The Background II | ScienceGate

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.

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Greek High Culture in Hellenistic and Early Imperial Bithynia

Mnemosyne ◽

10.1163/1568525x-bja10120 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 75 (1) ◽

pp. 73-112

Author(s):

Ewen Bowie

Keyword(s):

Fifth Century ◽

Third Century ◽

High Culture ◽

Greek Culture ◽

The Third ◽

Cultural Life

Abstract The article attempts to set out evidence for various forms of Greek high culture in Bithynia from the fifth century BC to the middle of the third century AD, taking as a cut-off point the tetrarchic period in which Diocletian’s choice of Nicomedia as a capital had a marked impact on its and other Bithynian cities’ cultural life. The preliminary prosopography lists representatives of Greek culture by city, subdividing into the categories doctor, grammaticus, historian, philosopher, poet, rhetor or sophist, and scholar (with a sprinkling of other performers). Only Nicaea, with 30 names, makes a strong and persistent showing; of other cities only Nicomedia musters more than 10 names, though Prusa and Prusias ad mare produce several doctors. Prusias ad Hypium, by contrast, can boast only a single philosopher, perhaps a rhetor who moved to Nicaea, and a visiting tragic performer.

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Buddhism, Mādhyamika: India and Tibet

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy ◽

10.4324/9780415249126-f006-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Leslie S. Kawamura

Keyword(s):

Eleventh Century ◽

Early Period ◽

Fifth Century ◽

Second Century ◽

Seventh Century ◽

The Other ◽

The World ◽

Middle Period ◽

The Status ◽

Mahayana Buddhist

Madhyamaka (‘the Middle Doctrine’) Buddhism was one of two Mahāyāna Buddhist schools, the other being Yogācāra, that developed in India between the first and fourth centuries ad. The Mādhyamikas derived the name of their school from the Middle Path (madhyamapratipad) doctrine expounded by the historical Siddhārtha, prince of the Śākya clan, when he gained the status of a buddha, enlightenment. The Madhyamaka, developed by the second-century philosopher Nāgārjuna on the basis of a class of sūtras known as the Prajñāpāramitā (‘Perfection of Wisdom’), can be seen in his foundational Mūlamadhyamakakārikā(Fundamental Central Way Verses). Therein he expounds the central Buddhist doctrines of the Middle Path in terms of interdependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda), conventional language (prajñapti), no-self nature (niḥsvabhāva) and voidness (śūnyatā). He grants that the dharma taught by the enlightened ones is dependent upon two realities (dve satye samupāśritya) – the conventional reality of the world (lokasaṃvṛtisatyam) and reality as the ultimate (satyam paramārthataḥ). Although voidness is central to Madhyamaka, we are warned against converting śūnyatā into yet another ‘ism’. Historically, Madhyamaka in India comprises three periods – the early period (second to fifth century), represented by the activities of Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva and Rāhulabhadra; the middle period (fifth to seventh century) exemplified by Buddhapālita and Bhāvaviveka (founders respectively of the *Prāsaṅgika and *Svātantrika schools of Madhyamaka), and Candrakīrti; and the later period (eighth to eleventh century), which includes Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, who fused the ideas found in the Madhyamaka and Yogācāra systems. Many of the Indian Madhyamaka scholars of the later period contributed to Madhyamaka developments in Tibet.

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Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780198747260.003.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Edmund Stewart

Keyword(s):

Network Theory ◽

Greek Tragedy ◽

Early Period ◽

Greek Culture

The Introduction sets out the problem: why was tragedy a central part of Greek culture and how did this come about? It reviews scholarship on the ancient context of Greek tragedy and suggests new solutions to this problem. Drawing on research in network theory, this chapter aims to show that tragedy should not be seen primarily as an Athenian ‘export’; rather its dissemination was the result of a complex web of interactions between Greek communities. Tragedy travelled because poets and audience members themselves travelled. A key reason for the mobility of poets is that they were professionals from an early period, in search of Panhellenic fame, prizes, and patronage from an early period.

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The Holy See and the Byzantine Church and Empire

The Review of Politics ◽

10.1017/s0034670500038675 ◽

1947 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 275-283

Author(s):

Eugene Cardinal Tisserant

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

Western Europe ◽

Central Italy ◽

Fifth Century ◽

Point Of View ◽

Seventh Century ◽

Tyrrhenian Sea ◽

Holy See ◽

Greek Culture ◽

Byzantine Church

My intention here is to make a few reflections on the relations between the Papacy and the Byzantine Empire and Church, mostly from the cultural point of view. I wish to point out how the Popes continued for several centuries—from 1054 to 1453—to keep their attention fixed on the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, even after dissent had developed in the Byzantine clergy: how the Popes helped by their policy to bring about a new convergence of Greek culture with the Latin one, a convergence which gave birth to the Renaissance.The cultural break between Eastern and Western Europe had its distant origin in the resolution taken by Emperor Diocletian at the beginning of his reign to divide the responsibilities of power. For about a thousand years before 284 A.D., the trend had been to join together die various peoples around the Mediterranean Sea and to amalgamate their individual cvivilizations. Hundreds of years before the rise of Rome, the Greek colonies developed in southern Italy, in Sicily and as far north on the Tyrrhenian Sea as Cumae. The first signs of Greek influence in central Italy were in art: protocorinthian vases appeared as early as the seventh century B.C.; then terracotta works from Greek models in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. Greek divinities were received in Rome at the beginning of the sixth century. In die middle of the fifth century, the Law of the Twelve Tables was framed after three commissioners had been sent to Greece to examine the best of Greek legislation.

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Preface to Thucydides: Rereading the Corcyrean Conflict (1.24-55)

Classical Antiquity ◽

10.2307/25011094 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 94-131 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James V. Morrison

Keyword(s):

Fifth Century ◽

First Episode ◽

The Political ◽

Political Arena ◽

Multiple Perspective ◽

Face To Face ◽

Greek Culture ◽

The World ◽

First Time ◽

Made In

Thucydides uses the first extended episode in the History, the Corcyrean conflict (1.24-55), to present the world of political discourse, deliberation, and battle. This episode is programmatic for a number of reasons: it is the first episode with a pair of speeches; Thucydides ties this episode directly to the outbreak of the war; certain questions, such as morality's relevance to foreign policy, are introduced here for the first time; and, most importantly, it is here that Thucydides establishes what the reader's role is to be throughout the work. This paper argues that, for all the significance of Thucydides' Archaeology and Statement of Method (1.2-23), the "participatory" dimension of the History begins with the Corcyrean conflict. It is only with the introduction of speeches that the reader must address the ways in which speech and narrative confirm and undermine each other, as the historian's voice now alternates and competes with that of his characters in speech. From an authorial perspective we find that various techniques Thucydides employs-multiple perspective, authorial reticence, and episodic presentation-are used to recreate the political arena of fifth-century Greece. The various facets of the reader's extensive labor may be clustered under the heading of extrapolation and conjecture (best captured by the Greek term eikazein), as the reader must endeavor to see events from the perspective of the participants, evaluate claims made in speeches, experience battle vicariously, and consider events-which are past from the reader's perspective-as future in terms of the subsequent narrative. Analogous to what Plato did for philosophy, Thucydides has produced an interactive, open-ended, and participatory type of literature by appealing to the reader's involvement and by bringing written literature as close as possible to the live, extemporaneous, face-to-face debate of oral Greek culture.

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The Secret of the Byzantinist Dmitry Ainalov

Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki ◽

10.26907/2541-7738.2020.6.171-184 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 162 (6) ◽

pp. 171-184

Author(s):

L.A. Sychenkova ◽

◽

M.D. Pirgo ◽

Keyword(s):

Early Period ◽

Family Tree ◽

Research Focus ◽

Greek Culture ◽

Byzantine Art ◽

Archival Documents ◽

History Of ◽

First Time ◽

Important Evidence ◽

Insight Into

This paper, for the first time, considers the Mariupol period of D.V. Ainalov’s life, as well as the history of his family and his ancestry from the Crimean-Azov Greeks. D.V. Ainalov’s personal documents concerning his family tree and the early period of his life were introduced into scientific circulation. His research focus (Hellenistic and Byzantine art) was determined by the inherent bond with the Greek culture, which had survived and flourished among the Azov Greeks. With the help of the archival documents, the atmosphere in D.V. Ainalov’s family was revealed in order to understand the conditions under which he developed his artistic abilities. Our findings confirm that the inner circle of D.V. Ainalov’s family, which included artists, prompted him to visual thinking and, therefore, played a key role in his subsequent interest in the study of art. An important evidence of D.V. Ainalov’s artistic abilities is his iconographic legacy. Refining the details of D.V. Ainalov’s biography helps to get a better insight into his creative “laboratory” and personal motives, thereby adding new dimensions to his historiographical image. The paper raises the issue of the urgent need for a special monographic research summarizing and covering in detail all stages of personal and creative biography of D.V. Ainalov.

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The Seductions of Gorgias

Classical Antiquity ◽

10.2307/25010996 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 267-299 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

James I. Porter

Keyword(s):

Fifth Century ◽

The Self ◽

Scholarly Literature ◽

Greek Culture ◽

External Power

From the older handbooks to the more recent scholarly literature, Gorgias's professions about his art (not to say about reality) are taken literally at their word: conjured up in all of these accounts is the image of a hearer irresistibly overwhelmed by Gorgias's apagogic and psychagogic persuasions. Gorgias's own description of his art, in effect, replaces our description of it. "His proofs... give the impression of ineluctability" (Schmid-Stählin). "Thus logos is almost an independent external power which forces the hearer to do its will" (Segal). "Incurably deceptive," logos has an "enormous power" that acts upon opinion, which is "easy to change" (Kerferd). Surprisingly, the urge to describe or paraphrase Gorgias's art has caused commentators to overlook the very best witness of it that we have: its enactment, which is to say the performative value of Gorgias's writings, especially the speeches. For if Gorgias's literary remains do nothing else, they demonstrate how one can do things with words without being explicit about what is being done, even if this means contradicting, performatively, what is being said-as for instance in his statements, so unconvincingly made, about the ostensible aims of rhetoric. Was Gorgias persuasive in practice? Was persuasion even the goal? Is logos the solitary arbiter of reality that it is so often made out to be? Through close examination of Gorgias's Helen and parts of On Not-Being, I attempt to show that persuasion is manifestly not the goal of his arguments, which in the first instance are aporetic paradoxes that expose the difficulties of defining the nature of either language or reality, and which in the last instance are instruments of cultural demystification. The only deception at work in Gorgias's writings is that of the self-deception of their audience. It is this that gives these curiously revealing documents of fifth-century Greek culture their "dissuasive," not persuasive, character.

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Kwestia bogactwa i ubóstwa w Kościele imperialnym na zachodzie w IV i V wieku. Próba syntezy zagadnienia

Vox Patrum ◽

10.31743/vp.4240 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 56 ◽

pp. 495-515

Author(s):

Dariusz Kasprzak

Keyword(s):

Private Property ◽

Early Period ◽

Fifth Century ◽

Church Fathers ◽

Christian Life ◽

Realistic Approach ◽

Economic View ◽

Pessimistic Attitude ◽

The Church

I considered the different views regarding the issues of possession, wealth and poverty in the fourth and fifth century. I focused on the concepts of the fifth-century theologian (St. Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, St. Augustine the Bishop of Hippo), pioneers of the western monastic theology and also the earliest monastic theologians and the heterodox pelagianist writers. They regarded soteriological perspective of Christianity. In that early period the socio-economic view did not constitute a doctrine. We can distinguish two essential approaches to the issue of possession in the teaching of the Church Fathers in the fourth and fifth century: a realistic and a pessimistic attitude. (The optimistic version regarded the possession of wealth as the result of Divine Protection and as a reward for pious Christian life. Both those models presumed that all the earthly goods were created by God and that people are only the temporary stewards of the goods given them for use. The realistic approach emphasized that everything which God has made was good and there was nothing wrong with owning possessions but it denounced the unjust means by which it is sometimes achieved or used. The pessimistic approach of Anchorites (monasticism, orthodox and heterodox ascetics) accepted the possession of goods which were made with one’s own hands. Everything which was not necessary should be given as alms. Coenobitic monks didn’t have anything of their own because everything belonged to the monastery. Their superior decided how everything could be used. The heterodox followers of Pelagius condemned shared of private property at all, and shared the view that voluntarily poverty was the only possible way for Christian.

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Language, Indian theories of

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy ◽

10.4324/9780415249126-f048-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Johannes Bronkhorst

Keyword(s):

Indian Philosophy ◽

Early Period ◽

Fifth Century ◽

Ontological Status ◽

Classical Systems ◽

Subsequent Period ◽

Linguistic Units ◽

Sanskrit Grammar

Language is a much debated topic in Indian philosophy. There is a clear concern with it in the Vedic texts, where efforts are made to describe links between earthly and divine reality in terms of etymological links between words. The earliest surviving Sanskrit grammar, Pāṇini’s intricate Aṣṭādhyāyī(Eight Chapters), dates from about 350 bc, although arguably the first explicitly philosophical reflections on language that have survived are found in Patañjali’s ‘Great Commentary’ on Pāṇini’s work, the Mahābhāṣya (c.150 bc). Both these thinkers predate the classical systems of Indian philosophy. This is not true of the great fifth-century grammarian Bhartṛhari, however, who in his Vākyapadīya (Treatise on Sentences and Words) draws on these systems in developing his theory of the sphoṭa, a linguistic entity distinct from a word’s sounds that Bhartṛhari takes to convey its meaning. Among the issues debated by these philosophers (although not exclusively by them, and not exclusively with reference to Sanskrit) were what can be described as (i) the search for minimal meaningful units, and (ii) the ontological status of composite linguistic units. With some approximation, the first of these two issues attracted more attention during the early period of linguistic reflection, whereas the subsequent period emphasized the second one.

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