Some Ancient Greek Theories of (Divine and Mortal) Mind (original) (raw)

Soul and mind in Greek thought : psychological issues in Plato and Aristotle

2018

This book offers new insights into the workings of the human soul and the philosophical conception of the mind in Ancient Greece. It collects essays that deal with different but interconnected aspects of that unified picture of our mental life shared by all Ancient philosophers who thought of the soul as an immaterial substance. The papers present theoretical discussions on moral and psychological issues ranging from Socrates to Aristotle, and beyond, in connection with modern psychology. Coverage includes moral learning and the fruitfulness of punishment, human motivation, emotions as psychic phenomena, and more. Some of these topics directly stemmed from the Socratic dialectical experience and its tragic outcome, whereas others found their way through a complex history of refinements, disputes, and internal critique. The contributors present the gradual unfolding of these central themes through a close inspection of the relevant Ancient texts. They deliver a wide-ranging survey of...

A History of Mind and Body in Late Antiquity

2018

What is a soul? What is a body? What is a mind? How do these relate within the human being? Is the soul-body relationship antagonistic or complementary? For example, is the soul weighed down and imprisoned by the body, or aided by it and defined in relation to it? How do we think, and how are we aware of our own thoughts? How should bodily pleasure feature in our lives? If the mind is supposed to focus on and contemplate intelligible reality, how can it achieve this? What is the role of God, of the body, and of literature in the soul's attempts at contemplation? Throughout late antiquity, philosophers and theologians grappled creatively with mind-body issues, asking a diverse range of questions and giving answers often of striking originality and of abiding significance. Philosophical anthropological reflections about the nature of body, soul, and mind prompted and interacted with ethical and epistemological questions. The aim of this volume is to present together pagan and Christian ideas about mind and body in late antiquity, from roughly the 2 nd through the 6 th centuries. The mind-body relation is broadly conceived to include the soul-body relation. We explore a wide, interacting community of thinkers, mainly writing in Greek and in some cases in Latin. Our primary focus is on philosophical approaches to mind-body questions; however, a chapter from Edward Watts sheds light on their historical setting, and some contributors deploy less self-consciously philosophical sources, such as sermons and liturgy. This breadth of approach demonstrates the widespread significance of mind-body questions, which extended far beyond philosophical communities, and helps to bring out the historical specificity of late ancient enquiry into mind-body questions. It will also widen the range of likely interest in our volume, to secondarily include those whose concern is more social and historical than theological and philosophical. The mind-body relation was at the forefront of philosophy and theology in late antiquity. In addressing it, late ancient thinkers were partly picking up on themes from earlier antiquity. However, new contexts and ideas cast these themes in a fresh light: Plotinus' thought, especially his metaphysics and cosmology, reinvigorated Platonism and arguably sent it in a new direction; the rise of asceticism in the third and fourth centuries both accentuated the ethical aspects of mind-body questions and further grounded them in an intensely practical context; late antiquity saw the growth of Christianity. It thus fostered a social and political context in which pagan and Christian authors existed side by side, engaging with, disputing, and influencing each other against the backdrop of each community's fluctuating political fortunes. Late antiquity is a period of unique import for Christian-pagan interaction. It is also, relatedly, a bridge between the ancient and medieval worlds. Late ancient ideas are of enduring importance. This volume addresses a vital section of them. Across the period in question, mind-body issues were bound up with cosmological ones: to ask how the soul relates to the body is partly to ask how an intelligible, rational entity exists in the physical world. In Neoplatonic thought, the cosmological framework of mind-body questions was being reconfigured, thanks partly to a renewed emphasis on divine transcendence. If the divine is removed from the intelligible sphere, the soul may then be far removed from the body as it stretches up towards the now-distant divine. The soul may, equally, be pushed closer to the body because both, together, are sharply distinguished from the divine. In either case, the soul must interact with the body. This plays out in various ways. Early Neoplatonism often exhibits a strong, though complex, anthropological dualism; this can be seen giving way to a more positive approach to embodiment in later Neoplatonism. Paralleling questions of downwards interaction – how do the soul and mind relate to the body? – were questions of upwards interaction – how do soul and mind relate to other intelligibles and to transcendent reality? Correspondingly, this period also saw increasing introspection about the

The Constructed Self in Ancient Greece and Rome

Journeys of the Self identified in Philosophy , 2024

Journeys of the self - have long been a fascination within the annals of human thought, nowhere more so than in the philosophical traditions of ancient Greece and Rome. At the heart of this exploration lies the concept of the "Constructed Self," a lens through which we examine how individuals' identities are molded, shaped, and defined by the prevailing norms, values, and social structures of their time. Within the realms of philosophy in Ancient Greece and Rome, thinkers grappled with questions of individual identity, the influence of society on the self, and the interplay between personal agency and external forces. Among the guiding principles of many ancient Greek and Roman philosophers was the idea of "following nature." Rooted in the belief that living in accordance with nature's laws leads to a harmonious and virtuous life, this principle deeply influenced conceptions of the self. Additionally, the advancements in Greek medicine, particularly the humoral theory attributed to figures like Hippocrates and Galen, offered a lens through which philosophers explored the balance of bodily and mental health.

Ancient Greek Psychology_sample.pdf

Ancient Greek Psychology and the Modern Mind-Body Debate, 2018

This book offers an overview of Platonic-Aristotelian thought on man with a view to considering what its alternative conceptual framework may contribute to the modern debate which is dominated by the skepticism confronting modern reductionism. The mind-body problem is central to the modern philosophical and cultural debate because we cannot understand what man is until we understand what consciousness is and how it interacts with the body. Although many suggestions have been offered, no convincing account has as yet appeared. Perhaps it was all mistaken ideology from the start? A crucial (and fatal?) distinction was made by modern natural science in the 17th century between the subjective/qualitative and the objective/quantitative. The ancient Greeks, notably Plato and Aristotle, focused not on consciousness and experience, but on goal-directed reason/form, and the contrast was not mechanical matter, but the particular. The latter owed its intelligibility and being to reason and form and did not, therefore, constitute a realm of its own. Hence the ancient picture of man did not fall apart either: the soul is conceived of as a dynamic-telic aspect of the human organism. Considering the problems and consequent skepticism that confronts modern reductionism and the recent appearance of holistic ideology in many areas it is suggested that we take a fresh look at the alternative conceptual framework of our ancient Greek ancestors.

The Contemplative Community: Pre-Socratic Teachings and Their Appropriation in the Phaedo

Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, 2022

This paper elucidates how the thinking about opposition that we find in the surviving passages of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae and in the Fragments of Heraclitus of Ephesus informs discussions of the separability of the body and the soul in the Phaedo. I offer a reconstruction of the way in which these pre-Socratic ideas of opposition are appropriated and refracted in Plato's Phaedo (especially at 85e-86e, 92a-95a, 102c-e, 102b-107a). I treat Anaxagoras first, in order to explicate how his ideas make up the background of the dialogical study of the separation of the soul from the body (102b-107a). My analysis of Heraclitus comes second and shows how his ideas inform the interlocutors' assessment of the unity characteristic of the body and the soul (92a-95a). I set the stage for the discussion of Anaxagoras and Heraclitus by relating these thinkers to the broader Pythagorean background that is apparent in the dialogue.

The Ancient Self: Issues and Approaches

Ancient Philosophy of the Self, eds. P. Remes and J. Sihvola, 2008

In this essay, I consider the implications of two themes in ancient philosophy as a way of exploring current issues and approaches in the study of the self in antiquity. The first theme is the Cicero's presentation of Cato in 'On Duties' (1.112), considered in the context of his account of the theory of the four roles (personae). The second is Epictetus' recurrent theme in the 'Discourses' that we should focus our lives on exercising 'prohairesis' (rational agency or will), together with his three-topic programme of practical ethics.