Time as a Political Resource: Early Greek Thought and Plato's Philosophy of Time (original) (raw)
Related papers
Approach to Time in Ancient Greek Philosophy
2017
This paper clarifies Aristotle's definition of time as 'the number of movement by reference to before and after', by taking into consideration other concepts of time, such as that of Plato or of the Stoics, as well as various metaphors concerning time: the Ego-Moving metaphor and the Time-Moving metaphor; the sagittal metaphor and the lateral metaphor. The lateral metaphor does not appear in our language use, but when we visualize time, we allocate past or future to the right or left (or up or down), following the direction of our writing and reading. Time doesn't seem to exist, the past being no longer, the future being not yet, and 'now' being no part of time. However, humans have the faculty of imagination or representation (phantasia), closely related with memory, and thus by allocating time in our imagination, we can imagine it as some movement developed in space on our spiritual wax of mind, where perceptions are impressed, putting past times, for example, to the left, and future times to the right. This paper also takes into account the difference of two main types of clock in ancient world, the sundial and the water-clock, to further the understanding of Platonic versus Aristotelian concepts of time. Finally in relation with movement, the difference between eternity and sempiternity as well as the question of divisibility and indivisibility of movement and time is also discussed.
Introduction: Time and the Cosmos in Plato and the Platonic Tradition
Time and Cosmology in Plato and the Platonic Tradition, 2022
Time and cosmology are strongly interconnected in the Platonic corpus. The way Plato’s characters discuss these topics has puzzled and divided readers from the very beginning, giving rise to rich and diverse interpretations. Do Plato’s dialogues argue for an eternal cosmos or one with a punctual beginning? What is the nature of time, and how should we understand its relation to eternity, change, and transition? How should we understand the relation between God, the cosmos, and time? The present volume assembles an international team of ancient philosophy scholars to engage with Plato’s texts, and their ancient and modern interpretations, and to answer these and other closely related questions. The overall purpose of the volume is to push forward the study and understanding of Plato’s conception of time and the cosmos as a way of finding fresh insight into the interpretation of his philosophy and his reception in antiquity. I begin with an introduction to these topics in Plato and the Platonic tradition broadly understood, before explaining the motivation and overall structure of the volume. I conclude by offering a concise description of the contents of each chapter.
Introduction: From theoretical to practical time in antiquity
Conceptions of Time in Greek and Roman Antiquity. de Gruyter, 2022
This volume¹ compiles essays that focus on conceptions of time in Greek and Roman Antiquity. By conceptions, we mean ways in which time was conceived, not how time was measured or materiallyr epresented.² Thus, no chapter here is centred on astronomy, clepsydras,o rw atches.L ikewise, none of the essays in this volume directlya ddresses how humans perceivedt ime, e. g., when bored or excited etc., personallyo rs ubjectively, àl aBergson (1907, 1934). Instead, time is considered here as as peculative or literaryo rp olitical object,a sc an be inferred and theorised from the examination of ancienttexts that are not necessarilye xplicit as to how they conceive of time. This is thereforeastudyo fi ndividual and collective representations. In these respects,this volume is heir to Darbo-Peschanski (2000a), which it supplementsand updates in the domains of philosophy, history,l iterature, medicine and grammar.³ However,i td iffers by featurings tudies on the Roman world alongsidet hose on the Greek. Moreover, being shorter(8v s. 22 chapters), it privileges one approach, namelyt he way in which the various views of time are put into practice or "realised" (i. e., 'made real'), e. g., by becomingl iterary, political,o rm edicalm aterial capable This book originates in ande xpands upon theU CA JEDI projectM IDISHUC "Micro-diachronyi n HumanS ciencesa nd Conceptionso fT ime" (https://bcl.cnrs.fr/rubrique442), whosep urpose was to understandhow conceptionsoftimecan ariseorchangeunder thepressureofexternal factors, taking theexample of ClassicalGreece. Twoh ypotheseswereenvisaged within this project. First, that conceptions of time in differentfields, e.g.,inhistoryand philosophy respectively,may affect each other. Second,linguistic categories mayunconsciously affectthought categories, and/or vice versa. We return to this last idea in Section3. Regarding the measurement of time, it is important to read Hannah 2009.Onmeasurement in general in Antiquity,s ee Lloyd1 987. See also several of the chapters in Ben-Dov and Doering 2017,a long with chapters on how time was experienced. That book has morem aterial on the Middle-Eastern than on the Greek and Roman world. Visual arts areb arely touched upon here (although see S. Papaioannou'sc hapter, fromaliterary viewpoint), but were treated fromt he perspective of time in Strawczynski 2000 and Kim 2017.Because the bibliography on time is immense, this introductionf avours references from approximatelyt he last twenty years. The readerisreferredtothat volumeand especiallytoits introduction, in which the problems of time and "temporalisation" aree legantlyc ast in philosophical terms, most of which also applyt ot he present volume. Important references arem ade theret op revious literature.
2022
Much has been said of the philosophy of antiquity. However, there is nothing to indicate to us that, like all forms of thought, it is not of a more or less acquired character and, therefore, with a history that it is possible to investigate and study. That is the main objective of this book of little more than a hundred pages containing, but in a summarized way, my impressions on the philosophy, morals and ancient religions, fundamentally those belonging to the Mediterranean civilizations. With this book I intend, in short, to bring to the public some of the great philosophical teachings, not forgetting the merely historical lessons that these people bequeathed to us. This book also belongs to a collection of three, dedicated to the study of ancient civilizations encompassed within this geographical sphere.
Even while the ontological status of time (chronos), as it is defined by Plato and Aristotle, remains undecided by ancient scholars, there is the issue as to whether time exists in another sense, i.e. in a non-chronological sense. For example, in both Aristotle’s and Plato’s political works, there is mention of “kairos,” often understood to mean, “right time.” Yet, while kairos is often defined in terms of chronos and has been supplanted by chronos historically, as a secondary time concept, evidence suggests that kairos is not only irreducible to chronos, but also that it is a concept essential to understanding the timeliness of human interaction. In this presentation, I discussed the use of “kairos” in Plato’s Statesman, aka Politicus, in an effort to disclose some such evidence.
Plato on time as a cosmic phenomenon
2020
The thesis presents an original interpretation of the account of time in the Timaeus (37c6-39e2), arguing that time in Plato is best conceived of as a cosmic phenomenon. In Part I, my view is contrasted in crucial respects with the consensus reading, that focuses on the metaphysical definition (time is a moving image of eternity, 37d5) and downplays the importance of the cosmos and the planets in the creation of time. I reject the standard reading of αἰών as 'eternity' and take it instead as a feature that is essential to the model qua living being. It follows that the creation of timebeing the image of αἰώνis essential to the cosmic living being. Time, however, is best defined as a cosmic phenomenon, because it is constituted by the living motion of the cosmos and identified with the visible revolutions of the planets. In the continuation of the thesis, I examine two essential aspects of Plato's account that need further enquirylife and structure. In Part II I focus on the semantic history of αἰών and argue that in Plato, αἰών acquires a paradigmatic function in relation to time, while still retaining the core of its traditional meaning as 'lifespan'. In fact, αἰών and time are both defined by Plato as totalities of life, although αἰών consists in an undivided unity, whereas time is structured in sequences of parts composing a whole. In Part III I focus on how the planets make the periods of the cosmic soul visible and, as a consequence, display the enumerable structure of time. That structure consists in fact in the visible patterns of changing configurations the planets display. In doing so, they mark out sequences of units, whose optimality makes time the best instantiation of number in the physical world. 41 This division does not aim to assess each author's view individually. For instance, Taylor's can be taken as an instance of (1) or (2), depending on the passages chosen (see fn. 43). My goal is rather to recognise that the two views stand as distinct exegetical stances and to evaluate each in its own merit. 42 These considerations will be further articulated once I set out the positive part of my thesis, in Section 2.1 and 2.3. As for my use of 'fundamental ontology' with a distinct meaning from 'metaphysical', see fn. 62. 43 "His general concern is (A) to establish a strong distinction between eternity and time consonant with his basic division between Being and Becoming, where there is yet (B) a natural association between the two. The distinction he draws is in effect that between two types of stability: one a matter of absolute immutability, the other of everlasting regular mutation" (
Research Article, 2022
In one of the most famous but equally obscure passages in the Timaeus, Plato describes the generation of time and the heavens. The “moving image of eternity” (37d5) is commonly read as Plato’s most general characterisation of time. Rémi Brague famously challenged the traditional interpretation on linguistic grounds by claiming that Plato actually did not conceive of time as an image (εἰκών) but rather as a number (ἀριθμός). In this paper, I shall claim that this controversy is by no means a modern one. The traditional interpretation is mostly owed to Plato’s most prominent reader, Plotinus, who famously conceives of time in relation to eternity (Enn. III.7.13.24-25). Brague’s alternative reading, however, is anticipated by Simplicius’ attempt to refute the Plotinian interpretation, as I shall show. According to my reconstruction, Simplicius’ reading of the Timaeus not only shows why the traditional interpretation falls short, but it also offers a systematic argument that bolsters Brague’s alternative reading. Finally, I shall show that this is consistent with Plato’s text. It shall become clear that current interpretative problems are essentially prefigured in the late ancient debate.
Time, Perpetuity and Eternity in Late Antique Platonism
KronoScope, 2005
This paper focuses on the late antique conception of time, eter- nity and perpetual duration and examines the relation between these concepts and Plato’s cosmology. By exploring the contro- versy between pagan philosophers (Proclus,Ammonius, Simplicius, Olympiodorus) and Christian writers (Aeneas of Gaza, Zacharias of Mytilene, Philoponus) in respect to the interpretation of Plato’sTimaeus, I argue that the Neoplatonic doctrine of the perpetuity (aidiotes) of the world derives from a) the intellectual paradigm presupposed by the conceptual framework of late antiquity and b) the commentators’ principal concern for a coherent conception of Platonic cosmology essentially free from internal contradictions.