Aristotle's De Anima is the first systematic philosophical account of the soul, which serves to explain the functioning of all mortal living things. In his commentary, Ronald Polansky argues that the ...work is far more structured and systematic than previously supposed. He contends that Aristotle seeks a comprehensive understanding of the soul and its faculties. By closely tracing the unfolding of the many-layered argumentation and the way Aristotle fits his inquiry meticulously within his scheme of the sciences, Polansky answers questions relating to the general definition of soul and the treatment of each of the soul's principal capacities: nutrition, sense perception, phantasia, intellect, and locomotion. The commentary sheds light on every section of the De Anima and the work as a unit. It offers a challenge to earlier and current interpretations of the relevance and meaning of Aristotle's highly influential treatise.
Reading Aristotle Wians, William; Polansky, Ron
2017, Letnik:
146
eBook
Reading Aristotle: Argument and Exposition demonstrates that Aristotle's treatises rely crucially on expository principles--questions of proper sequence, pedagogical method, and distinctions between ...different sciences.
Aristotle's De Anima is the first systematic philosophical account of the soul, which serves to explain the functioning of all mortal living things. In his commentary, Ronald Polansky argues that the ...work is far more structured and systematic than previously supposed. He contends that Aristotle seeks a comprehensive understanding of the soul and its faculties. By closely tracing the unfolding of the many-layered argumentation and the way Aristotle fits his inquiry meticulously within his scheme of the sciences, Polansky answers questions relating to the general definition of soul and the treatment of each of the soul's principal capacities: nutrition, sense perception, phantasia, intellect, and locomotion. The commentary sheds light on every section of the De Anima and the work as a unit. It offers a challenge to earlier and current interpretations of the relevance and meaning of Aristotle's highly influential treatise.
The Lovers, a dialogue passed down with the Platonic corpus, takes up two questions that should be of interest to philosophers: "Is philosophizing beautiful?" and "What is philosophizing?" Despite ...its seemingly problematic handling of both questions, we show that the dialogue is in fact a sophisticated treatment of these questions. Socrates' refutations of his principal interlocutor's accounts of philosophizing reveal conditions for an adequate account, while his interaction with both rival lovers displays philosophizing in action and illustrates the way it can be beautiful.
DESCARTES' 'PROVISIONAL MORALITY' CIMAKASKY, JOSEPH; POLANSKY, RONALD
Pacific philosophical quarterly,
September 2012, Letnik:
93, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Discourse on Method part 3 offers une morale par provision, usually translated as ‘a provisional moral code’. Occasionally it has been questioned that this code is temporary and restricted to those ...engaged in pure inquiry. We argue that Descartes intends the moral code to be his final ethical position universally applicable. Since the moral code is ‘derived from’ the rules of method, it should have their permanence, holding for the time pure inquiry commences and when it completes the sciences. Moreover, the four moral maxims replace the classical cardinal virtues. Thus they are meant to govern the lives of all persons.
The elaborate imagery regarding souls and gods in the Palinode in Plato’s
leads interpreters to view the gods as complex and similar to the human soul, only with better horses. We try to show that ...the gods are only made to appear complex to serve as paradigms for humans. Details of the myth should instead be viewed as allowing for gods that are simple and not souls at all. And even human souls are questionably complex under all conditions. Plato’s image fits with the context of guiding the soul by philosophical rhetorical art and the task of investigation to determine whether things are simple or complex.
How might bioethics take account of cultural diversity? Can practical wisdom of an Aristotelian sort be applied across cultures? After showing that practical wisdom involves both intellectual ...cleverness and moral virtue, it is argued that both these components have universality. Hence practical wisdom must be universal as well. Hellenic ethical thought neither depended on outdated theoretical notions nor limited itself to the Greek world, but was in fact developed with constant awareness of cultural differences, so it arguably works as well in other times and places when formulated. Even the eudaemonistic setting for practical wisdom is unproblematic.
Principlism, a most prominent approach in bioethics, has been criticized for lacking an underlying moral theory. We propose that the four principles of principlism can be related to the four ...traditional cardinal virtues. These virtues appear prominently in Plato's Republic and in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. We show how this connection can be made. In this way principlism has its own compelling ethical basis.
Although the Socratic method is commonly understood as a style of pedagogy involving cross-questioning between teacher and student, there has long been debate among scholars of ancient philosophy ...about how this method as attributed to Socrates should be defined or, indeed, whether Socrates can be said to have used any single, uniform method at all distinctive to his way of philosophizing. This volume brings together essays by classicists and philosophers examining this controversy anew.
The point of departure for many of those engaged in the debate has been the identification of Socratic method with the elenchus as a technique of logical argumentation aimed at refuting an interlocutor, which Gregory Vlastos highlighted in an influential article in 1983. The essays in this volume look again at many of the issues to which Vlastos drew attention but also seek to broaden the discussion well beyond the limits of his formulation.
Some contributors question the suitability of the elenchus as a general description of how Socrates engages his interlocutors; others trace the historical origins of the kinds of argumentation Socrates employs; others explore methods in addition to the elenchus that Socrates uses; several propose new ways of thinking about Socratic practices. Eight essays focus on specific dialogues, each examining why Plato has Socrates use the particular methods he does in the context defined by the dialogue. Overall, representing a wide range of approaches in Platonic scholarship, the volume aims to enliven and reorient the debate over Socratic method so as to set a new agenda for future research.
Contributors are Hayden W. Ausland, Hugh H. Benson, Thomas C. Brickhouse, Michelle Carpenter, John M. Carvalho, Lloyd P. Gerson, Francisco J. Gonzalez, James H. Lesher, Mark McPherran, Ronald M. Polansky, Gerald A. Press, François Renaud, and W. Thomas Schmid, Nicholas D. Smith, P. Christopher Smith, Harold Tarrant, Joanne B. Waugh, and Charles M. Young.
The Unity of Plato's 'Crito' Polansky, Ronald
Scholia : Natal studies in classical antiquity,
01/1997, Letnik:
6, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Discussions of the 'Crito' usually focus on the laws' speech in the latter half of the dialogue. It has not been observed how much the laws' argument that it is just for Socrates to remain in prison ...depends upon the first half of the dialogue in which Socrates argues about how he decides on a course of action. The rule of law should be seen 10 have close connections with the conditions for human conversation and deliberation.
