The Cosmic Republic: Notes for a Non-Peripatetic History of the Birth of Philosophy in Greece - Couverture rigide

Capizzi, A

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 9070265559 ISBN 13 : 9789070265557

Editeur : Brill, 1990

Synopsis

According to Aristotle, philosophy had come into being in the VIth century with Thales, just as a mere, disinterested pursuit of truth, a curiosity for great problems (those even-tually called "metaphysical" ones) which were substantially identical with those which Aristotle himself and his school were now raising. This abstract reading is very similar to that which views Greek poets as inspired by "eternal beauty" or by "art's for art sake" and which is nowadays completely discredited and given up by scholars of the history of literature. Against this view the present text pro-poses a new reading of the "archaic" presocratic scientists: in fact, it is about those "sages" who lived on the bound-aries of the Greek-speaking world before the concentration of such people in Periclean Athens. They were closely linked to their native towns (Miletus, Ephesus, Croto, Vele, Acragas) where they held high office; here there oral teaching and the public reading of their texts were followed closely by their fellow citizens. Thus the picture of the "cosmic republic" arises: to the "cosmic monarchy" of Homer and Hesiod (the mythical world with Zeus as the king, gods as the ministers and nature as the subject) a different mythical world succeeds. Here the earth, the sea, the sky, the human body and, generally, the "existing thing", all behave like isonomic ("republican") towns or like the governing body of these towns. Philosophy will arise later, in Athens of the Vth century.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Brill
• Date d'édition: 1990
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 9070265559
• ISBN 13: 9789070265557
• Reliure: Cuir/luxe
• Nombre de pages: 532
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible