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The Euthalian Prologue to the Letters of Paul is found in hundreds of late ancient and medieval editions of the Pauline corpus, presenting readers with a prefatory biography of the apostle that both aligns and departs from canonical traditions. Notably, the Prologue depicts Paul's violence against early Christian assemblies as a manifestation of Jewish μανία , triggered by prophetic foresight and healed by Christ on the road to Damascus. Previous studies primarily examine the Prologue's connection to canonical sources. This article explores its relationship with other late ancient expressions of Paul's life. It argues specifically that the Prologue's depiction of Paul has been shaped – either directly or indirectly – by the writings of John Chrysostom, based on otherwise unique shared thematic elements. Its findings contribute to our understanding of the Prologue's nebulous origins, its rhetorical objectives, and Chrysostom's already massive impact on the reception of Pauline literature and tradition in the late ancient and medieval periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prefixed verb superaedificare , which is a calque of ἐποικοδοµέω , governs prepositional phrases and plain cases in the Latin New Testament Epistles. The Vulgate and Old Latin manuscripts feature constructions of superaedificare in agreement with the Greek source text. However, alternative translations are attested when the biblical text is cited by early Christian writers. In citations where the biblical passage is included in the author's text, aedificare is frequently used instead of superaedificare. By contrast, when the biblical text is quoted for the first time and its source is acknowledged, superaedificare is employed and its construction matches that of the Greek text. These citation habits show that the construction of superaedificare is a syntactical calque of the Greek source text, which is attested when the citations are marked as such but is not used when the biblical text is embedded in the patristic text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Dialogue 4, Justin changes his mind on two specific tenets of Platonic philosophy: the idea that the soul can see God, and the doctrine of transmigration. The Platonic anthropology rejected by Justin happens to be foundational to the theological systems of his Christian demiurgical opponents: Simon and Helen, Basilides, and Carpocrates (who are likely discussed and refuted in Justin's now-lost Syntagma Against all the Heresies). In this paper, I argue that this is not coincidental, and that Justin's problem with Platonic anthropology is bound up with his broader heresiological concerns. By rejecting these two doctrines, Justin was able to define Christianity on his own terms while effectively undermining the teachings of his religious rivals. This further explains the specificity of Justin's problem with Platonism, which should not be read as a wholesale rejection of Platonic philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the cinematic experience of animation, with an emphasis on how technological advancements are reshaping our engagement with time-based moving images. Topics include the phenomenology of animation and its perceptual and philosophical aspects, Jack Parry's exploration of frame-based animation through the lens of transcendental phenomenology and Neo-Platonism, and the viewer's immersive experience in virtual reality environments.

Field's challenge to platonists is the challenge to explain the reliable match between mathematical truth and belief. The challenge grounds an objection claiming that platonists cannot provide such an explanation. This objection is often taken to be both neutral with respect to controversial epistemological assumptions, and a comparatively forceful objection against platonists. I argue that these two characteristics are in tension: no construal of the objection in the current literature realises both, and there are strong reasons to think that no version of Field's epistemological objection which has both Neutrality and Force can be construed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws a taxonomy of the use of rhetorical genres in teaching and writings by the Platonists of Late Antiquity (from Iamblichus at the turn of the third/fourth century ad to the Platonists of Athens and Alexandria in the fifth and sixth centuries). It is a rich gamut of genres, including encomia of heroes (biographies), of sciences (protreptics), of gods (theologies), mirrors of princes. It also examines some rhetorical argumentative techniques. The question of the difference between good and bad rhetoric is discussed. While being critical of rhetors who cater to popular opinions and bases desires, the Platonists of Late Antiquity found room for a 'true' rhetoric, in the service of philosophy, inspired by knowledge and seeking the good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an interpretation of Locke's understanding of life, challenging a familiar reading which treats him as endorsing a mechanical reduction of the living body. Against the mechanists, Locke clearly states that the internal movement constitutive of life is excited from within the organism, and he also holds that the coordination of the bodily organs (their unity of function) cannot be understood mechanically. Rather, the different parts of the organism enjoy a ‘vital union', a concept that Locke borrows from Henry More and the Cambridge Platonists. In the final part of the paper, it is shown how personhood, on Locke's understanding, partakes in this vital union and how the person is thus embodied in the human organism, or ‘Man’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A discussion of the metaphysics of spiritual experience requires that we are clear about the nature of metaphysics, and I take as my starting point the 'transcendent metaphysics' described and supposedly eliminated by A. J. Ayer. Most analytic philosophers agree with Ayer (and Kant) that transcendent metaphysics in the relevant sense is deeply problematic, and they associate it with platonism, theism, and religious thinking more generally. Assuming then that spiritual experience takes us into religious territory, and this territory is forbidden, a metaphysics of spiritual experience is going to involve transcendent metaphysics, and it will be similarly problematic. Ayer's conception of transcendent reality is itself deeply problematic, and I shall argue that his metaphysical framework helps to motivate atheistic spirituality by ruling out the possibility of an empirically grounded and hence defensible religious alternative. I shall challenge this framework, set out an alternative with the help of Arthur Schopenhauer, and spell out the implications for a metaphysics of spiritual experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematics appears to play an explanatory role in science. This, in turn, is thought to pave a way toward mathematical Platonism. A central challenge for mathematical Platonists, however, is to provide an account of how mathematical explanations work. I propose a property-based account: physical systems possess mathematical properties, which either guarantee the presence of other mathematical properties and, by extension, the physical states that possess them or rule out other mathematical properties, and their associated physical states. I explain why Platonists should accept that physical systems have mathematical properties, and why a property-based account is better than existing accounts of mathematical explanation. I close by considering whether nominalists can accept the view I propose here. I argue that they cannot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article examines Emmanuel Levinas's critique of art through the lenses of Platonism and Jewish aniconism. It highlights Levinas's criticism of art as contributing to a distortion of reality, likening its role to a form of silence and inaccessibility, drawing parallels with Plato's views on art as deceptive and obstructive to true understanding.

The present article examines the interpretations of Platonism in the philosophical systems of selected representatives of the Baden and Marburg schools of neo-Kantianism. Using the method of comparative analysis and focusing on epistemological, metaphysical-ontological, mathematical, and historical interpretations of Plato's idealism, I present the philosophical positions of the following Baden thinkers: Wilhelm Windelband, Emil Lask, Jonas Cohn, Karl Jaspers; and the following Marburg thinkers: Hermann Cohen, Paul Natorp, August Auffarth and Elisabeth Rotten. The choice of these philosophers is deliberate and related to different ways of interpreting ancient Platonic idealism. The historical-philosophical approach in this article consists in describing various ways of interpreting Plato's philosophy at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in the circles of German philosophers inspired by the philosophy of Kant. I will address this research topic using a novel method, considering selected assumptions of the broadly understood intellectual environment associated with critical philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aristoxenus of Tarentum (375-335 BC) was one of Aristotle’s most important students. He was best known for his treatises on musical theory, including the Elements of Harmonic Theory. However, Aristoxenus was also notable as a great author of biographies of personalities such as Pythagoras, Archytas, Socrates and Plato. Unfortunately, only fragments of these works have reached us. However, from reading these fragments we can derive very interesting information about the biographies of these philosophers and the way they were portrayed in Antiquity. Furthermore, we can also reach some conclusions about Aristoxenus’ position regarding Socratic-Platonic theories. In this paper I will discuss the information contained in the fragments of biographies that Aristoxenus wrote about Socrates and Plato and what would be his point of view on these authors would be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although biblical scholars are increasingly turning their attention to the question of God's body, few clarify how precisely this "body" complicates the long-held claim that God is immaterial. The present article addresses this oversight by attending to the ways in which biblical accounts of God's body intersect with wider tradents of thought on materiality and immateriality, including, above all, the recent cross-disciplinary "turn" known as new materialism. The article begins by discussing what biblical scholars mean when they say "God's body" and how biblical theophanies in particular complicate the belief that God is immaterial. It then discusses new materialism and how key emphases in this scholarly shift similarly complicate the belief in God's immateriality. Third and finally, the article returns to biblical theophanies by reading these accounts through a new materialist lens, focusing in particular on God's manifestations in material, nonhuman forms. In the end, I suggest not only that biblical theophanies problematize traditional ways of conceiving God within the history of biblical interpretation but also that new materialism can better enable us to see how these accounts portray the relationship between God and embodied materialities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that John's christology affirms the material visibility of God by reconciling the notion of an "unseen" God to the visibility of the Father that Jesus presents. Three pieces of evidence support this claim. The first is that "unseen" and "invisible" are not synonymous. A survey of Second Temple, biblical, and rabbinic literature reveals that one may not assume that all hellenized Jews embraced Platonist notions of invisibility. Second, Jesus presents the Father as visible, however restricted that visibility may be to Jesus's person. Third, John's use of Isaiah suggests that the visibility of God in the theophanies is consonant with God's visibility in Jesus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regardless of what our preferences are regarding the foundations of mathematics (for example Platonism or radical constructivism), the problem remains of understanding why mathematical concepts so often appear selfevident in our cognitive experience. This is the case with the continuum and the discrete. Taking the opportunity offered by the commentators' observations, we consider the formalization presented in the target article from the perspective of this particular problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aristotle thinks that the Platonic theory of Forms is vulnerable to the Third Man regress. According to Alexander of Aphrodisias, the regress arises from the conjunction of three Platonist claims, which I label 'Exemplification', 'Similarity', and 'Distinctness'. It is clear why, taken together, these three claims generate an infinite regress of Forms. What is not clear is why Aristotle thinks that a Platonist should have to accept each of the claims. My answer begins from the fact that, in Metaphysics A and M, Aristotle mentions the Third Man as a consequence, not of positing Forms, but of certain ways of arguing for Forms. By working out what these arguments are likely to have been, we can understand why he took the Platonist to have been committed to all three claims, and thus why he saw the Third Man as a serious difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trans/Form/Ação is the property of Trans/Form/Acao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Origen of Alexandria uses the language of ἔρως to explain God's desire to be with humanity. However, Plato's classic definition of ἔρως as a mix of poverty and plenty seems to be at odds with Origen's commitment to classical theism. This article explains why Origen does not consider this attribution to contradict his theological commitments. It starts with a discussion of Origen's theory of divine attributes, the ἐπίνοιαι Χριστοῦ. Next, Origen's doctrine of passio caritatis , which states that God can actively will to be passive, is explained. Then, Origen's familiarity with Plato's Symposium is demonstrated. The article then considers Origen's attribution of ἔρως to God, and its context, in the Commentarium in Canticum Canticorum ; it emerges that the Incarnation is, for Origen, God's most erotic act. The final section shows that Origen maintains his understanding of God's erotic, incarnational movement towards fallen humanity in works other than the Commentarium in Canticum Canticorum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Charles Stang's understanding of a Pauline and Pseudo-Dionysian concept of deification prayer, and the role of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer, in light of both Neoplatonic metaphysics of participation and Paul's understanding of the term "spirit". It argues that this can be understood through a concept of divine indwelling, explicated theurgically through the Neoplatonic conception of the One of the soul. While the Christian and non-Christian Neoplatonic traditions diverge on the nature of this indwelling, particularly as it relates to divine revelation, it serves the same function for both. A theurgic perspective helps us not just discover parallels and divergences between Christianity and Pagan Platonism, but also provides us with a language and a metaphysics which helps us explicate the work of the Holy Spirit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a hermeneutic study of Heidegger's text The Word of Nietzsche: "God is Dead". We attempt to read Heidegger's remarks in the context of the "period of transition" that, according to Nietzsche, is occurring in the history of western thought and culture. This essay unfolds in the following manner: beginning with Heidegger's contention that Nietzsche's philosophy is the "fulfilment" of Platonism, we go over the problem of nihilism in relation to the metaphysics of the will to power, which for Heidegger requires revising Cartesian subjectivity in search of a new ontology. Heidegger's critique of modernity encompasses a narrative that goes from "Plato" to "Nietzsche", leading to a reconsideration of the notions of art and truth. Finally, we attempt to interpret the meaning of the "madman's lament" voicing the passing of God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will investigate a certain similarity between Origen's response to Celsus' True Logos and the criticisms against Longinus' interpretation of the early pages of Plato's Timaeus made in Proclus' Commentary by a certain Origenes, usually held to be a pagan though without compelling evidence. Origen begins by assuming that 'Celsus' was an Epicurean of that name, even though it has long been obvious that 'Celsus' has adopted a Platonist point of view and that Origen's answers often rely on Plato's authority; in Proclus, Origenes regularly regards Longinus' explanations as turning Plato into a hedonist by having him aim at the reader's pleasure, and at one point Longinus even made reference to Epicurus. The paper uses recent work on the presence in Porphyry and Lucian of alternative names, whether inside philosophic schools or as a nom de plume, to argue that Origen could not be sure of his opponent's identity, but that as he wrote he came to suspect that 'Celsus' was in fact his younger contemporary Longinus, the initial teacher of Porphyry himself. Hence the allusions to his 'philological' tendencies. If this is correct, then there is additional reason to identify Origen with Origenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the influence of Platonism and Neoplatonism on the British Romantic poet and theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) and how they informed his reverence for nature. Coleridge did not see this reverence as merely personal but sought to call an increasingly materialist and industrializing England back to a Platonic social imagination that would better revere the created world. First, I will establish the influence of Platonic and Neoplatonic thought on his philosophical system. Second, I will show how the relationship between Platonic philosophy and scientific pursuit is worked out in Coleridge's "Essays on Method", wherein he attempts to synthesize Plato with Frances Bacon and poetry with science and proposes a scientific method that reverences all of creation in its individuality and participation within a spiritual whole. Third, I will briefly explore two of Coleridge's most famous poems, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel, as both show the destructive potential of a lack of reverence for the mysterious natural order. These poems may be read as case studies, experimental worlds where refusal to recognize nature's order and participation with the divine results in the coming apart of those worlds and the self's relation to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Late antique political Platonism was not unoriginal in its thought. The paper takes as an example the Justinianic dialogue On Political Science (ca. 550), which creatively engages with Plato's political works. It shows that the dialogue tries – and manages, as I argue – to combine two apparently inconsistent Platonic models: what I call the "divine" model, in which a philosopher-king endowed with divine knowledge rules unhindered by civic laws; and the "human" model, characterized by the rule of law. The divine model comes mostly from Plato's Republic and Statesman; the human one, from the Laws. On Political Science demonstrates that its (anonymous) author was acquainted with these three Platonic texts, in addition to other texts. That is philologically noteworthy, but also philosophically interesting: the dialogue manages to integrate the two models into a common framework. It puts forward an original political model, in which a philosopher-king, although endowed with divine knowledge, still has to be bound by civic laws because of his human frailty. The article concludes by discussing the polemical import the dialogue could have had in its Justinianic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a detailed analysis of how the Cambridge Platonist Henry More (1614–1687) adapted the philosophy of the German mystic Jacob Böhme (1575–1624). For More, Böhme's errors can be amended only by intervening radically in his philosophical system, discussing not what Böhme said, but what he should have said. In particular, the essay studies how and why More, in Censura, altered a scheme used by Böhme in his Clavis to explain visually the core of his philosophical insight. It claims that this intervention, which consists mainly in moving the position of the Sun in the scheme, turns Böhme's circular metaphysical system, in which the Sun, or fire, was the fulcrum of a perpetual movement, into a Neoplatonic system of emanation. In so doing, More fashions himself as a "Böhme redivivus", showing to his readers that the only way of making sense of Böhme is to read him in Neoplatonic terms. The removal of the Sun from its original place in the scheme thus exemplifies More's unease with Böhme's conception of the Sun as fully embedded in the dynamic interplay of light and darkness, and shows that More's interpretation of Böhme involves a full operation of rewriting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of mathematics teachers’ beliefs has become a significant research area in recent decades; however, more robust and reliable instruments are needed to assess these beliefs. This paper reports the design and validation of a multiple-choice questionnaire to assess mathematics teachers’ beliefs about mathematics, teaching, and learning. It began with a systematic review of existing questionnaires, followed by an evaluation of the instrument’s content validity using Aiken’s V by seven expert judges. Finally, a total of 199 in-service mathematics teachers completed the instrument, demonstrating construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency. These results indicate that the instrument is reliable and valid for assessing mathematics teachers’ beliefs and identifying three teaching profiles: instrumentalists, platonists, and problem-solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Causal platonism asserts that mathematical objects cause neural states in human brains. I raise the following four objections to it. (i) Quantum entanglement does not show that one object can causally affect another, although one is nontemporal, nonspatial, and unchanging. (ii) Causal platonism can neither be justified a posteriori nor a priori. (iii) To postulate mathematical media to flesh out mathematical causation is to multiply mysteries beyond necessity. (iv) To say that mathematical causation is unintelligible and inexplicable is not to complain about causation in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about J. R. R. Tolkien's adaptation of Pythagorean musical elements in the 'Song of the Ainur' of the Silmarillion. It details Tolkien's use of Pythagorean dissonance, along with what that amounts to in terms of musical theory, and explores the epistemological origins of the concept and how it found its way into this work of fiction. On the latter point, Platonism, Neoplatonism, and early Christian theology are considered. This includes the likes of Prudentius, pseudo-Dionysius, Augustine, and Aquinas, among others. The article observes that Tolkien has deliberately chosen a somewhat esoteric element of Pythagorean musical theory, albeit highly relevant to his own historical context, in order to explore concepts of morality along with the traditional, Christian conundrum of predestination vs. free will. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several philosophers have proposed an "algebraic" view of universals according to which there are operations from universals to universals. It is not obvious, nevertheless, how those operations should be interpreted, and what impact they have for the conditions of identity of universals. There are two main interpretations of the algebra of universals. On one hand, it has been interpreted as ways to "construct" complex universals. On the other hand, it has been interpreted as "morphisms" or "mappings", but not as something that "builds" complex universals from others more basic. In this paper, the comparative advantages of both conceptions are assessed and reasons are offered to prefer the second conception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upon encountering Deleuze's Nietzschean reiteration that it is the task of modern philosophy to overturn Platonism, as put forth in Difference and Repetition (1968), this article worms its way in, seeking to unearth not merely what Deleuze's differential repetition signifies, but also what such gestures generate in (re)turn. By considering Deleuze's intervention as a manifold performance of (re)purposeful gestures that put the notion of reversal itself into question, and after providing a brief, Deleuzian, exposition of Platonism, this article not only homes in on Deleuze's demiurgic detection of an overturning gesture paradoxically already present in, if not itself initiated by, Plato's writing, but additionally calls attention to other curiosities turn up when reading besides, instead of against, the grain. In introducing Michel Serres as a critical companion, this experimental article ultimately ponders over and entertains the productive possibility of framing Plato's poignant predicament as a (problem of the) parasite. Composed as fruitful conceptual personae, parasites emerge throughout this article in unforeseen manners, time and time again bringing new food for thought to the table. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this discussion I argue that Peter Sullivan is wrong to suggest that Wittgenstein's position in the Philosophical Investigations involves a commitment to transcendental idealism. I show that Sullivan's interpretation involves holding that transcendental idealism was employed by Wittgenstein in the attempt to combat a Platonist mythology. I show, through a detailed appraisal of Wittgenstein's discussion of samples, that Wittgenstein's approach to Platonism does not involve any such employment of transcendental idealism. I conclude that there is no such motivation as Sullivan finds in Wittgenstein for endorsing transcendental idealism, and that we ought not, therefore, ascribe to him such a view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As scholars have come to appreciate Irenaeus' use of philosophy, emphasis has fallen on his use of pre-Socratic traditions. This emphasis stands in stark contrast to the typical emphasis scholars place on Platonic themes in second-century Christian theologies. This article argues that Platonic resources, the definition of God as simple and incomposite, the Platonic viae , and reasoning from 'oneness' to 'unlimitedness', play a key role in Irenaeus' theology, governing his interpretation of pre-Socratic materials, including Irenaeus' version of the well-known Xenophanes quotation (fr. 24) and materials Irenaeus apparently draws from Pseudo-Aristotle's On Melissus, Xenophanes, and Gorgias. Irenaeus, furthermore, draws a logical connection between God's simplicity and the doctrine that there is one God to the exclusion of others, as he says, thereby pressing Platonic doctrine into the service of his distinctly Christian theological convictions. The upshot of all this is a deeper appreciation first for the sophistication of Irenaeus' own theology, and second for Irenaeus' role in engaging and advancing Christian philosophical theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Nihilism" in Nietzsche's speech became a Philosophical problem. He called "nihilism", as "the meaninglessness of everything", criticizing the history of the western metaphysics, he considered Platonism and Christian ethics values to be the most important factors in the emergence of nihilism. Finally, with the creation of "superman" and on the basis of the same "humanist metaphysics", he sought to overcome nihilism. But Heidegger studied "nihilism" not in terms of values, but from an ontological point of view. By criticizing the whole western metaphysical thought, he considered "metaphysics" to indicate a kind of relationship with Being in which Being itself sinks behind a curtain of veils into the abyss of oblivion and neglect. In an ontological explanation, he considers "nihilism" to be equivalent to this "neglect and forgetfulness of Being" and on this basis, he introduces "the history of Western thought" as "the history of nihilism development". From this point of view, with the perfection of metaphysics, more perfect manifestations of nihilism are also realized. As far as today, in the "Technological Enframing" which is the final form of metaphysics, "technological nihilism" has determined the world and man in a nihilistic form, in the mood of ordering as standing-reserve. According to Heidegger, in facing this situation, we have no more than two options, either to submit to a complete destruction or to find a way to overcome it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The famous controversy between Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola is known to regard the proper use of Platonism in humanist and Christian context. With special attention to Pico's Commentary on a Canzone, the point of disagreement with Ficino, which is not at all obvious, is examined through a close reading. The result is that Pico sees the temptation of a pantheistic and anthropocentric understanding of the relationship between the human realm and God. Whereas Ficino engaged in making pagan philosophy amenable to Christian theology, Pico was concerned with upholding the otherness of the divine. For the humanist agenda, Ficino made plausible that the human world is divinized, while Pico called for the ascent to God. In Pico's view the Neoplatonists secularized the divine, as was evident in Ficino's philosophical theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While popularly known for his works of literature and poetry, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe viewed his lesser-known scientific pieces as his most enduring achievement. I will argue that Goethe's unique scientific methodology is informed by a metaphysical commitment to a form of Platonism and that Goethe provides an intriguing alternative paradigm that unifies science, philosophy, theology, and ethics. I begin by demonstrating how Goethe's concept of the Urphänomen offers a Platonic conception of natural beings. I then briefly outline how this alternative scientific approach ultimately derives from his Platonic commitments. Next, I demonstrate the ethical and spiritual implications of Goethean science, establishing that Goethe's approach bridges the divide between our scientific endeavors and spiritual formation. There is, then, a continued relevance for Goethe in conversations regarding ecological ethics and our perception of nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I provide a construction of what I consider Nietzsche's nihilistic triad of the Christian/Jewish-German/Aryan-bourgeois/modern culture, arguing that his comments of one aspect of this triad ought to be read in junction with the other elements. I begin by revisiting Nietzsche's critique of Platonism and its implications upon nihilism, which lay the foundation for the three aspects of this nihilistic culture that Nietzsche diagnoses. I finally provide a grounded definition of nihilism not simply as the devaluing of the highest values as commonly referred to, but one mindful of nihilism's impact as the spiritualization, passivation, and privatization of humanity: The spiritualization of values through Judaism furthered by Christianity's globalized effort, the passivation of spirit by the idea of cultural superiority, and the privatization of affairs due to capital's productivity and the growing socio-economic modern stance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just as mathematics helps us to represent and reason about the natural world, in its internal applications one branch of mathematics helps us to represent and reason about the subject matter of another. Recognition of the close analogy between internal and external applications of mathematics can help resolve two persistent philosophical puzzles concerning its applicability: a platonist puzzle arising from the abstractness of mathematical objects; and an empiricist puzzle arising from mathematical propositions' lack of empirical factual content. In order to see how this is the case, we will examine what it is to apply mathematics internally and describe examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christian environmental ethics have always navigated the thin line between the Scylla of pantheism and the Charybdis of deism. On the one hand, removing God from the world avoids pantheism but can inadvertently render the divine a distant, absentee father who cares little about what we do with the environment. On the other hand, if we bring the Creator too close to creation, we may begin to blur the distinction between them, fringing on pantheism. While making nature divine might at first seem to heighten the environmental desecration of the earth by making it a literal de-sacralizing of the sacred, this may be only a surface-level reading (or, at least, only true of very carefully nuanced versions of pantheism). For the pantheist, God would not just be the trees but the machines that log them; God would not just be the polar bears but the carbon dioxide that is evicting them. God would be no more present in that which is desecrated than in that which does the desecration (e.g., God would be one with the pesticides, bulldozers, and factory smoke). By making God everything, it becomes difficult to call any person, act, legislation, or event godless. This paper offers Henry More's view of divine space as a constructive, Platonic Christian middle way between these two extremes, charting a God who is spatially present to nature without being pantheistically reducible to it, in the same way that space is intimately close to the objects within it while nonetheless remaining distinct from them. The bulk of the paper counters potential opponents to this proposal, specifically defending Morean space from the charge that it would break down the Creator–creature distinction and/or cave to the environmental Scylla of pantheism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the problem of the "fundamental differences" between Chinese and Western philosophy, it is essential to investigate the basic system on which the entirety of Western philosophy operates and the unique way it has developed within this system, so that concrete observation can help deepen understanding. The observation involves the issues of what metaphysics is; "transcendence"; the fourfold distinction in the history of Western metaphysics; Christianity as Platonism; and the "Onto-Theo-Logik" mechanism in metaphysics. In a general sense, there can be no metaphysics where there is no division or opposition between the supersensuous and the sensory worlds. Where the "Onto-Theo-Logik" mechanism of Western metaphysics fails to work or has no chance of working, the field is one in which Chinese philosophy should make active moves and undertake development. The divisions arising from this context essentially mark the fundamental difference between Chinese and Western philosophy. When it comes down to it, it is these differences that determine the differences in the nature, structure, and direction of Chinese and Western philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Henry More, a Cambridge Platonist, was a significant influence on William B. Yeats, the greatest English-language poet of the 20th century. The aim of this essay is to show the presence of some Morean philosophical themes, particularly that of anima mundi, in Yeats's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de História da UEG is the property of Revista de Historia da UEG, Editora UEG, Universidade Estadual de Goias and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Of the two major senses of 'true myth' used by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, the first was a foundational principle in their respective approaches to fantasy writing, while the second was based on Classical Platonic metaphysics. The first part of this chapter describes and analyzes the three most significant appearances of true myth in their friendship. The second part distinguishes its two major senses, showing that the first meaning of true myth was a foundational principle in their respective approaches to fantasy writing. The third section explains the second meaning and identifies its metaphysical basis as Classical Platonism. The final section establishes four specific ways in which Lewis and Tolkien's idea of true myth in its second sense depends upon Platonic metaphysics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Conventionalism about mathematics has much in common with two other views: fictionalism and the multiverse view (aka plenitudinous platonism). The three views may differ over the existence of mathematical objects, but they agree in rejecting a certain kind of objectivity claim about mathematics, advocating instead an extreme pluralism. The early parts of the paper will try to elucidate this anti‐objectivist position, and question whether conventionalism really offers a third form of it distinct from fictionalism and the multiverse view. The paper then turns to anti‐objectivism about logic, and suggests that here too conventionalism offers no distinct alternative, and that there are limits on the extent of pluralism/anti‐objectivism. It also argues that these limits can't be used to argue for more extensive objectivity within mathematics, and also that they do allow for more limited pluralism within logic, e.g. as regards resolution of semantic and property‐theoretic paradoxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Gerhard Krüger's interpretation of Plato in light of Martin Heidegger's Destruktion of the Greeks and critique of Platonism. I argue that Krüger's new reading of Plato should be understood as a critique of Heidegger's understanding of Platonism, and thereby as a broader critique of Heidegger's thoughts on Western metaphysics and the history of Being (Seinsgeschichte). The force and originality of Krüger's response to Heidegger consist in the fact that Krüger's Plato anticipates Heidegger's critique of Platonism. Krüger thus contends that Plato (1) does not allow the understanding of truth as correctness (Übereinstimmung) to supplant the understanding of truth as disclosedness (Unverborgenheit), (2) understands and displays philosophy's dependence upon prereflexive attunements (Stimmungen); (3) appreciates the intricate relation between Being and temporality. In sum, Krüger's Plato is not guilty of Seinsvergessenheit, and rather opens up new ways for an authentic meditation on Being and on the human way toward an understanding of Being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conway characterizes freedom in apparently contradictory ways. She describes God as the most free, yet he is necessitated to act perfectly due to his wisdom and goodness. Created beings, by contrast, sin. They are not necessitated to do so. This suggests that Conway has a binary account of freedom: divine freedom is a matter of being necessitated by wisdom and goodness, whereas creaturely freedom consists in indifference, understood as a power to act, or not act. Despite the apparently conflicting remarks, I argue that Conway has a single account of freedom as spontaneity. Conway defines spontaneity in terms of causing one's own action independent of external causes. I suggest that spontaneity is more precisely understood as an intrinsic power aimed at the good in Conway's metaphysics, and that this account of freedom can combine necessity and contingency. Rather than a binary, Conway offers an account of freedom in creation that has it on a continuum with divine freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shakespeare's early Henry VI trilogy and late The Tempest both feature reclusive, bookish rulers who are deposed because their rivals perceive an opportunity in the rulers' trustingness and lack of interest in political affairs. Furthermore, the deposed rulers also share an interest in Platonic philosophies of the Renaissance; they differ, however, in their respective preferences for particular Platonist authors and writings. Henry VI is devoted to Boethius's The Consolation of Philosophy. While Prospero, the protagonist of The Tempest, may have focused on Boethius and similar authors when he was in Milan, by the time we meet him on his island, he prefers Neoplatonic magic, bequeathed to the Renaissance by Ficino. While the two stories are not often read together, I argue that doing so yields a fascinating contrast in the modes of existence dictated by different streams of Renaissance philosophical thought. While Henry VI's credulity and Boethianism lead him to express a preference for a contemplative life and to adopt an attitude of extreme passivity and surrender, Prospero's suspicion and powerful use of magic associate him with the active life. The ultimate expressions of Henry's preference for the contemplative life and of Prospero's association with the active life both involve nature poetry. Henry expresses yearning for the peaceful lifestyle of a shepherd in a pastoral lyric he delivers in 3 Henry VI, while Prospero celebrates human labor and achievement in a georgic masque which he produces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Neoplatonist scholarch Proclus defined three categories of poetry: inspired, 'middle' and mimetic. Traditionally it has been thought that he considered only Homer to have excelled in all three, while other poets could fulfil one or at most two functions. It will be shown that Proclus also conceived of Hesiod as excelling in all three types and thereby assimilated Hesiodic authority to Homeric. He also considered Orpheus but assigned his poetry to just one category, not all three. In doing this, he increased his own authority as a teacher-hierophant, contributing to the dialogue between pagan Platonism and Christianity over the inspiration of texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that the soul has a guardian daemon was a common topic among Platonists, informed by different readings of Plato, especially Symp. 202e and Resp. 620e. In his philosophically dense interpretation, Plotinus describes the daemon as the 'pole of attraction' or the erotic disposition that keeps the core of one's personality directed towards the Good. In this way, the daemon promotes the soul's ascent to higher levels of reality through a transition from unconsciousness into consciousness that, across different incarnations, will eventually flow into the disembodied self. In order to unpack this view, this article brings together Enn. III.4 and III.5 with Enn. VI.7, where Plotinus discusses the difference between soul (ψυχή) and the expressed principle (λόγος) belonging to soul. This difference if fundamental to fully understand the role of the guardian daemon in the soul's πρόοδος and ἐπιστροφή. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]