bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Reception of Ordinum Pietas in the Palatinate
Authors: Becker Michael
Published: February 2014

The paper examines the reception of Grotius’s work Ordinum Pietas in the Palatinate. Before focussing on the reception in Heidelberg, Grotius’s references to Palatine scholars are analysed in order to highlight the influences of Palatine theology on Grotius himself. It can be illustrated that Grotius refers particularly to irenic ideas expressed by Heidelberg theologians. In the second part, the reception of the treatise in Heidelberg is presented. After sketching the reactions of Abraham Scultetus, Jan Gruterus, and Georg Michael Lingelsheim to Ordinum Pietas, which have already been thoroughly analysed, the present paper concentrates on the famous Heidelberg theologian David Pareus, who mentions the treatise in an unpublished letter to Sibrandus Lubbertus. This letter and additional sources suggest that Pareus was not in favour of Grotius’s politico-ecclesiastical concept – a finding which raises, however, the question of why Pareus’s commentary on Romans strongly supports politico-ecclesiastical ideas that resemble Grotius’s approach greatly. The answer to this question is to be found in different theological contexts: While Pareus polemicises against Jesuit positions, Grotius advocates a Remonstrant view on civil authorities that is aimed against orthodox Calvinist positions. Furthermore, the paper examines whether or not Grotius exerted any traceable influence on Pareus’s irenicism. On the basis of various arguments, it is proven that this was not the case. On the contrary, it appears that Grotius later referred to Pareus’s irenic writings, just as he also adapted Pareus’s ideas on church and state in his work De imperio summarum potestatum.
Between Principles and Practice: Grotius’ Commitment to Religious Peace in a Contemporary Context
Authors: de Gaay Fortman Bas
Published: February 2014

This article discusses Hugo Grotius’s ‘pamphlet’ Ordinum pietas in the political and religious setting of 1613, attempting to draw some lessons from a contemporary perspective. At a time of religious struggle and strife De Groot felt himself committed to ´religious peace´, implying freedom of conscience as a public-political principle coupled with toleration of religious diversity in practice. It is in the context of religious conflict at a time of transition that his allegiance to an established confession and his rejection of sectarian sectarian concepts of theocracy, may be understood. A connection is made to both modern requirements of ‘religious peace’ and universal human rights as a ‘global faith’.
Discovery of new species confirms Oriental origin of Orussus Latreille (Hymenoptera: Orussidae)
Authors: Vilhelmsen Lars , Blank Stephan M. , Liu Zhiwei , Smith David R.
Published: February 2014

The genusOrussusis reviewed, with primary focus on taxa from the Oriental Region; a revised key to the world species is presented. The newly described species are analysed with a comprehensive morphological data set encompassing the entire family. The discovery of the new species corroborates the earlier proposed hypothesis thatOrussusoriginated in the Oriental Region. The following new species are described:O. areolatusBlank & Vilhelmsen from Morocco,O. hanumanusVilhelmsen & Blank from India (described forO. decoomaniauct.),O. punctulatissimusBlank & Vilhelmsen from Malaysia, andO. zhuiVilhelmsen, Liu, Smith & Blank from China. CurrentlyO. decoomaniMaa, 1950 from Vietnam cannot be interpreted properly and is considered aspecies inquirenda.Orussus mikageiTogashi, 2008 is proposed as a new synonym ofO. rufipesTsuneki, 1963.
MODELS OF EAST EUROPEAN BACKWARDNESS IN POST-1945 POLISH HISTORIOGRAPHY
Authors: Sosnowska Anna
Published: February 2014

The article discusses the ideas of four Polish historians: Marian Małowist, Witold Kula, Jerzy Topolski, and Andrzej Wyczański on the nature, causes and effects of the economic backwardness in early modern Poland. The main stress is laid on the debate on the so-called second serfdom. While Małowist and Kula were close to some sort of dependency theory, Topolski and Wyczański presented the Polish economic development as belated but not necessarily dependent. The concepts developed by the above authors can still be useful as analytical tools for historians and social scientists.
A COMMENT ON TEODORA SHEK BRNARDIĆ'S ARTICLE
Authors: Okey Robin
Published: February 2014

This comment expresses sympathy with the concern underlying Dr Shek Brnardić's paper, namely that East Central European history is in danger of homogenizing distortion in academic discourse emanating from the currently hegemonie West. It argues, however, that the remedy to this is not to be found in some ofthe postmodernist critiques deployed by Brnardić, which are themselves the product of that hegemony and help promote a homogenizing view of what Western scholars have actually said. The view that Western models played a part in the shaping of Enlightenment in Central and Eastem Europe is perfectly compatible with, indeed invites, the study of the wide variety of ways in which those influences were received and mediated, interacting with social, religious and historico- political legacies to produce the distinctive formations that Brnardić rightly stresses.
KRONPRINZENWERK AND THE NATIONALITÄTENPROBLEM IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
Authors: Baiersdorf Paul
Published: February 2014

The review proposes a reconsideration of Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild, also known as the Kronprinzenwerk (KPW), an ethnographic presentation of Austria-Hungary in 24 volumes which appeared between 1889 and 1902 in two parallel versions, one in German and the other in Hungarian. Besides reference to the renewed attention the KPW met with since 1989, and an overview of its mode of production, I try to formulate so me notes of caution for its present-day readers. I argue that its main interest is heuristic. Viewed in context it can add details and vividness to our picture of the latter days of the Habsburg Empire.
Беларусь после Чернобыля: От замалчивания к игнорированию
Authors: Dalhouski Aliaksandr
Published: February 2014

Aliaksandr Dalhouski

Belarus after the Chernobyl Disaster: From Silence to Neglect

The accident at Chernobyl was an anthropogenic disaster. In the period of the suppression of the disaster’s consequences (1986-1988), the Chernobyl accident was not perceived by the majority of Belarusians as a nation-wide tragedy. At the same time, those living in the Belorussian SSR did not possess civil rights, which prevented them from demanding compensation as a result of inflicted harm, and also they were denied full information about the impact of the disaster on the environment and human health. Such phenomena were a consequence of the state’s suppression of the disaster’s consequences as well as the weak ecological and legal consciousness of the victims in the BSSR. In the period of growing democracy (1989-1991), civic engagement came to the fore and created the perception of the catastrophe a nationwide tragedy. The protest movement forced the government to enact Chernobyl legal legislation. Within the framework of this legislation, massive resettlement was undertaken and a wide range of privileges were granted. With the emergence of an independent and authoritarian regime in the new state of Belarus in the early 1990s, the risks of radiation were downplayed by the social concerns of post-Soviet society, in which the Belarusian regime of President Alexander Lukashenko lessened the importance of the Chernobyl catastrophe.
Permanent Alien Residence: On Reading Baudrillard in Taiwan
Authors: Silvio Teri
Published: February 2014

I am a US citizen working as an anthropologist (research and teaching) in Taipei. I live and work in Taiwan primarily because it allows me to work on local/globalizing and global/localizing popular culture simultaneously from the ethnographic inside and outside. On the one hand I have become an active member of the interpretive and creative communities I study, yet on the other, my foreigner status is irreducible and I am constantly reminded of the differences between my perspectives and those of my informants. For most anthropologists, those we represent and those to whom we represent them are different, and to be ethical we have to acknowledge their differences. But now the groups of my informants, students, colleagues and readers all overlap to varying degrees. In this paper, I will discuss the problems of addressing a public of informant-interlocutors – how to construct a “we” that can engage with shared problematics while recognizing the different positionalities of “I” and “you.” Trying to create such a “we” has forced me to challenge disciplinary boundaries, and to ponder what the lived experiences of globalization in the post-industrial non-West mean for the politics of both ethnography and critical theory.
Santo Domingo’s Slaves in the Context of the Peace of Basel: Boca Nigua’s Black Insurrection, 1796
Authors: Pinto Antonio J.
Published: February 2014

This article analyzes the black insurrection of Boca Nigua’s sugar mill in Spanish Santo Domingo in 1796, to show that any slave rebellion must be regarded as a direct consequence of the slaves condition, though external circumstances might favor them. I highlight the importance of those events, which must be identified as the first echo of Saint-Domingue’s revolution, in the eastern part of Hispaniola. First, I describe the theoretical framework of my research. Then, I study the penetration of news of Saint-Domingue’s revolution, and of the French revolutionary ideology in Santo Domingo since 1795. Third, I describe two black uprisings prior to Boca Nigua’s rebellion, as well as the situation within that plantation before the cited events. Finally, I analyze the development and outcome of the rebellion, focusing on the slaves’ plans, on the desertion of one of their leaders, and on the violent repression by colonial government.
Re-Assessing the Speech Act Schema: Twenty-First Century Reflections
Authors: Terkourafi Marina
Published: February 2014

Bach and Harnish’s (1979) Speech Act Schema (SAS) breaks down into a series of inferential steps the process involved in understanding an utterance as a particular kind of speech act. At the heart of the SAS lies the notion of illocutionary intention, a special kind of reflexive intention whose fulfilment consists in its recognition. This article re-assesses Bach and Harnish’s Speech Act Schema in two ways. First, I discuss three types of indirect speech acts—acts exchanged between intimates, alerts, and ritual indirectness—arguing that in all three cases, a perlocutionary effect of re-affirming or testing the degree of sharedness between speaker and addressee is also achieved, making all three types of acts overt collateral acts in Bach and Harnish’s terminology. Second, I consider cases when the speaker’s illocutionary intention exists in only a rudimentary form, such as children’s early directives and metaphorical utterances expressing feelings. In such cases, the hearer is called upon to play a more active role, by constructing (rather than recognizing) an understanding based on the linguistic material provided by the speaker. The need to account for this second set of acts challenges the centrality of the speaker’s illocutionary intention as the ultimate arbitrator of communicative outcomes and forces us to accord at least equal weight to the contribution of the hearer. The end result is a novel emphasis on the intersubjective aspects of linguistic communication, which were given less prominence in more traditional models, such as the SAS.
The Role of Creativity in the Cognitive Turn in Linguistics
Authors: Kenesei István
Published: February 2014

The recent cognitive turn in linguistics is closely related to research into the creative nature of language. Formal creativity, or in other words, the recursive nature of language (with respect to both words, i.e., the basic units, and sentences, i.e., the end products) is what determines further domains of creativity, viz., at the level of meanings and in the theory of mind, providing for their unlimited and variable nature. Principles of the formal properties of language are presented at the levels of words and sentences, showing that recursion occurs both in words and sentences, indicating the local nature of syntactic relations, and demonstrating their neural correlates. Reference to neurolinguistic experiments is used to argue that metaphorical extensions of meanings are a natural phenomenon placing no burden on mental processing, even though literal meanings are not handled the same way as metaphors. It is claimed that sentential meanings have a primacy over word meanings, while words, and not sentences, are the basic units of the mental lexicon, i.e., long-term memory. In order to understand metaphors it is essential to have theory of mind (ToM), which develops in children parallel with the acquisition of complex syntactic structures involving mental verbs, as is shown by false-belief tasks. The nature and limits of the complexity of ToM is related to the limits of syntactic complexity in natural language.
“Tut Tut ‘a-Beirut”, 1840s: qadis, qists and mulberry courts
Authors: al-Qattan Najwa
Published: February 2014

This article, entitled “‘Tut Tut ‘a-Beirut’, 1840s: Qadis, Qists and Mulberry Courts,” examines the contents of the second volume of the Beirut Ottoman court records (1847-1849) in light of recent work on the Ottoman court and its record keeping practices. It argues that the preponderance of certain users (Christians), specific procedures (instant instalments), and cases (sales of mulberry-bearing landed properties) as well as the rapid and related pace at which the court ran its business illustrate the extent to which the court in Beirut was a local forum and, increasingly, a node that connected the city to the international market.
Platonic Rule: Fiat or Law
Authors: Hall Robert W.
Published: February 2014

A recent study contends that for Plato, the state, including the ideal state of the Republic, is better governed by unfettered personal authority than by law. The present study maintains that even in the Republic and the Statesman, as well as in the Laws, it is law, not unfettered personal rule that underlies the state. Justification for such authoritarian rule, especially in the ideal state of the Republic, lies in the supposed inability of the ordinary individual to acquire moral autonomy or Platonic justice owing to a lack of the necessary knowledge. But it is shown in this study that the ordinary individual of the ideal state can acquire an educated right opinion sufficient for gaining moral autonomy or Platonic justice.
Utility and Justice: Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition
Authors: Rosen F.
Published: February 2014

This article explores the relationship between utility and justice in the ancient Epicurean tradition, and as it developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries following the revival of Epicureanism in the writings of Pierre Gassendi. It focuses on the significance of various allusions to a line from Horace, ‘utilitas, justi prope mater et aequi’ (utility, the mother of justice and equity), which appeared in writings of Hugo Grotius, David Hume, and Jeremy Bentham, and was used to give utility a prominence in modern hought that it had not hitherto received. The article attempts to provide the context for Hume’s belief in the Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals that the foundation of justice was utility and for Bentham placing utility at the foundation of his system.
Justice in Aristotle’s Household and City
Authors: Lockwood Thornton C.
Published: February 2014

In Nicomachean Ethics V.6 Aristotle contrasts political justice (which exists between citizens) with household justice (between husband and wife), paternal justice (between father and son), and despotic justice (between master and slave) (1134b8–18). My paper expands upon Aristotle’s sometimes enigmatic remarks about political justice through an examination of his account of justice within the oikia or ‘household’. Understanding political justice requires explicating the concepts of freedom and equality, but for Aristotle, the children and wife within the household are free people even if not citizens, and there exists proportionate equality between a husband and wife. Additionally, Aristotle’s articulation and defence of political justice arises out of his examination of despotic justice in the first book of the Politics. Not only are the polis and the oikia similar insofar as they are associations, but Nicomachean Ethics VIII.9–11 suggests they are even isomorphic with respect to justice and friendship. Thus, in this paper I explore the relationships between father and son, husband and wife, master and slave, and between siblings in order to see what they tell us about Aristotle’s understanding of freedom, equality, and justice.
Aristotle and Women: Household and Political Roles
Authors: Schollmeier Paul
Published: February 2014

A survey of recent literature would suggest that Aristotle has become a whipping boy for philosophers who would advocate equality between the sexes. What I hope to show is that we can actually advance the cause of sexual equality by treating him more judiciously. Aristotle does argue that men and women by nature have different psychologies, and even that men are psychologically superior to women. But contrary to what many today think he himself does not conclude from this proposition that men and women ought to have roles entirely different within a city. Indeed, he leaves ample room in his theory for women to participate in political rule. We shall see by his own arguments that all women ought to have a vote in general assemblies, and that some women ought to hold high political office.
On the Alleged Truth About Lies in Plato’s Republic
Authors: Dombrowski Daniel A.
Published: February 2014

The purpose of the present article is to explicate and criticize the most detailed philosophical appreciation of the ‘noble’ and other lies in Plato on a Straussian basis: Carl Page’s instructive 1991 article titled ‘The Truth about Lies in Plato’s Republic’. I carefully summarize and criticize Page’s sober, scholarly approach to the subject matter in question. Ultimately I reject his attempt to justify the ‘noble’ and other lies told by both Plato and contemporary government leaders.
Doing Justice to Thrasymachus
Authors: Piper Mark
Published: February 2014

Thrasymachus variegated pronouncements on the nature of justice in Book I of the Republic have generated considerable dispute concerning whether those claims are consistent, and about what sorts of theoretical commitments those claims involve, if they are in fact consistent. After clarifying Thrasymachus position and explaining how it generates charges of inconsistency, I argue that the charges dissolve if we approach the text with the proper conception of just action, as being synonymous with adherence to the norms that proscribe taking advantage of others by fraud or force. A major virtue of this solution is that it allows us to give equal weight to virtually all of Thrasymachus claims without being forced to isolate one as Thrasymachus true position as against his other merely apparent positions. After completing my argument, I provide speculation as to why Plato might have been motivated to intentionally present Thrasymachus position in a way so generative of consistency disputes.
The Justice of the Ordinary Citizen in Platos Republic
Authors: Veltman Andrea
Published: February 2014

On the surface, it is not clear whether the ordinary citizen in Platos Republic possesses the virtue of justice defended in the dialogue. In order to resolve a tension in Platos treatment of the ordinary citizen, this paper presents a distinction between the civic justice of the ordinary citizen and the platonic justice of the philosopher. Whereas the justice possessed by the philosopher requires knowledge of the good as well as a reason-governed soul, civic justice requires only true beliefs about justice and a habit or practice of just action.
Spiritedness Incarnate and the Unity of the Soul in PlatoS Republic
Authors: Hammond Scott John
Published: February 2014

Readers of Platos Republic are familiar with Glaucon and his role in prodding Socrates to strengthen his argument throughout the dialogue. It has been asserted on more than one occasion that Glaucon epitomizes the quality of spiritedness, and thus throughout the dialogue he is patiently guided by the taming hand of Socrates to a fuller awareness of justice and virtue. This paper will argue that Glaucon, as Spiritedness Incarnate (Strauss), provides needed insight and important encouragement that strengthens Socrates (and thus Platos) positions in a way that doesmore than simply ask those questions that enable the philosophers efforts to share his own wisdom. Rather, Glaucon, as Socrates younger companion, serves a role vital to the Republics overall achievement in several ways. Above all, the relationship between Socrates, Glaucon and the other participants of the dialogue (even Thrasymachus) together reflect the unity of the soul as the many become one.
Popper on Freedom and Equality in Plato
Authors: Cleary John J.
Published: February 2014

In the first part of this paper, it is argued that Poppers understanding of Platos notion of freedom is fundamentally flawed because he begins with the unexamined assumptions of modern liberalism. Subsequently, in the second section, it is shown through philological analysis that the ancient notion of freedom (eleutheria) must be understood primarily in terms of a social and political condition that is the opposite of slavery (douleia) or of living under a tyranny. Finally, the third section of the paper considers Platos criticism of the demotic notion of freedom, as well as the dialectical strategy through which he subsumes it under his aristocratic ideal of freedom as rational self-control.
Factions and the Paradox of Aristotelian Practical Science
Authors: Garver Eugene
Published: February 2014

Politics V presents preserving and destroying the constitution as exhaustive alternatives, leaving no apparent room for improving the constitution. Aristotle claims that ‘if we know the causes by which constitutions are destroyed we also know the causes by which they are preserved; for opposites create opposites, and destruction is the opposite of security’ (V.8.1307b26–29). The first seven chapters present the causes by which constitutions are destroyed, and then chapters 8 and 9 show the causes by which they are preserved. Yet in important ways, the dictum is false: knowing the causes of constitutional change is not equivalent to knowing how constitutions are preserved, and, more radically, destruction and security are not the only alternatives facing someone in potentially revolutionary situations. The many ways in which knowledge of the causes of factions and knowledge of the methods of preservation are not equivalent supply the energy and interest that drive Book V’s argument.
Haemon’s Paideia: Speaking, Listening, and the Politics of the Antigone
Authors: Barker Derek
Published: February 2014

This article considers Sophocles’s Antigone as a potential resource for contemporary scholarship on democratic citizenship and the politics of public deliberation by exploring the play’s themes of speaking and listening. In so doing, it finds that the political implications of the play can be better understood with attention to the character of Haemon. Haemon endorses a conception of practical wisdom in which learning is achieved by speaking with and listening to others. A crucial step in Haemon’s education is his sympathetic identification with Antigone. The sympathetic portrayal of Antigone and the dramatization of Haemon’s moral coming-of-age together constitute a potential model of engagement in public conversation supported by sympathetic identification with political outsiders.
Rivals in Persuasion: Gorgianic Sophistic Versus Socratic Rhetoric
Authors: Gish Dustin A.
Published: February 2014

According to Plato and Aristotle, the confusion of sophistry and philosophy in the opinion of Socrates’ fellow citizens in Athens ultimately led to his trial and execution. This essay seeks to highlight and clarify the resemblance and the fundamental distinction between sophistry and philosophy, especially with respect to the art of rhetoric articulated by Gorgias in his Encomium of Helen and interrogated by Socrates in Plato’s Gorgias. Rivals in their use of persuasive speeches, Gorgias and Socrates embody the quarrel between two competing modes of discourse and the ways of life that ineluctably result from their practice. Their public dispute centres on the aim or purpose of an art of rhetoric. This essay argues that Gorgias, though moved to silence by his conversation with Socrates in Plato’s dialogue, disclosed to his inquisitor the true power of rhetoric, and thus the necessity to constrain rather than reject its use.
Liberty and obligations in George Grote’s Athens
Authors: Liddel Peter
Published: February 2014

In this article it is suggested that George Grote’s History of Greece (1846–56) employed a narrative history of Greece in an attempt to resolve the philosophical problem of the compatibility of individual liberty with considerable obligations to society. His philosophical achievement has been largely ignored by modern classical scholarship, even those who follow his lead in treating fifth-century Athens as the epitome of Greek civilization. The present reading of Grote’s History is informed by John Stuart Mill’s use of Athenian examples. Outlining the evidential, moral and spatial parameters of Grote’s fifth-century Athens, it is argued that Grote understood fifth-century Athens to be amodel intellectual and liberal society, in which the performance of obligations by citizens coexisted with individual and political liberty. Grote explained the decline of Athenian power in the fourth century BC by reference to the neglect of obligations, and in doing so, married historical explanation to political theory.
Ernest Barker on the Composition and Structure of Aristotle’S Politics
Authors: Schütrumpf Eckart
Published: February 2014

E. Barker twice wrote essays entitled ‘The composition and structure of Aristotle’s Politics’, first as a journal article in 1931, and later in 1946 as part of the introduction to his translation of the Politics. In these two essays, he came to exactly the opposite conclusions. In the first paper, he distinguished three periods in Aristotle’s life and assigned to each of them three ‘blocks’ in the Politics, based on the criterion of how closely these blocks were related to, or are removed from, Plato’s political theory. In doing so, he not only followed W. Jaeger’s genetic approach, but also went beyond it by assuming that there were three different strata of Aristotle’s political philosophy. In 1946, however, Barker rejected not only Jaeger’s approach, but his own method of reading Aristotle’s Politics. This paper evaluates the merit of Barker’s arguments and comes to the conclusion not only that Barker’s essay from 1946 ignored the intellectual context of the Politics, but also that his view of the Politics as unitary in composition and structure overlooks many problems this work poses.
Inconsistencies in Glaucon’s Account of Justice
Authors: Fussi Alessandra
Published: February 2014

This paper identifies major inconsistencies in the threefold argument that Glaucon presents in defence of Thrasymachus in the second book of Plato’s Republic. Specifically, the paper argues for three claims. Firstly, it argues that in his account of the origin of justice Glaucon treats the consequences of justice as necessary, while in the test case he merely emphasizes incidental consequences. Secondly, the paper argues that in setting up the test case of the perfectly unjust man and the perfectly just man Glaucon—despite claiming to be restating Thrasymachus’ claims, and also to be presenting the ordinary view of justice — uses some Socratic assumptions about the nature of justice. That is, although Gyges’ example follows directly from the first part of the argument and, in particular, from the claim that justice is grounded in convention, the unshakably just man of the test example is supposed to be motivated by justice itself. Finally, it is argued that the test case and Gyges' example are at variance with respect to public recognition: in the test case Glaucon suggests that most people would respect and admire a man who seemed to be perfectly just, while in his discussion of Gyges he intimates that tyrannical power strengthens itself not by the false appearance of perfect justice, but by appealing to a secret and yet widespread admiration for unpunished injustice.
Revisiting the Pharmacy: Plato, Derrida, and the Morality of Political Deceit
Authors: Rinella Michael A.
Published: February 2014

The first section of this article examines Jacques Derrida’s essay ‘Plato’s Pharmacy’, specifically his discussion of the ancient Greek word for drug, pharmakon. It is argued that the rhetorical force of Derrida’s essay has led to the mistaken impression that he and more importantly Plato understood pharmakon to have two possible meanings: remedy or poison. In the second section a number of Platonic and other ancient Greek texts are used to demonstrate that pharmakon signified several additional things, such as painters pigment, magical talisman, cosmetic, and mind-altering substance. The final section builds upon Carl Page’s observation that the Noble Lie of the Republic is itself a pharmakon, situating Plato’s Noble Lie in the context of his vision of the philosopher as a moral physician, and Plato’s on-going opposition to psychological conditions characterized by ecstatic displacement.
Alive and Sleepless: The Politics of Immortality in Republic X
Authors: Brill Sara
Published: February 2014

The discussion of immortality in Republic X is a much-maligned text whose function in the dialogue has frequently been drawn into question. This paper argues that the discussion addresses the insufficiency of the analogy between vice and disease that is established in Book IV and is challenged in Book IX by an account of tyranny which attributes to the tyrant a viciousness defying reduction to disease. It also argues that the discussion’s demonstration of immortality on the grounds of the soul’s capacity for viciousness must be read in light of its attention to the political life of the person. In its adoption of a political perspective, the discussion is designed to speak specifically to the concerns about justice thatGlaucon andAdeimantus voice in Book II.
Republic Book one on the Nature of Justice
Authors: Morris T.F.
Published: February 2014

Even though the first book of the Republic ends with the claim that the definition of justice has not been determined, a careful analysis of the details of Socrates’ arguments with Polemarchus and Thrasymachus yields a definition of justice. Polemarchus should have defended the understanding of justice as helping friends and harming enemies by saying that, because one can use one’s knowledge either to help or to harm, a just person will choose to use his knowledge of an art either to help his friends or to harm his enemies. Socrates’ art of wage-earning is not really an art at all, but merely amounts to having an ulterior motive for doing what one does. Socrates’ true position will be seen to be that just people use their knowledge for the sake of helping people—not for the sake of acquiring some supposed benefit for themselves in the future.
Callicles: from ‘Here’ to Hades
Authors: Tschemplik Tschemplik
Published: February 2014

In Plato’s Gorgias Callicles argues for a life rooted in insatiable desire and the endless experience of pleasure, justifying this by appealing to nature, with examples of the lion, Xerxes, and Heracles. This essay shows that Callicles’ examples undermine his own claims. Socrates examines the effects of Callicles’ imperialistic hedonism on the soul. Socrates locates Callicles in Hades twice: first demonstrating that insatiable desire amounts to infinite neediness, then alerting Callicles to the consequences of the hedonistic life. This essay argues that the move into Hades is occasioned by Callicles’ own position and that the two myths do philosophical work. In contrast to Callicles, Socrates demonstrates that his life is consonant with nature. It does not depend on an after-life for its satisfaction, but it is not afraid of the possibility of an after-life. Socrates emerges victorious in the contest between the hedonistic and the philosophical life.
Plato’s Menexenus: A Paradigm of Rhetorical Flattery
Authors: Kerch Thomas M.
Published: February 2014

The arguments advanced in this paper suggest that the Menexenus ought to be read as a pendent to the Gorgias and as an example of the way in which rhetoric that engages in flattery can harm the souls of its audience. The Menexenus was composed by Plato to illustrate precisely what sentiments ought to be avoided in public oratory, if the primary concern of speech-making is to benefit the lives of citizens. In addition to demonstrating the connections between the Menexenus and Gorgias, a portion of the paper examines the relation between Plato and Thucydides, arguing that there is perhaps more of an affinity between Plato and Thucydides than has previously been acknowledged. Pericles’ Funeral Oration and the speech in the Menexenus suggest that both Thucydides and Plato were deeply concerned with the negative effects of oratory on the political community.
Aristotle’s Theory of Partisanship
Authors: Skultety Steven C.
Published: February 2014

This paper develops and defends a new interpretation of Aristotle’s conception of democratic and oligarchic identity. Rejecting interpretations that ground partisan identities in class, greed, or conceptions of justice, this interpretation posits that Aristotle thought of democrats and oligarchs as being defined by the confluence of four distinct traits: (1) having an incorrect conception of happiness, (2) having an incorrect conception of political desert, (3) suffering from an emotional defect, and (4) habitually inferring equality/inequality in all respects from one respect. The argument for this interpretation is that it best explains why Aristotle attributes a despotic attitude to partisans and it explains why democrats and oligarchs are depicted as being unstintingly hostile towards one another. The paper concludes by arguing that Aristotle chose these four traits in order to show that partisans are citizens who devote themselves to a life of discriminatory elitism.
Ergon and Logistikon in Republic
Authors: Wisnewski J. Jeremy
Published: February 2014

This paper explores the tension between two views attributed to Plato: 1) that every person in a just society must fulfil his function, and 2) justice requires philosophical wisdom. It is argued that (2) is not Plato’s view in Republic, and that this can be seen as early as Book II.
Socrates Unbound: Plato’s Protagoras
Authors: Plax Martin J.
Published: February 2014

Literature devoted to analyses of Plato’s Protagoras focus on topics such as Protagoras’ hedonism, the unity of virtue, akrasia, and the distinction between philosophy and sophistry. They pass over the fact that the political atmosphere in Athens and the character of the comrade together compel Socrates to be cautious about what he repeats. The dialogue with Hippocrates allows him to claim that he met with and dethroned Protagoras, not of his own choosing, but as a result of chance. The essay also argues that the Protagoras exposes Socrates’ own inclination towards Hedonism. If Socrates didn’t know this before he met with Protagoras this time, it would be impossible for Socrates not to see it through his encounter and victory over the Sophist. This discovery may be the most profound dimension of Socratic irony.
Thrasymachus on the Relativity of Justice
Authors: Novitsky David
Published: February 2014

Thrasymachus’ position on justice, as articulated in Book I of Plato’s Republic, has emerged in the literature as a frustratingly intractable problem because it seems to be made up of contradictory accounts. This paper accomplishes three objectives in relation to this problem. First, it offers an original solution, ‘the relativity view’, which reads Thrasymachus’ two speeches as a temporal narrative, thereby explaining away the notorious contradiction. Second, it highlights the little-noted and underappreciated relativistic and perspectival understandings of justice in Thrasymachus’ account in order to demonstrate where the dominant positions in the literature have gone wrong. Finally, it connects the ‘relativity view’ to the Republic as a whole, a surprising deficiency in most of the literature, which gestures to a deeper understanding of the connections between Book I and the rest of the Republic.
On the Economy of Specialization and Division of Labour in Plato’s Republic
Authors: Greco Anna
Published: February 2014

This essay takes issue with a common interpretation of Book II of Plato’s Republic as anticipating the modern theory of division of labour, first promoted by Adam Smith. It is argued that, far from anticipating Adam Smith, Plato developed original reflections which, though naturally shaped by the economic reality of his time, reveal a concern for fundamental issues of economic thought: the value of labour, the nature of economic interdependence in a political association, the relation between economic behaviour and justice. However, despite having recognized some of the fundamental forces behind human economic behaviour, Plato ends up with an envisioned ideal state in which those forces are given no scope, for he makes no room for economic competitiveness and technological advancement.
The Origin of the Olive: On the Dynamics of Plato’s Menexenus
Authors: Mahoney Paul O
Published: February 2014

Plato’s Menexenus is a persistent puzzle for interpreters, in the main because of its obscurity of purpose and apparent lack of philosophical matter. This article argues that, while no doubt an elusive piece, it can be counted quite definitely a sdialogue of philosophical import, as well as one of its author’s most subtly accomplished works. The article focuses on two portions of Aspasia’s oration—the account of the earliest Athenians and the exhortation to the living in the voice of the dead—to demonstrate the radical nature of the speech. Close attention to its subtle internal dynamic reveals not only the range of philosophical themes touched upon, but also its outrageous aspects and the strength of its indictment of the Athenian democracy. The article also affirms the consistency of this critique with Plato’s reservations regarding that regime as expressed with most force and clarity in Republic and Gorgias.
To ‘Graze Freely in the Pastures of Philosophy’: The Pedagogical Methods and Political Motives of Socrates and the Sophists
Authors: Zoller Coleen
Published: February 2014

This paper offers an innovative interpretation of Socrates’ disavowal of being a teacher as well as a new way of understanding Plato’s depiction of sophistry. The author identifies two different types of sophists, forthrightly frivolous sophists and slyly flattering sophists, in order to compare the pedagogical methods and political motives of each of these two types of sophists with those of Plato’s Socrates. In the course of this comparison it is made clear that Socrates endeavours to be not a teacher but a ‘cowherder’, to use Plato’s agricultural hunger imagery. He rejects the conventional pedagogy that endeavours to ‘feed’ information to students. Instead he fosters learning by putting students in a position to think ideas through for themselves, just as a cowherder puts the herd out to graze in the pasture. This pedagogy alone has the potential to produce citizens who assume responsibility for their own education.
A Tale of Two Drinking Parties: Plato’s Laws in Context
Authors: Altman W.H.F.
Published: February 2014

In accordance with Leo Strauss’s ingenious suggestion, the Athenian Stranger of Plato’s Laws is best understood as an alternative ‘Socrates’, fleeing from the hemlock to Crete. Situated between Crito and Phaedo, Laws effectively tests the reader’s loyalty to the real Socrates who obeys Athenian law and dies cheerfully in Athens. Having separated Plato from the Stranger, a nuanced defence of Karl Popper’s suspicions about Laws confronts the apologetic readings of both Strauss and Christopher Bobonich. As hinted by his preference for wine, the antidote for hemlock, the Athenian Stranger repeatedly proves himself the opposite of Socrates, particularly with respect to piety. Once the Stranger is recognized as ‘an unreliable narrator’, this apparently ponderous product of Plato’s senility becomes the taut thriller of an innovative teacher at the peak of his powers.
Substantial City: Reflections On Aristotle’s Politics
Authors: Roochnik David
Published: February 2014

Minimally, Aristotle’s account of the ‘city’ (polis) is isomorphic with his metaphysical doctrine of substance (ousia) and teleological conception of nature. Maximally, his political theory depends on it. Part I explains what this means. Part II discusses the significant consequences the notion of a ‘substantial city’ has for Aristotle’s political theory. Part III suggests how this notion can be deployed to address the notorious question of whether the Politics forms a unified whole, or whether Books 4, 5 and 6 — the ‘realist’ or empirical books—simply cannot be reconciled with Books 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8, the more ‘idealist’ or even ‘Platonist’ side of the work.
Plato’s Heroic Vision: The Difficult Choices of the Socratic Life
Authors: Kohen Ari
Published: February 2014

Faced with charges of impiety and corruption of the youth, Socrates attempts a defence designed to vindicate the philosophic way of life. In this he seems to be successful, as Socrates is today highly regarded for his description of the good life and for his unwillingness to live any other sort of life, a position that is most obviously exemplified by his defence in the Apology. After his sentencing, Socrates’ arguments and actions—in the Crito and the Phaedo—also lend considerable support to the idea that the philosopher is committed to living a particularly good sort of life. While the sequence of dialogues that culminates in Socrates’ execution might seem to be the most obviously critical of the life of the philosopher, these dialogues actually serve to enshrine the character of Socrates as the quintessential moral hero.
Unravelling an Outline of the Statesman
Authors: Davenport Daniel R.
Published: February 2014

Throughout the course of Plato’s Statesman, an Eleatic Stranger makes several suggestions about what a statesman is. The Stranger refers to one of those suggestions, made at 276e, as ‘likely’ providing an ‘outline’ of the statesman. While that outline might not ultimately indicate what a statesman is, it points to some understanding of what it means to inquire into the being of a statesman. Foremost, the outline indicates that the statesman must be understood as a ruler of some kind. Moreover, the statesman is a ruler whose focus should be on the people of the polis and so he must understand something of human nature. However, the statesman is also shaped by the tension created from the way in which rule itself belittles that nature, obscuring if not inhibiting the self-rule that is naturally or ideally human. The outline also acknowledges the reciprocal tendency of people to sacrifice their own self-rule, a tendency that makes ruling both more possible and more problematic.
Demokratia and Arete in Ancient Greek Political Thought
Authors: Wallach John R.
Published: February 2014

This article interprets demokratia and arete as dynamically related terms of political thought in ancient Greek culture, from Homeric times to the end of the classical era. It does so selectively, identifying three stages in which this relationship is developed: (1) from the Homeric to archaic eras; (2) fifth-century Athenian democracy, in which demokratia and arete are posed as complementary terms; and (3) the fourth century era in which philosophers used virtue to critique democracy. Relying mostly on evidence from writers who have become benchmarks in the history of Western political thought, the argument emphasizes the inherently political dimension of arete during this period of ancient Greek culture. Noting different ways in which arete is related to political power in general and democracy in particular, it also illustrates the manner in which arete is neither philosophically pristine nor merely an instrument of practical power. The effect of the research contradicts traditional and recent readings of democracy and virtue as inherently antagonistic. The aim of the article is to identify ancient Greek contributions to understanding the potential, contingencies and dangers of the relationship between democracy (as a form of power) and virtue (as a form of ethics) — one which may benefit both democracy and virtue.
Plato’s Theory of Democratic Decline
Authors: Fissell Brenner M.
Published: February 2014

While democracy is derided for a variety of reasons in Plato’s thought, his most damning critique of that regime type does not involve an observation about democracy qua democracy, but of the transition that it so easily engenders: the decline to tyranny. Regimes are composed of individuals and groups, though, and Plato is anxious to ascribe culpability for the degradation. Two actors are the primary focus of his analysis — the political leaders and the demos. At times he emphasizes the puissance of the demos, but in other passages he suggests it is the leaders who are most authoritative. This paper discusses these apparently contradictory passages, and works towards a reconciliation. It argues that neither is assigned sole culpability, as both work in complex synrgy, and that the underlying cause of the decline—and the motivator behind both actors — is not simply freedom, but greed for material wealth.
By Uniting It Stands: Poetry and Myth in Plato’s Republic
Authors: Avgousti Andreas
Published: February 2014

This article argues against readings that tend to overlook, dismiss or reduce the profound role of poetry and myth in Plato’s Republic. It discusses and rejects the distinction between myth and poetry that we find in such readings. Then it makes the case for the irreducibility of poetry. Crucially, poetry determines both the state and the frame of mind of the dialogue’s interlocutors, and we can expect it to do the same for the Kallipoleans. The attraction of the irrational part of the soul to imitative poetry entails that imitation is both beneficial and pleasant. In the last section of the article it is argued that myths, understood as false stories, play a significant role in early education. This education constitutes a critical juncture and sets up a path dependency in the lives it affects. Myths shape one’s motivational dispositions, preserve true opinions, and facilitate communicative understanding.