclatures, modern conceptions of trauma have dovetailed with modern developments in technology and warfare. As already noted earlier in this book, trauma is a central theme in the grand narrative of the shock of modernity.

This paper examined the phenomenon of hate speech and foul language on social media platforms in Nigeria, and assessed their moral and legal consequences in the society and to journalism practice. It used both quantitative and qualitative methodology to investigate the phenomenon. In the first place, the paper employed the survey research methodology to sample 384 respondents using questionnaire and focus group discussion as instruments for data collection. Findings from the research indicate that promoting hate speech and foul language on social media have moral and legal consequences in the society and to journalism practice. Findings also show that although, the respondents understand that hate speech and foul language attract legal consequences, they do not know what obligations are created by law against perpetrators of hate speech and foul language in Nigeria. The paper therefore, adopted the qualitative, doctrinal and analytical methodology to discuss the legal consequences and obligations created against perpetrators of hate speech and foul language in Nigeria. The paper concluded based on the findings that hate speech and foul language is prevalent on social media platforms in Nigeria and that there are adequate legal provisions to curb the phenomenon in Nigeria. It recommends among others things that the Nigerian government and NGOs should sponsor monitoring projects like the UMATI in Kenya to better understand the use of hate speech and that monitoring agencies set up under the legal regime should adopt mechanisms to identify and remove hate speech content on social media platforms in Nigeria.