The history of Pythagoreanism is littered with different and incompatible interpretations. This observation directs this book towards a fundamentally historiographical rather than philological approach, setting out to reconstruct the way in which the tradition established Pythagoreanism s image.".

The purpose of the conference "On Pythagoreanism", held in Brasilia in 2011, was to bring together leading scholars from all over the world to define the status quaestionis for the ever-increasing interest and research on Pythagoreanism in the 21st century. The papers included in this volume exemplify the variety of topics and approaches now being used to understand the polyhedral image of one of the most fascinating and long-lasting intellectual phenomena in Western history. Cornelli's paper opens the volume by charting (...) the course of Pythagorean studies over the past two centuries. The remaining contributions range chronologically from Pythagoras and the early Pythagoreans of the archaic period (6th-5th centuries BCE) through the classical, hellenistic and late antique periods, to the eighteenth century. Thematically they treat the connections of Pythagoreanism with Orphism and religion, with mathematics, metaphysics and epistemology and with politics and the Pythagorean way of life. (shrink)

La Ley de la Mujer discutida en el libro V de la República, conocida como la primera ola, es un ejemplo notorio de la intención reformista de Sócrates de lograr justicia en la pólis. La legislación de la mujer, en general, históricamente ha sido relegada por los intérpretes de la República. El objeto del artículo es analizar este pasaje, del 449a al 457c, a través de los argumentos propuestos por Sócrates al considerarlos cruciales para concebir la igualdad entre los sexos (...) y favorecer el cambio institucional según su naturaleza, katà phýsin, dejando espacio para que las mujeres gobiernen la pólis. Antes de partir hacia el enfrentamiento externo, Sócrates considera urgente que sus interlocutores, Adimanto, Glaucón y Polemarco, estén de acuerdo entre ellos. Así, los insta a iniciar la discusión cuestionando la naturaleza humana de la mujer y su capacidad para las mismas funciones que desempeñan los hombres en la ciudad. El examen de lo inteligible permitió que el lógos sobre la capacidad intelectual de las mujeres respaldara una legislación adecuada. Este nómos puesto en práctica demuestra ser lo mejor para la ciudad y sus guardianes. En esa medida, Sócrates puede concluir dicha investigación con un consenso sobre qué hacer y la voluntad de confrontar urgentemente las opiniones opuestas en la ciudad. (shrink)

This paper aims to look at the ancient city of Athens and some of its political challenges through the eyes of Plato. I will do this by relating two concepts that permeate Plato's political concerns: democracy and misology. Beyond the tragic event of Socrates' death at democratic hands, there is perhaps something even deeper in Plato's struggle to see democracy as something that can work, so to speak. Plato no doubt has a profoundly pessimistic view of the human being. And (...) the city, who was traditionally supposed to educate men, is not delivering anymore (if ever). First of all, Plato clearly identifies the origin of political and social instability in the economic imbalance between πλοῦτος (richness) and πενία (poverty). Secondly, Plato's diagnosis, what his eyes are seeing, is even more perceptive and accurate. He outlines a second source of problem for democracy, one the probably resonate even more dramatically in our very present days: one that Socrates calls misology in the Phaedo: the hatred of discourses. Apart from the fact that there is a significant distance and a radical difference between the democracy of the 5th and 4th centuries, when Plato actually writes his dialogues, the most relevant question that emerges from the investigation is probably that a democracy itself is not something stable, an ontological object, not even today. And Plato was well aware of all this. (shrink)

What we envisaged as a dossier to explore the connection between style and philosophy in this unique transitional period of Presocratic philosophy has turned out to be a volume that breaks with several conventional views of the Presocratics and has the potential to take the interpretation of style and Presocratic philosophy in a whole new and more fruitful direction.

The doctrine of unity of opposites lays in the centre of the debate on Heraclitus’ philosophy. The present article proposes a critical analysis of the mainstream interpretation of geometrical oppositions (fragments DK 22 B 59, B 60 and B 103) as mere examples of different points of view. Instead, we suggest that these fragments are fundamental pieces in Heraclitus cosmology and that they are traces of a circular and archaic paradigm. Indeed, cyclical formulations are spread throughout the fragments and, read (...) in connection with geometrical oppositions, perform a useful model to describe how permanence and change can be complementary events. In this context, circularity can be a key to the comprehension of unity of opposites as a result of interchangeable processes – as day and night, life and death, beginning and end – so that opposites are part of a concrete and vital unity. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze the tradition of the theory of the immortality of the soul and its metempsychosis, with the intention, on the one hand, of determining whether it can be traced back to the practice and doctrine of proto-Pythagoreanism, and on the other hand, of understanding to what extent it has contributed to the definition of the category of Pythagoreanism throughout history. The oldest testimonies attributing that doctrine to Pythagoras suggest two different hermeneutic routes. First, although old, the (...) theory of the immortality of the soul, apocalyptic by its very nature, does not imply the existence of a dogmatic system of beliefs. That is to say that throughout the various strata of the Pythagorean tradition, the concept of this immortality significantly differed. Second, as a result of the first route, it turned out to be necessary to verify how the reception of the theory by later sources contributed to the construction, through it, of the category of Pythagoreanism. The testimonies of Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Ion and Empedocles suggest that metempsychosis is quite an old theory, corresponding to the proto-Pythagorean stratum. One finds in Aristotle the most explicit testimony of the existence of a proto-Pythagorean theory of metempsychosis: the use of the term mýthoi to refer to the Pythagorean doctrines of the soul suggests that Aristotle considered them sufficiently old, and therefore in all probability proto-Pythagorean. The Aristotelian lexicon ultimately will reveal proto-Pythagoreanism as the source of the doctrines of the immortality of the soul and its transmigration. (shrink)

The significance of Plato s literary style to the content of his ideas isone of the central problems in the study of Plato. Thisvolume presents some of the most recent scholarshipon the wide range of issues related to Plato s dialogue form. The essaysaddress general questions concerning Plato s literary style, the relation of his style to other genres and traditions in Ancient Greece, and Plato s characters and his purpose in using them. ".

According to Glaucus of Rhegium Democritus was “a disciple of a Pythagorean” (dk 68 A1, 38). The tetralogical catalog of his works prepared by Thrasylus begins its section on ethics with the three following works: Pythagoras; On the Disposition of the Wise Man; On the Things in Hades (dk 68 B0a–c). The very order of the first three ethical works of Democritus could point to some sort of dependence on Pythagoreanism. This was suggested earlier by Frank (1923: 67), who believes (...) that this is due to the fact that Democritus saw Pythagoras as basically the founder of an ethic-religious sect. Without being forced to agree with Frank, it is undeniable that there are many similarities between Pythagorean and Democritean ethics. The Democritean sentences that speak about the sense of shame before oneself as a way of preventing evil deeds (dk 68 B84, 244, and 264) recalls the practice of anamnesis, the examination of conscience in the Pythagorean tradition. Even more important are the parallel uses of measure as a basis for ethical reasoning. This paper aims to review this connection between Pythagorean traditions and Democritus, examining what emerges as the most probable core issue to determine how close this relation between atomists and Pythagoreans could have been: the Aristotelian testimony (de An. 1.2 404a16-20 [dk 58 B40]) on the material conception of the Pythagorean soul. In fact, a corpuscular conception of the soul (“dust in the air”), foreshadowing the psychology of Democritus, is attributed to the Pythagoreans. Is the argument of de An. 1.2 404a16-20 a misunderstanding by Aristotle? Or does this testimony represent an actual dialogue that Pythagoreans were having with atomists in the fifth century bce? (shrink)

No Banquetede Platão, Fedro é considerado o “pai do discurso” e ocupa na sala o primeiro assento à esquerda. Ele introduz o tema do amor e inicia seu discurso com uma série de referências à tradição, incluindo figuras como Hesíodo, Acusilau e Parmênides, para elogiar Eros. Fedro enfatiza o papel do amor na guerra, na política e nas relações amorosas, ressaltando como o amor motiva os humanos a agirem de maneira excepcional. Seu argumento culmina na ideia de que o ápice (...) do amor é a disposição de morrer por aqueles a quem amamos. Ilustra essa perspectiva com exemplos de casais: Alceste e Admeto, Orfeu e Eurídice e Aquiles e Pátroclo, demonstrando como o amor está intrinsecamente ligado à morte e como este sacrifício é recompensado pelos deuses. Esta tradução destaca termos específicos usados em contextos pederásticos como erastes e eromenos, através da transliteração, diferenciando-os de termos mais genéricos para amantes e amados. A introdução aborda brevemente como a compreensão das relações pederásticas e questões relacionadas ao gênero das personagens podem influenciar a interpretação do discurso. Esta tradução convida os leitores a uma análise minuciosa do discurso de Fedro, explorando as complexidades discutidas e suas implicações para o entendimento do amor na obra de Platão. (shrink)

The present essay will cross, inside the matter of the sources of the platonic thought, the suggestion of Damascius of Damascus, with the intention to draw clear understanding, unless in this particular point, of the relationship between the ancient pythagoreanism and the platonic philosophy. In this, the study of the matter of the dialectics of the limiters/unlimited one is central. The page 16c of the Philebus is the crucial point of this discussion: here Socrates introduces the theme of the unity/multiplicity (...) as a very beautiful hodos, a run that comes from a very distant point of departure: it’s a “gift of the gods” and a discovery of the ancient ones. The comparative study of these footsteps of the Philebus and the fragments of Philolaus, especially В 2, 3, 6 and 7 bring us to conclude that the presence in the pages of the Philebus of the theory of the limiter/unlimited be taken as a pre-platonic “discovery” of the more ancient pythagorean philosophy. (shrink)

Texto apresentado como palestra de abertura do evento “Gli studi di storia della filosofia antica di Giovanni Casertano”, organizado no dia 23 de outubro de 2024 pela Società Nazionale di Scienze, Lettere e Arti de Nápoles (Itália) e pelo Departamento de Filosofia da Università degli Studi di Napoli - Federico II. Um agradecimento especial às colegas e amigas Anna Motta e Lidia Palumbo pelo generoso convite.

Resumo: Propõe-se uma leitura de três episódios da Odisseia, nos quais há o uso de um phármakon. São Helena, Circe e Hermes as personagens que administram as phármaka. Trata-se de leitura: 1) vinculada a um projeto: o levantamento e a interpretação de discursos que se distanciem e/ou questionem a perspectiva da “guerra às drogas”, algo como um projeto de extração de elementos textuais que possam servir como ferramentas teóricas, na construção de uma perspectiva menos mortífera em relação às substâncias; 2) (...) guiada por três princípios, os quais podem ser ditos anticoloniais e antirracistas. Leitura centrada no phármakon, mas que o articula à comida floral dos lotófagos e à relação de xenía; dela, apresenta-se a proposta segundo a qual, no texto homérico, há a valorização de algo que pode ser chamado de multivalência.: The aim of this paper is to analyze three episodes of the Odyssey in which a pharmakon is used. Helen, Circe and Hermes are the characters that administer the pharmaka. This analysis is linked to a project - the survey of discourses that distance themselves and/or question the perspective of the “war on drugs”, a project that aims to extract textual elements that can serve as tools of thought in the construction of a less deadly path in relation to substances - and guided by three principles - which can be called anti-colonial and anti-racist. From this focus, centered on the pharmakon, also articulating it to the floral food of the lotophagi and the relationship of xenia, a thesis is put forward according to which, in the Homeric texts, one can find something that can be called multivalence. (shrink)

Archai 30 introduces a new editorial phase for Archai Journal. Learne more...

O presente artigo é fruto de trabalhos e pesquisas conduzidos pela equipe de coordenação do PNLD 2018 (Plano Nacional de Livros Didáticos), a qual se reuniu por duas ocasiões, juntamente com todos os pareceristas, em seminários exclusivamente dedicados ao projeto. O texto pode, pois, ser dividido em quatro seções, as quais (e cuja divisão) se revelarão suficientemente evidentes para o leitor. Em primeiro lugar, é apresentada uma revisão historiográfica (inédita, tanto quanto sabemos) do ensino de Filosofia no Ocidente, desde as (...) primeiras instituições da Antiguidade até a atualidade, mas com especial enfoque no caso brasileiro. Em segundo lugar, apresentamos uma revisão crítica da legislação mais relevante, sobretudo a vigente, para o processo de seleção dos manuais didáticos a distribuir pelas escolas brasileiras durante o período de vigência do edital, referindo em particular os critérios que nortearam tal seleção. Em terceiro lugar, são referidos alguns dos aspectos mais importantes das obras aprovadas neste edital do PNLD. Finalmente, são abordados alguns aspectos relativos aos desafios que o PNLD terá necessariamente que enfrentar, tendo em conta a conjuntura brasileira atual, nomeadamente os pacotes legislativos mais recentes a propósito do PNLD enquanto tal, mas também do papel da própria Filosofia no ensino obrigatório no nível médio. (shrink)

Despite their tensions and contradictions, the various discourses about globalization reveal a desire to build the space and time of the encounter between worlds and cultures, through the persistence of a dialogue that approximates distances, but respects differences. A considerable part of the political, cultural, urban, linguistic formation of the Western world has given rise to motives and solutions of the institution of the poles and cosmopolis of the Ancient World. On the other hand, mobility can even be considered a (...) characteristic trait of Luso-Brazilian culture, from the Portuguese discoveries and their cultural production, in the first steps of the Jesuit literature in Brazil, especially in José de Anchieta, passing by António Vieira, Machado de Assis, Guimarães Rosa, among others. For this reason, the presence and the different nuances of the theme of mobility and the cosmopolis of old in the reception of Classical Antiquity in the Portuguese language literature are also a central theme of the volume... https://books.google.be/books/about/Cosmópolis.html?id=4C3ODQAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y. (shrink)

A presente obra é o resultado de dois seminários de pesquisa que reuniram a Cátedra UNESCO Archai da Universidade de Brasília, o Centro de Estudos Clássicos e Humanísticos da Universidade de Coimbra e o Grupo Filosofia Antiga da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais em dezembro de 2011 em Brasília e em março de 2012 na antiga cidade de Eleia, com o objetivo de realizar uma estudo exploratório tendo em vista a preparação de uma nova edição em língua portuguesa da obra (...) "Vidas e Doutrinas dos Filósofos Ilustres" de Diógenes Laércio. O estudo preparatório resultou nesta coleção de ensaios inéditos e ricos de estímulos e sugestões para a compreensão, imediatamente, da obra de Diógenes Laércio. O volume traz para o debate um panorama de questões sobre a obra e a sua recepção, assim como estudos mais específicos dedicados a uma passagem ou a uma das biografias, desejando desta forma constituir-se num trabalho de referência para os pesquisadores de Diógenes Laércio em língua portuguesa. (shrink)

O dossiê A Democracia Antiga Revisitada, que a Revista Archai ora apresenta, resulta diretamente do XIX Seminário Internacional Archai dedicado a este tema e realizado na Universidade de Brasília entre os dias 22 e 26 de agosto de 2022.

Desde a Magna Grécia de Pitágoras, Empédocles e Parmênides, passando pelas relações “perigosas” entre a sabedoria nascente e as tradições órfico-dionisíacas, em nítida continuidade com a mitologia arcaica e as narrativas teogônicas, dialogando com as práticas médicas asclepíades, a filosofia antiga visita cavernas. A caverna da República, uma das mais poderosas e fecundas alegorias do pensamento ocidental, é simultaneamente herdeira e ponto de fuga da longa trajetória dessa metáfora. Não se pretende aqui, no entanto, compreender a imagem platônica como a (...) consumação de uma velha tradição filosófica que “pensa em cavernas”; procura-se, antes, iluminar essa alegoria com a interpretação oferecida pela filosofia acadêmica posterior. No Antro das Ninfas, Porfírio parte de 11 versos de Homero para habilmente desenhar uma exegese inspirada na teoria platônica da alma. A lectio porfiriana permite sugerir que a imagem da caverna revela algo mais que uma simples alegoria literária. Ela dá prova da existência de relações dialógicas e circulares entre a filosofia platônica e o imaginário religioso popular do mundo antigo. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Plato and Pythagoreanism by Phillip Sidney HorkyGabriele CornelliPhillip Sidney Horky. Plato and Pythagoreanism. Oxford University Press, 2013. xxi + 305 pp. Cloth, $74.Ceci n’est pas un livre sur Pythagore. With these clever and rather playful words, Horky’s book starts its literary journey through a wide range of Pythagorean sources, including Epicharmus, Empedocles, Philolaus, Eurytus and Arquitas, and Pythagorean themes, like numbers, immortality of the soul, limitness/unlimitness, among others.From (...) this explosive incipit, one would think that Horky agrees with Kahn’s almost forty-year-old observation about the fact that new theories of Pythagoreanism are not necessary in our present day and age (1974, 163, n. 6):It’s hard enough to satisfy minimal standards of historical rigor in discussing the Pythagoreans, without introducing arbitrary guesswork of this sort where no two students can come to the same conclusion on the basis of the same evidence. In fact, the direct testimony for Pythagorean doctrines is all too abundant. The task for a serious scholarship is not to enrich these data by inventing new theories or unattested stages of development but to sift the evidence so as to determine which items are most worthy (or least unworthy) of belief.On the contrary, however, Horky’s approach seems surprisingly to direct the reader towards a fundamentally historiographical rather than philological brand of work, that is, one devoted neither exclusively to the exegesis of Pythagorean sources nor even to the theoretical approach of one of the themes that received specific contributions from Pythagoreanism, such as mathematics, cosmology, politics, or the theory of the immortal soul. This is mainly true when one recognizes, from the title on, that the main goal of the book is to try to determine, once and for all, what is the extent of Pythagorean influence on Plato’s thought. Rather an historiographical problem, I would say. And a good one.In order to do so, Horky needs to trace down a sort of history of mathematical Pythagoreanism from a huge variety of informed ancient sources and perspectives. Horky’s approach to the sources is well-grounded, not only in Burkert’s fundamental works, but also in the recent revival in Pythagorean studies which took over ancient philosophy scholarship in the last two decades: Huffmann’s works on Philolaus (1993) and Arquitas (2005); Zhmud (1997) and Kahn (2001) on early Pythagoreans; Riedweg on Pythagoras (2002), among many others. After the publishing of Horky’s book, two sorts of Companions to Pythagoreanism confirm the trend of the revival: Cornelli, McKirahan, and Macris (2013), acts of the On Pythagoreanism seminar held in Brasilia by Archai [End Page 353] UNESCO Chair, and Huffman (2014). Luckily, Pythagorean scholarship has now gotten rid of that old-fashioned scepticism, starting from Zeller’s famous statement that the relevant sources are a “mixture of fables and poetry.” As Horky’s book seems to suggest, the job can be done. And he has definitely proved to be able to force his way through, with both clear philological arguments and refined historiographical hypotheses.Not surprisingly, a work on Plato and Pythagoreanism starts with a chapter on Aristotle: “Aristotle on Mathematical Pythagoreanism in the Fourth Century BCE” (chap. 1). The idea of the chapter is to rely on Aristotle’s distinction between the mathematical and acousmatic branches of Pythagoreanism. While acousmatic Pythagoreans supposedly did not engage in demonstration, the so-called mathematical Pythagoreans engaged in investigations based on mathemata in order to give an account (the reason why of the world they perceived). Horky seems to drive Aristotle’s account to a specific goal: mathematical Pythagoreans would have established some kind of correspondence between numbers and sensibles, and their ontology would have a direct relation to social and political organization.Chapter 2, “Hippasus of Metapontum and Mathematical Pythagoreanism,” is entirely dedicated to the account of the later doxographical tradition on Hippasus, the alleged progenitor of mathematical Pythagoreanism. Avoiding the risk of falling into the “bottomless pit” of research on the Pythagoreans—in Guthrie’s famous words (1962, 146, n. 1)—Horky manages his inquiry boldly and in a quite elegant way. Between the peripatetic systematization and the platonic derivation of Hippasus’ philosophy, Hippasus... (shrink)

This article proposes to address the relationship between philosophy and politics through the 5th-4th Century's intellectual debate on ethics and politics in Athens. A debate which takes place in the wake of the rise of a new individuality, marked by the discovery of the tragicity of the soul. What stands out in this debate is the redefinition of a philopolitical stand in all its historical ambiguity and ethical idealism. Aristophanes, Thucydides, Euripides, Gorgias and, obviously, Plato himself are striving to define (...) the possibility of the encounter between philosophy and the city, public and private, justice and interests, individual and community. The Platonic solution for the problem reveals complexity and articulation typical of his thought: the philosopher that shelters himself from the storm behind an academic wall is the same who "in order for himself not to seem nothing but words" sails towards the uncertain Syracusan project. (shrink)

In Plato’s Symposium eros and paideia draw the fabric of dramatic and rhetorical speeches and, especially, the picture of the relation between Socrates and Alcibiades. This paper will focus, firstly, on two important facts, which are essential for the correct understanding of the dialogue, both of which appear at the beginning. First, it is said that Socrates, Alcibiades and the others were present at the famous banquet, and second, that the banquet and the erotic speeches of the participants were so (...) celebrated as to attract the attention for several decades to come. So, the memory of that symposium is thus the memory, far beyond the other symposiasts, and through the erotic speeches, of something precise: that is, a particularly significant relationship, that between Socrates and Alcibiades. What matters most for the aim of this paper is the fact that Alcibiades is considered one of the major reasons for the defeat of Athens and the main cause of the crisis into which the city was plunged during the last years of 5th century BC. Due to the distrust of the city towards the groups of ‘philosophers’ that remitted to Alcibiades’ group, it is no surprise that the so-called Socratics committed themselves to refuting the accusation of Socrates having been Alcibiades’ mentor, to the point of reversing the charge. In the same way as the others Plato, also a Socratic, concerns himself with what might be called the ‘Alcibiades’ Connection’. Realizing there obviously was no way to deny the deep connection between Socrates and Alcibiades, he uses a clever dramatic construction with the intention of operating a political intervention upon the memory of this relationship, that is, of rewriting history, with the intent of relieving him of a more precise charge, which must have especially weighed upon Plato andupon Socrates’ memory: of him having been Alcibiades’ lover/mentor. This Platonic apology is based, ultimately, in a clever rhetorical strategy, which emphasizes the now traditional sexual paranomia of Alcibiades, in order tomake him guilty of an attempted excessive and outrageous seduction not only of Socrates, but of the polis itself. Reusing comic and oratorical/rhetorical motifs of his time, therefore, Plato deepens the J’accuse against Alcibiades, trying to withdraw him from the orbit of Socrates and the Socratics. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to set forth conjectures that are likely to explain the inclusion of Plato and Hermes as heralds of Mani in the testimony of Ephrem of Syria. This incorporation should be set against the background of the Syrian religious milieu, which was influenced by both Hellenistic philosophy and Eastern religious traditions. Therefore, it would be better to seek a religious and philosophical environment wherein Plato and Hermes were associated. Keywords: Manichaeism, apocalypticism, theurgy, hermetism, Merkabah mysticism, (...) late platonism. (shrink)

The paper deals with the "deuteros plous", literally ‘the second voyage’, proverbially ‘the next best way’, discussed in Plato’s "Phaedo", the key passage being Phd. 99e4–100a3. The second voyage refers to what Plato’s Socrates calls his “flight into the logoi”. Elaborating on the subject, the author first (I) provides a non-standard interpretation of the passage in question, and then (II) outlines the philosophical problem that it seems to imply, and, finally, (III) tries to apply this philosophical problem to the "ultimate (...) final proof" of immortality and to draw an analogy with the ontological argument for the existence of God, as proposed by Descartes in his 5th "Meditation". The main points are as follows: (a) the “flight into the logoi” can have two different interpretations, a common one and an astonishing one, and (b) there is a structural analogy between Descartes’s ontological argument for the existence of God in his 5th "Meditation" and the "ultimate final proof" for the immortality of the soul in the "Phaedo". (shrink)

Apresentação do Dossiê sobre o Banquete de Platão.

No mês de Novembro de 2017, em ocasião do Dia Mundial da Filosofia da UNESCO, a Cátedra UNESCO Archai, do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Metafísica da Universidade de Brasilia, organizou um hangout Unesco sobre o tema Filosofia, gênero e feminismo, do qual participaram diversxs colegas brasileirxs, especialistas do tema, acima assinadxs. A gravação integral do hangout está disponível aqui: https://youtu.be/LH5LwTegGG4. Segue abaixo uma transcrição, revista e adaptada pelxs autorxs.