Greek Concept Research Articles

운명적 사랑의 탐구 －고대 그리스적 운명 개념과 칸트의 우주론적 이율배반을 중심으로

운명적 사랑에 관한 세간의 통념은 이중적이다. 한편으로는 이 낭만적 서사의 무수한 변종들이 매스 미디어를 통해 끊임없이 재생산되고 별다른 저항 없이 일상적으로 소비되지만, 다른 한편으로는 그러한 감정이 현실을 알지 못하는 미숙한 사춘기 시절의 감상적 환상이거나, 자본주의 사회에서 널리 소비되는 일종의 문화상품에 불과할 뿐이라는 자조적 냉소가 퍼져 있다. 이 글은 피상적 수준에 머물러 있는, 운명적 사랑에 관한 이 같은 대중적 이해에 도전하면서, 운명 개념에 대한 형이상학적 해석을 바탕으로 하나의 철학적 대안을 제시한다. 이러한 논의를 통해, 이 글은 운명적 사랑이 자유롭고 존엄한 주체로서 인간 존재의 해방과 완성을 매개하는 가장 근원적인 연대의 형식이라고 주장한다.

“The Play’s the Thing”: Mathematization as Dramatization

Mobilizing prevalent themes in the fields of mathematics education, literary criticism, and philosophy, this paper contextualizes ‘the mathematical’, ‘mathematical thinking’, and ‘mathematical pedagogy’ with respect to ancient Greek concept of mathesis, modern notions of mathematical agency, the Keatsian concept of negative capability, and the analogy of ‘staging’ a dramatic/mathematical ‘play’. Its central claim is that mathematization is dramatization—that learning mathematics (indeed, learning to learn, which is what the Greek mathesis actually means) is an activity of setting things up and (in this ‘set’ or ‘setting’) allowing things to play out (e-ducere). Beginning with Paul Ernest’s identification of the difference between absolutism and fallibilism in the philosophy of math education, and incorporating concepts from Pythagoras, Hippasus, Heraclitus (the ‘ancients’), Descartes, Kant, Keats (the ‘moderns’), as well as Freud, Heidegger, and Badiou (‘nos prochains’, to quote Klossowski ), we argue that ‘mathematical knowledge’ cannot be understood simply within the framework of logicism, formalism, or even simply as an epistemological articulation. Rather, we endeavour to show that the process of ‘learning mathematically’ allows us to gain insight into the foundations of ‘being’ itself (i.e. ontology). Learning to learn (mathesis) proceeds, as such, by way of staging and playing-out the half-known or unknown (the ill-seen and ill-said) in the hopes of uncovering the mystery (Greek myesis) at the heart of things.

The Anomaly of Anomaly of Anomaly

The Anomaly of Anomaly of Anomaly

On Listening as Analysis: TheSelfie OrchestraProject

Our paper addresses the notion of listening as a method of analysis. Our reflections stem from our development of an interactive sound art piece entitled Selfie Orchestra. This work is produced with sound, image, and GPS data gleaned from audience members’ cell phones. It features an interactive 3D simulation of the La Friche la Belle de Mai district in Marseille, France. We begin with a brief description of this project, highlighting our attempts to provoke expanded forms of listening through the technological innovations at the heart of the work. We then turn to a theoretical examination of listening as a method for reflection and research in the social sciences, with specific reference to Henri Lefebvre’s evocative concept of ‘rhythmanalysis.’ We reflect briefly on John Cage’s work 4’33” (1952) and Max Neuhaus’s Listen (1966) as precedent artworks that make space for attentive listening. We then contrast the open-ended interactivity promoted by these works with the more constrained forms we have been developing with Selfie Orchestra. We conclude with thoughts on how Selfie Orchestra demonstrates the strengths of listening as a method of analysis when the latter is understood following its ancient Greek conception as a form of ‘loosening.’

Husserl and the Greeks

ABSTRACT I document Husserl’s growing interest in the foundational character of Greek philosophy for Western culture and show what is unique about Husserl’s appropriation of certain Greek thinkers and concepts. Specifically, I explain Husserl’s idiosyncratic appropriation of key Greek terms as original building blocks to articulate his own intuitive insights and review critically Husserl’s original appropriation of the history of Greek philosophy as a way of situating his transcendental phenomenology within the Western (“European”) intellectual tradition. Husserl adopted a consistent view of Greek philosophy throughout his life but deepened his engagement in later years. Initially little interested in the history of philosophy as such, he came to see the “breakthrough” into the theoretical attitude as decisive for the development of Western culture. The Skeptics’ epoché is revitalized by Husserl as a permanent way of challenging the dogmatic naivete of life in the natural attitude, motivating the transformation to theoria.

The Republican Houses of the Roman Colonies in Ancient Magna Graecia. Cultural Exchange from a Western Perspective

This article presents an analysis that is being carried out within the framework of the ‘Tetrastylon project’ (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellowship). This project is designed to create the scientific basis for the identification and definition of a new type of Roman domus. This typological item is the result of the hybridisation of a house scheme drawn from the Greek and Roman conceptions of housing. In the recent decades, some studies have found a particular type of Roman house in different parts of the Empire. The structural scheme of this domus joins, in the first place, the developmental concept of the Greek dwelling with the use of the Roman atrium as the central distribution area of the house. As a result of this cultural symbiosis, it is possible to observe Roman distribution areas within housing built following Greek structural conceptions and the combination of very different architectural influences between both cultures. The house, tentatively termed ‘the tetrastyle courtyard house’, has been observed in different Roman cities with a Greek past, but in different geographical contexts and chronologies. This type of house, with its variants, has not been sufficiently analysed in the Roman domestic architecture studies. This article will present different examples of this type of house within the territorial context of ancient Magna Graecia under the influence of the Roman dominion. This approach will show the same exchanges between the Greeks and the Romans in the East, but from the western perspective and at an earlier chronological stage.

Retracing the Tragic Hero in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Philip Roth's The Human Stain: تتبع البطل المأساوي في سوفوكليس الملك أوديب وفيليب روث وصمة عار الإنسان

This paper reevaluates the fundamental status of Coleman Silk in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain and Oedipus in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex by testing their characters against Aristotelian tragic hero's elements. In spite of the verifiable comparisons to Oedipus, Coleman is not a neglected figure, but a subverted one that underpins Roth's proposal of "the different nature" of inconceivable postmodern American tragedy. In Philip Roth’s The Human Stain, the protagonist Coleman Silk is implicitly linked to Sophocles' classical figure Oedipus in Oedipus Rex. The plot is interwoven with allusions to Greek tragedies, but in The Human Stain Coleman lacks the stature and the real character of Oedipus. In addition, Coleman lacks, to some extent, the real elements of a tragic hero that constitute the Catharsis: the process of releasing and providing relief; a conflict which raises the question; is Coleman really a tragic hero? According to Aristotle, the tragic hero should experience a dilemma and a massive transformation from valuable standards to lower depth, and this person should suffer particularly after committing a mistake, or even thinking about his past deeds. The tragic hero should be relatively a commendable person whose comeuppance is brought about by his own fallacies which he did not commit out of defect or wickedness, but out of his own serendipity. Following the ancient Greek concept which asserts that fluke is associated with actions, Coleman is a fortuitous man at first, unlike Oedipus, despite being born as a black man. Because of this unlucky fact, he is capable of changing his identity and rising up to the level of preeminence.

A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible

A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible

Performance, the Arts, and Curricular Change

The need to improvise and take action as a practitioner draws on Schwab’s notion of deliberation and the Greek concept of poiesis. Inspired by an impromptu discussion with students at a computer summer camp, the author uses the worksof Sarason, Eisner, and Stenhouseto show how practitioner performance, student audience, educational inquiry, teacher as researcher, and curricular change are interrelated.

Examining Methectic Technical Communication in an Urban Planning Comic Book

ABSTRACT Technical communication research has relied heavily on participatory, user-focused strategies as well as “participative”, posthuman frameworks. Both research methodologies have various strengths, yet also have been critiqued for underplaying the role of human and non-human agency (respectively) in rhetorical situations. Through an analysis of an urban planning comic book, I suggest that turning to the Greek concept of methexis – or “participation” – may help technical communication researchers bridge posthuman and user-centered investigative approaches.

Aletheia : la vérité des traductions philosophiques en tant que traduction de la vérité. À la rencontre de Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricœur et Antoine Berman

Aletheia: The Truth of Philosophical Translation as a Translation of Thruth.An Encounter of Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricœur and Antoine BermanThe article analyzes the specificity of philosophical translations insofar as they generate a new meaning and present themselves as originals that must be retranslated. This goes against Ricœur’s conception of translation as a creation of comparable terms. We will show that philosophical translation consists in the creation of an incomparable term, which cannot be measured in terms of equivalence, adequacy or fidelity. All these terms correspond to a notion of truth understood as adequacy, therefore we operate a deconstruction of aletheia, the Greek concept for “truth”, in order to show that what we hold today to be the truth of translation has been the result of a translation. Through Heidegger’s reading of aletheia and through Berman’s account of the terms that name translation in Europe, we reinterpret the Roman philosophical translations as examples of traductio and we show, in the end, that by retranslating aletheia, the rules for the practice of translation change, allowing the latter to be guided by an ethical approach towards the otherness rather than by righteous fidelity and adequacy.

“Yu Jiyuan 余紀元 and Retrofitting ‘Metaphysics’ for Confucian Philosophy: Human ‘Beings’ or Human ‘Becomings’?

In past work on Chinese “cosmology”, I have resisted using the term “metaphysics” because of the history of this term in classical Greek philosophy. Angus Graham has warned us of the equivocations that arise in eliding the distinction between Greek ontology and classical Chinese cosmology. In this essay, I have been inspired by my dear friend the late Yu Jiyuan’s distinction between classical Greek “metaphysics” and “contemporary metaphysics with ambiguous edges” to adapt the term “metaphysics” for use within the classical Confucian corpus. In the language of Confucian “metaphysics”, the ultimate goal of our philosophical inquiry is quite literally “to know one’s way around things’” (zhidao 知道) in the broadest possible sense of the term “things”. In the application of Confucian metaphysics, “knowing” certainly begins from the cognitive understanding of a situation, but then goes on to include the creative and practical activity of “realizing a world” through ars contextualis—the art of contextualizing things. I apply the insight that “metaphysics” so understood in the Confucian context provides a warrant for establishing a useful contrast between a Greek conception of the “human being” and a Confucian conception of “human becomings”.

Quel concept grec traduit essentia?

Which Greek concept is translated by essentia ? The question is raised from a methodological perspective and aims at re‑examining the Latin texts on which philologists have based the history of essentia. Neither Cicero nor Seneca used the term, because they did not need it: its philosophical meaning is fully developed only when the theological discussions about the Trinity arise. The absence of essentia in the classical period gives some useful information about the way Plato was read at Rome: thus a critical history of the Latin philosophical lexicon should contribute to a better understanding of the reception of Greek philosophy in Rome.

Return to Earth: A New Mathematical Model of the Earth’s Climate

In this paper we use the inverse modelling technique, first applied to the atmosphere of the planet Venus, to demonstrate that the process of convective atmospheric mass motion can be invoked to explain the greenhouse effect of the Earth’s climate. We propose that the atmospheric cell is the fundamental element of climate, and have developed an alternative climate model based on this process of atmospheric circulation for a hypothetical tidally locked world. The concept of climate derives from studies by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who identified the three main climatic zones known to the ancient world; the equatorial torrid zone, the polar frigid zone and in between the favoured temperate zone of the Mediterranean world. Aristotle’s three climatic zones can be directly linked to the three main atmospheric circulation cells that we now recognise within the Earth’s atmosphere. These three cells are the Hadley cell, the Polar cell and the Ferrel cell. Based on the clear association between the traditional Greek concept of climate and the modern meteorological concept of atmospheric circulation cells, we propose that climate be defined as the presence and action of a particular circulation cell type within a given planetary latitudinal zone. We discuss how with knowledge of three simple meteorological parameters of tropopause elevation, tropopause temperature and lapse rate for each atmospheric cell, combined with the measurement of the area of that cell, the average global surface temperature can be calculated. By means of a mathematical model, the Dynamic-Atmosphere Energy-Transport (DAET) climate model we apply an individual climate analysis to each of the three atmospheric cells, and next generate a parallel composite model of the Earth’s planetary climate using these data. We apply the concepts and techniques of the adiabatic version of the DAET climate model, and show how this model can be compared with the published NASA image of the Earth’s outgoing long-wave radiation recorded by the CERES (Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System) Instrument onboard the NASA Aqua Satellite. Our analysis of the CERES image suggests that the Tibetan plateau forms a permanent geological thermal radiant leak point in the Earth’s atmosphere. We also compare the observed temperature found at the maximum elevation of the Antarctic ice cap with the freezing point of super-cooled water, and suggest that there is therefore a temperature controlled and latent heat related upper limit to the vertical development of a continental icecap.

Mimesis a duende. Proces kreacji flamenco w świetle koncepcji naśladownictwa w starożytnej estetyce greckiej

The paper describes the relationship between imitation and creativity in flamenco style, referring them to the Greek concept of mimesis and comparing it with the duende concept present in this genre. Although both ideas are separated by two thousand years, they transpire to be unexpectedly convergent in their basic premises. In order to present the phenomenon of duende, the author also attempts a short answer to the question of what the phenomenon of flamenco is, what conditioned its emergence, what its characteristics are, and what forms and styles of flamenco can be currently found. Describing the phantasms about duende and a flamenco show, the author presents the process of creating a flamenco performance and its choreography. The paper refers to the accomplishments of the acclaimed Polish philosopher Władysław Tatarkiewicz, and is also a tribute to the late professor Jagna Dankowska, a sound director, a Professor of Philosophy, a Professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, who inspired the author to write this text.

Dogmat w historii

The article “Dogma from historical perspective” aims to present the complex and relational nature of the concept of dogma. The history of this Greek concept of δογμα, given in the first part of the article, demonstrates that the understanding of dogma has developed and deepened from patristic to modern times. Ultimately, the meaning of dogma in a broader and narrower sense is revealed by referring to Revelation, to Sacred Scripture and living Tradition, to the Church’s faith and salvific truth as well as to the phenomenon of human language. The reflection on the historicity of dogma in the second part of this article shows that not only does historicity not exclude dogmatic development, but it even assumes this development. Furthermore, the significance of dogma stems from the living Word of God, to which dogma is a witness and a transmitter.

ONTOLOGICAL AND CONTEXTUAL POSITION OF TIME: BETWEEN AEON AND RETARDATIONS OF NOTHING

Research on the negative foundations of time will not lose its relevance as long as the connection, stated by M. Heidegger in 1927, remains legitimate and systemically justified. Sein und Zeit do not look like the classical opposition of being and thinking, being and phenomenon, being and existence, which are shaped very antinomically according to the philosophical tradition. M. Heidegger’s “being and time”, in relation to which we are talking about the possibilities of temporal derivatives among the phenomenological and ontological “given”, we have to define as a Wende der Zeit, in other words, the “turn of time” for the philosophy of positive. What times are meant? On the one hand, times of modern metaphysical projects that sought to overcome the framework of existence without the slightest effort in the direction of its own autonomous disclosure. On the other hand, there will remain times that are only maturating: the destruction of philosophy under the onslaught of pointless “twisting of words”, which never had any special consequences. The main issues of the article will be devoted to the ontological and contextual thematization of time among two atypical dimensions for the concept of chronos (from the Greek Χρόνος – “time”): the eon and the retarded Nothing. The aim of the article is to describe the constitution of time on the basis of the negative copula of being and as a subject of radical ontology at the same time. The tasks we will focus on are as follows: first of all, we will conduct a phenomenological analysis of time in relation to the retarded Nothing concepts such as ἐνέργεια (from the Greek “action”, “activity”) of Aristotle, cairological παρουσία (from the Greek – “presence”) of Augustine, transcendental scheme of I. Kant and the absolute temporal flow of E. Husserl. Secondly, we will single out the negative copula of being from the field of essence within the framework of ontological differentiation. Finally, we will deduce the eon from the etymological primacy of “eternity” in favor of the epoch-making experience of active negation. In order for the passage of time to become proportionate to its carrier, and for the philosophy of positivity, which has reached its completion and has ceased to be an obstacle at the “turn of time”, we will critically analyze impersonal time. Orientation to Greek concepts is paradigmatic in this case.

Gadamer’s “Practice” of Theoria

This paper explores the Greek conception of theoria, Gadamer’s interpretation of it, and how he applies it to his own hermeneutics. In particular, the transition that Gadamer makes from traditional metaphysical perspectives of theoria in ancient thought towards the activity of theoria within human life is explored, and the role that his aesthetics plays in this process. The importance of the intertwining of theory and practice for Gadamer is considered and what the practice of theoria may consist in. It is suggested that Gadamer’s approach, which emphasizes heightened experiences of interconnection to promote self-transformation, is a productive transformation of theoria relevant to contemporary points of view.

Race by Martin Orkin

Reviewed by: Race by Martin Orkin Noe Montez RACE. By Martin Orkin with Alexa Alice Joubin. New York: Routledge, 2019. 257 pp. Paperback, $26.95. Race is among the newest texts in Routledge's The New Critical Idiom series. Charged with providing an explanatory guide to critical histories and vocabularies of race for undergraduate humanists, authors Martin Orkin and Alexa Alice Joubin create a practical introduction that will serve many classrooms as well as students seeking foundational knowledge in the field. Orkin and Joubin draw from a number of historical accounts, literary references, and popular culture allusions from across the world for their readers. This depth of knowledge brings a richness to the text. Orkin and Joubin divide the book into three sections: the first concerns the origins of cultural notions of race, in addition to the beginnings of scientific theorizing about racial categorization; the second addresses the ways that colonialism and slavery created a new understanding of race in opposition to whiteness; and the third section defines contemporary knowledge production on race as it is shaped by globalization, the U.S. Civil Rights movement, and the politics of exile. Accompanied by a strong bibliography and a small but serviceable glossary, Race provides insight into specific racial categorizations and demonstrates how the language and cultural understanding of race has been written and re-written in several different contexts throughout the history of western civilization. The first section, "Fixing the Fetters of Race" focuses on constructions of race from ancient Greece to medieval Europe. The [End Page 585] authors begin with a chapter grounded in the history of barbarism. This portion of the book explores the Greek concept of barbarism as a way of distinguishing between their political and cultural values and those of others. While the term was used as a method of self-definition (by drawing contrast between themselves and others), it began to take on racial overtones by the end of the Hellenistic period. From here, Orkin and Joubin turn to the early Christian church and its conceptions of Muslims and Jews, thus marking physiognomic and behavioral distinctions which imagined Christians as normative and others as sinners. The chapter draws heavily on ancient literary texts, religious documents, legislative and judicial practices as a way of documenting these early efforts to mark others as ethnically and culturally distinct. The second chapter of this section turns towards discourses of the natural sciences and the search for scientific evidence of racial difference. Orkin and Joubin draw from observations, pseudo-science, and experiments dating back from the mid-fourteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, recording the ways that such studies were used to advance debates around nationalism and immigration that remain with us in the twenty-first century. Part two of Race, titled "Recasting the Fetters of Race," discusses reconfigurations of race born out of the legacies of slavery and colonialism. The chapter begins by exploring connections between race and the United States' legal system from independence to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, as well as South African law during its period of apartheid in the twentieth century. Orkin and Joubin cite heavily from Alice Walker's The Color Purple and J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians as texts through which to read about the impact of racism. These examples work, although it seems surprising that the authors would draw from late twentieth century texts, particularly in the case of the United States, where there are so many texts from the period that can be used to discuss the pernicious effects of race and legality. From there, the book describes how slavery intersects with imaginings of race. Orkin and Joubin provide a detailed history of the British slave trade before turning to an investigation of slave narratives in Solomon Northrup's Twelve Years a Slave and Toni Morrison's Beloved. The final section of Race, "Loosening the Fetters of Race," concludes with a brief chapter that thinks through the ways that definitions of race intersect with contemporary notions of exile, class, and gender. Orkin and Joubin explore exile and migration during Britain's modernist period; from there, the chapter briefly examines intersectionality through a reading of David Henry...

Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy by A. G. Long

Reviewed by: Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy by A. G. Long Ryan Fowler A. G. Long. Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy. Key Themes in Ancient Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. vii, 232. $99.99. ISBN 978-1-107-08659-3. At least in the moments we consider them, the ideas we hold about death, what defines our personal identity (what makes us, us), and what happens to that identity post-mortem can affect how we live our lives; to that end, a study of ancient discussions of death and immortality has much to offer us. As Long puts it near the end of this work, “Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy of death is about what to do as well as the removal of fear” (205, my emphasis). Long’s book is straightforwardly structured: the first part focuses on Greek conceptions of immortality; the second part covers views of death in Greek and Roman philosophy, and includes a discussion of suicide. That order (immortality, then death) is meant to help the reader recognize moments when the language of immortality is used to describe the best human lives. In the first part of the book, Long discusses a less-recognized ancient debate: what it means to be immortal. This debate becomes especially relevant when, in the more recognized philosophical theories about “immortal” (sic) gods and the cosmos, philosophers also use immortality in discussions of human beings and human ethics (in particular, the ethical side of this debate comes into play in chapter 2, where Long discusses Plato’s writings about immortality and love). [End Page 107] His discussion hinges on a particular question: how can the gods be immortal if the cosmos comes to an end? Long’s handling of the problem of comprehending how the early Stoics could understand the gods to be revered as “immortal,” given their cosmology and resulting perishability (81–83), is particularly fruitful. In the second part of the book, Long pushes against the view of ancient writing as a battleground between dogmatic Epicureans insisting that death is the end of us and equally dogmatic partisans of the soul’s immortality. When discussing the writings of Epicurus and the Epicureans (for whom the soul relies on the body in two ways: for sensation, but also for physical integrity, 116), Long notes that Philodemus not only uses death as an end of the soul’s existence and awareness to mitigate our own fears, but also differentiates between the types of fear and anxiety introduced when we think about death; Philodemus does so in order to distinguish those fears/anxieties that deserve a place in the good life, and those that derive from attitudes that should be avoided throughout life (and not just when we think about death). Long makes two noteworthy points in the second part of the book: that Stoics and other non-Epicureans make use of the so-called Symmetry argument that compares non-existence before birth and after death; and that, when philosophers use that argument, it does not follow that they are committed to the soul’s destruction at death. For their part, early Stoics do not agree on the length of existence of the soul after death (153). For example, they may suppose that annihilation is one possible outcome, or they may use the Symmetry argument in order to engage in a view of identity, similar to the argument in the [pseudo-Platonic] Axiochus. Also in this discussion is Long’s helpful treatment of Seneca regarding his insistence both on the continuation of personal identity if souls persist after death and his agnosticism about such a post-mortem existence of the soul. Long’s discussions are, to my mind, models of philosophical interpretation that consider the specific, localized logic as well as the argumentation that frames the target text; at the same time, they take into consideration the larger context, issues of authorship, and the purpose regarding an argument’s placement within a text as a whole. As he writes, “Context matters” (191), and he follows his own precept in this book. Long’s interpretive attention—which delves into portions of arguments for which conclusions are often too easily...