1.
Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
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Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
3.
Substance theory
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Substance theory, or substance attribute theory, is an ontological theory about objecthood, positing that a substance is distinct from its properties. A thing-in-itself is a property-bearer that must be distinguished from the properties it bears, according to monistic views, there is only one substance. Stoicism and Spinoza, for example, hold monistic views, that pneuma or God and these modes of thinking are sometimes associated with the idea of immanence. Dualism sees the world as being composed of two substances, for example, the Cartesian substance dualism of mind and matter. Pluralist philosophies include Platos Theory of Forms and Aristotles hylomorphic categories, Aristotle used the term substance theory in a secondary sense for genera and species understood as hylomorphic forms. A substance—that which is called a substance most strictly, primarily, the species in which the things primarily called substances are, are called secondary substances, as also are the genera of these species. For example, the individual man belongs in a species, man, in chapter 6 of book I the Physics Aristotle argues that any change must be analysed in reference to the property of an invariant subject, as it was before the change and thereafter. Thus, in his account of change, matter serves as a relative substratum of transformation. Examples of such a substantial change include not only conception and dying, an example of this sort of accidental change is a change of color or size, a tomato becomes red, or a juvenile horse grows. Neither the bare particulars nor property bundles of modern theory have their antecedent in Aristotle, according to whom, all matter exists in some form. However, according to Aristotles theology, a form of invariant form exists without matter, beyond the cosmos, powerless and oblivious, in the eternal substance of the unmoved movers. In contrast to Aristotle, Plato and later Neoplatonism spoke of the reality of a thing or its inner reality. The Stoics rejected the idea that incorporeal beings inhere in matter and they believed that all being is corporeal infused with a creative fire called pneuma. Thus they developed a scheme of categories different from Aristotles based on the ideas of Anaxagoras, Descartes means by a substance an entity which exists in such a way that it needs no other entity in order to exist. Therefore, only God is a substance in this strict sense, however, he extends the term to created things, which need only the concurrence of God to exist. Of these there are two and only two, mind and matter, each being distinct from the other in their attributes and therefore in their essence, Spinoza denied Descartes real distinction between mind and matter. Substance, according to Spinoza, is one and indivisible, but has multiple attributes and he regards an attribute, though, as what we conceive as constituting the essence of substance. The single essence of one substance can be conceived of as material and also, consistently, what is ordinarily called the natural world, together with all the individuals in it, is immanent in God, hence his famous phrase deus sive natura
4.
Aristotle
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Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books and he believed all peoples concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotles views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works, Aristotles views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, some of Aristotles zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as The First Teacher and his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his style as a river of gold – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived. Aristotle, whose means the best purpose, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice. His father Nicomachus was the physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was orphaned at a young age, although there is little information on Aristotles childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Platos Academy and he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor, there, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermiass adoptive daughter or niece and she bore him a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. Soon after Hermias death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC, Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave not only to Alexander
5.
John Locke
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John Locke FRS was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the Father of Liberalism. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon and his work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers and his contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness and he postulated that, at birth, the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. This is now known as empiricism, an example of Lockes belief in Empiricism can be seen in his quote, whatever I write, as soon as I discover it not to be true, my hand shall be the forwardest to throw it into the fire. This shows the ideology of science in his observations in that something must be capable of being tested repeatedly, challenging the work of others, Locke is said to have established the method of introspection, or observing the emotions and behaviours of one’s self. Locke was born on 29 August 1632, in a thatched cottage by the church in Wrington, Somerset. He was baptised the same day, soon after Lockes birth, the family moved to the market town of Pensford, about seven miles south of Bristol, where Locke grew up in a rural Tudor house in Belluton. In 1647, Locke was sent to the prestigious Westminster School in London under the sponsorship of Alexander Popham, after completing studies there, he was admitted to Christ Church, Oxford, in the autumn of 1652 at the age of twenty. The dean of the college at the time was John Owen, although a capable student, Locke was irritated by the undergraduate curriculum of the time. He found the works of philosophers, such as René Descartes. Locke was awarded a degree in February 1656 and a masters degree in June 1658. In 1666, he met Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, Cooper was impressed with Locke and persuaded him to become part of his retinue. Locke had been looking for a career and in 1667 moved into Shaftesburys home at Exeter House in London, in London, Locke resumed his medical studies under the tutelage of Thomas Sydenham. Sydenham had an effect on Lockes natural philosophical thinking – an effect that would become evident in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Lockes medical knowledge was put to the test when Shaftesburys liver infection became life-threatening, Locke coordinated the advice of several physicians and was probably instrumental in persuading Shaftesbury to undergo surgery to remove the cyst. Shaftesbury survived and prospered, crediting Locke with saving his life, Shaftesbury, as a founder of the Whig movement, exerted great influence on Lockes political ideas. Locke became involved in politics when Shaftesbury became Lord Chancellor in 1672, following Shaftesburys fall from favour in 1675, Locke spent some time travelling across France as tutor and medical attendant to Caleb Banks
6.
Baruch Spinoza
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Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi/Portuguese origin. Spinozas magnum opus, Ethics, was published posthumously in 1677, the work opposed René Descartes philosophy on mind–body dualism, and earned Spinoza recognition as one of Western philosophys most important thinkers. In the Ethics, Spinoza wrote the last indisputable Latin masterpiece, hegel said, You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all. His philosophical accomplishments and moral character prompted 20th-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him the prince of philosophers, Spinozas given name, which means Blessed, varies among different languages. In Hebrew, it is written ברוך שפינוזה, in Portuguese, hes called Benedito Bento de Espinosa and in Latin, Benedictus de Spinoza. Spinoza was raised in a Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam and he developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine. Jewish religious authorities issued a herem against him, causing him to be shunned by Jewish society at age 23. His books were later put on the Catholic Churchs Index of Forbidden Books. Spinoza lived a simple life as a lens grinder, turning down rewards and honours throughout his life. He died at the age of 44 allegedly of a lung illness and he is buried in the churchyard of the Christian Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague. The Spinoza family probably had its origins in Espinosa de los Monteros, near Burgos, or in Espinosa de Cerrato, near Palencia, the family was expelled from Spain in 1492 and fled to Portugal. Portugal compelled them to convert to Catholicism in 1498, attracted by the Decree of Toleration issued in 1579 by the Union of Utrecht, Portuguese conversos first sailed to Amsterdam in 1593 and promptly reconverted to Judaism. In 1598 permission was granted to build a synagogue, and in 1615 an ordinance for the admission, as a community of exiles, the Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam were highly proud of their identity. Spinozas father was born roughly a century after this conversion in the small Portuguese city of Vidigueira. When Spinozas father was still a child, Spinozas grandfather, Isaac de Spinoza and they were expelled in 1615 and moved to Rotterdam, where Isaac died in 1627. Spinozas father, Miguel, and his uncle, Manuel, then moved to Amsterdam where they resumed the practice of Judaism, Miguel was a successful merchant and became a warden of the synagogue and of the Amsterdam Jewish school. He buried three wives and three of his six children died before reaching adulthood, Amsterdam and Rotterdam operated as important cosmopolitan centres where merchant ships from many parts of the world brought people of various customs and beliefs. This flourishing commercial activity encouraged a relatively tolerant of the play of new ideas
7.
Immanuel Kant
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Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who is considered a central figure in modern philosophy. Kant took himself to have effected a Copernican revolution in philosophy and his beliefs continue to have a major influence on contemporary philosophy, especially the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political theory, and aesthetics. Politically, Kant was one of the earliest exponents of the idea that peace could be secured through universal democracy. He believed that this will be the outcome of universal history. Kant wanted to put an end to an era of futile and speculative theories of human experience, Kant argued that our experiences are structured by necessary features of our minds. In his view, the shapes and structures experience so that, on an abstract level. Among other things, Kant believed that the concepts of space and time are integral to all human experience, as are our concepts of cause, Kant published other important works on ethics, religion, law, aesthetics, astronomy, and history. These included the Critique of Practical Reason, the Metaphysics of Morals, which dealt with ethics, and the Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in Königsberg, Prussia. His mother, Anna Regina Reuter, was born in Königsberg to a father from Nuremberg. His father, Johann Georg Kant, was a German harness maker from Memel, Immanuel Kant believed that his paternal grandfather Hans Kant was of Scottish origin. Kant was the fourth of nine children, baptized Emanuel, he changed his name to Immanuel after learning Hebrew. Young Kant was a solid, albeit unspectacular, student and he was brought up in a Pietist household that stressed religious devotion, humility, and a literal interpretation of the Bible. His education was strict, punitive and disciplinary, and focused on Latin and religious instruction over mathematics, despite his religious upbringing and maintaining a belief in God, Kant was skeptical of religion in later life, various commentators have labelled him agnostic. Common myths about Kants personal mannerisms are listed, explained, and refuted in Goldthwaits introduction to his translation of Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. It is often held that Kant lived a strict and disciplined life. He never married, but seemed to have a social life — he was a popular teacher. He had a circle of friends whom he met, among them Joseph Green. A common myth is that Kant never traveled more than 16 kilometres from Königsberg his whole life, in fact, between 1750 and 1754 he worked as a tutor in Judtschen and in Groß-Arnsdorf
8.
Critique of Pure Reason
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The Critique of Pure Reason is a book by Immanuel Kant that is considered one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. Also referred to as Kants First Critique, it was followed by the Critique of Practical Reason, knowledge independent of experience is referred to by Kant as a priori knowledge, while knowledge obtained through experience is termed a posteriori. According to Kant, a priori knowledge expresses necessary truths, statements which are necessarily true cannot be negated without becoming false. According to Kant, to say that a sentence is analytic is to say that what is stated in the predicate-concept of the sentence is contained in the subject-concept of that sentence. The example he provides is the sentence, All bodies are extended, Kant considered the judgment, All bodies are heavy synthetic, since I do not include in the concept of body in general the predicate weight. Synthetic judgments therefore add something to a concept, whereas analytic judgments only explain what is contained in the concept. The distinctive character of analytic judgments was therefore that they can be known to be simply by an analysis of the concepts contained in them—or. Prior to Kant, it was thought that all necessary truth had the character of being analytic, Kant argued that not all necessary truths are analytic, but that some of them are synthetic. Before Kant, it was held that truths of reason must be analytic. In either case, the judgment is analytic because it is ascertained by analyzing the subject. It was thought that all truths of reason, or necessary truths, are of this kind, If this were so, attempting to deny anything that could be known a priori would involve a contradiction. It was therefore thought that the law of contradiction is sufficient to establish all a priori knowledge, David Hume at first accepted the general view of rationalism about a priori knowledge. However, upon examination of the subject, Hume discovered that some judgments thought to be analytic, especially those related to cause. They thus depend exclusively upon experience and are therefore a posteriori, Kant, who was brought up under the auspices of rationalism, was deeply disturbed by Humes skepticism. Kant tells us that David Hume awakened him from his dogmatic slumbers, Kant decided to find an answer and spent at least twelve years thinking about the subject. Kants work was stimulated by his decision to take seriously Humes skeptical conclusions about such basic principles as cause and effect, in Kants view, Humes skepticism rested on the premise that all ideas are presentations of sensory experience. In section VI of the introduction to the Critique of Pure Reason, Kants goal was to find some way to derive cause and effect without relying on empirical knowledge. To accomplish this goal, Kant argued that it would be necessary to use synthetic reasoning, however, this posed a new problem—how is it possible to have synthetic knowledge that is not based on empirical observation—that is, how are synthetic a priori truths possible
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Ontology
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Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence or reality as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Although ontology as an enterprise is highly hypothetical, it also has practical application in information science and technology. Some philosophers, notably of the Platonic school, contend that all refer to existent entities. Other philosophers contend that nouns do not always name entities, between these poles of realism and nominalism, stand a variety of other positions. An ontology may give an account of which refer to entities, which do not, why. Principal questions of ontology include, What can be said to exist, into what categories, if any, can we sort existing things. What are the meanings of being, what are the various modes of being of entities. Various philosophers have provided different answers to these questions, one common approach involves dividing the extant subjects and predicates into groups called categories. Such an understanding of ontological categories, however, is merely taxonomic, what does it mean for a being to be. Is existence a genus or general class that is divided up by specific differences. Which entities, if any, are fundamental, how do the properties of an object relate to the object itself. What features are the essential, as opposed to merely accidental attributes of a given object, how many levels of existence or ontological levels are there. Can one give an account of what it means to say that an object exists. Can one give an account of what it means to say that an entity exists. What constitutes the identity of an object, when does an object go out of existence, as opposed to merely changing. Do beings exist other than in the modes of objectivity and subjectivity, i. e. is the subject/object split of modern philosophy inevitable. e. Being, that which is, which is the present participle of the verb εἰμί, eimí, i. e. to be, I am, and -λογία, -logia, i. e. logical discourse. The first occurrence in English of ontology as recorded by the OED came in a work by Gideon Harvey, Archelogia philosophica nova, or, New principles of Philosophy
10.
George Berkeley
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George Berkeley — known as Bishop Berkeley — was an Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called immaterialism. Berkeley is also known for his critique of abstraction, an important premise in his argument for immaterialism, in this book, Berkeleys views were represented by Philonous, while Hylas embodies the Irish thinkers opponents, in particular John Locke. Berkeley argued against Sir Isaac Newtons doctrine of space, time and motion in De Motu. His arguments were a precursor to the views of Mach and Einstein and his last major philosophical work, Siris, begins by advocating the medicinal use of tar water and then continues to discuss a wide range of topics, including science, philosophy, and theology. Berkeley was born at his home, Dysart Castle, near Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland, the eldest son of William Berkeley. He was educated at Kilkenny College and attended Trinity College, Dublin, earning a degree in 1704. He remained at Trinity College after completion of his degree as a tutor and his earliest publication was on mathematics, but the first that brought him notice was his An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision, first published in 1709. In the essay, Berkeley examines visual distance, magnitude, position and problems of sight, while this work raised much controversy at the time, its conclusions are now accepted as an established part of the theory of optics. For this theory, the Principles gives the exposition and the Dialogues the defence, one of his main objectives was to combat the prevailing materialism of his time. Shortly afterwards, Berkeley visited England and was received into the circle of Addison, Pope and Steele. In 1721, he took Holy Orders in the Church of Ireland, earning his doctorate in divinity, in 1721/2 he was made Dean of Dromore and, in 1724, Dean of Derry. Swift said generously that he did not grudge Berkeley his inheritance, a story that Berkeley and Marshall disregarded a condition of the inheritance that they must publish the correspondence between Swift and Vanessa is probably untrue. In 1725, he began the project of founding a college in Bermuda for training ministers and missionaries in the colony, in 1728, he married Anne Forster, daughter of John Forster, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. He then went to America on a salary of £100 per annum and he landed near Newport, Rhode Island, where he bought a plantation at Middletown – the famous Whitehall. It has been claimed that he introduced Palladianism into America by borrowing a design from Kents Designs of Inigo Jones for the door-case of his house in Rhode Island, Whitehall. He also brought to New England John Smibert, the British artist he discovered in Italy, meanwhile, he drew up plans for the ideal city he planned to build on Bermuda. He lived at the plantation while he waited for funds for his college to arrive, the funds, however, were not forthcoming, and in 1732 he left America and returned to London. While living in Londons Saville Street, he took part in efforts to create a home for the abandoned children
11.
Haecceity
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Haecceity is a persons or objects thisness, the individualising difference between the concept a man and the concept Socrates. Haecceity is a translation of the equivalent term in Aristotles Greek to ti esti or the what is. Charles Sanders Peirce later used the term as a reference to an individual. Haecceity may be defined in some dictionaries as simply the essence of a thing, however, such a definition deprives the term of its subtle distinctiveness and utility. While terms such as haecceity, quiddity, noumenon and hypokeimenon all evoke the essence of a thing, they each have subtle differences, haecceity thus enabled Scotus to find a middle ground in the debate over universals between Nominalism and Realism. Harold Garfinkel is the founder of ethnomethodology, and teacher of Harvey Sacks and he used the word haecceity in his seminal Studies in Ethnomethodology, to enhance the indexical inevitable character of any expression, behavior or situation. According to him, the display the social order they refer to within the settings of the situation they contribute to define. In his famous paper generally referred to as Parsons Plenum, Garfinkel used the term Haecceities to indicate the importance of the infinite contingencies in both situations and practices, Garfinkel was drawing on phenomenology and Edmund Husserl, logic and Bertrand Russell, and perception theory and Nelson Goodman. Phenomenology is the field of studying the phenomena as such, Gilles Deleuze uses the term to denote entities that exist on the Plane of Immanence. The usage was likely chosen in line with his concept of difference and individuation. Gerard Manley Hopkins drew on Scotus — whom he described as “of reality the rarest-veined unraveller” — to construct his theory of inscape. James Joyce made similar use of the concept of haecceitas to develop his idea of the secular epiphany, james Wood refers extensively to haecceitas in developing an argument about conspicuous detail in aesthetic literary criticism. E. Gilson, The Philosophy of the Middle Ages A. Heuser, The Shaping Vision of Gerald Manley Hopkins E. Longpre, duns Scotus Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. London and New York, Continuum,2004, vol.2 of Capitalism and Schizophrenia. ISBN Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, New York, Columbia University Press,1994. Harold Garfinkel, Evidence for Locally Produced, Naturally Accountable Phenomena of Order, Logic, Meaning, Method, etc
12.
Principle of individuation
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It is also known as a criterion of identity or indiscernibility principle. The history of the consideration of such a principle begins with Aristotle and it was much discussed by the medieval philosopher Duns Scotus with his haecceity and later, during Renaissance, by Francisco Suárez, Bonaventure Baron and Leibniz. Taking issue with the view expressed in certain Platonic dialogues that universal Forms constitute reality, an individual therefore has two kinds of unity, specific and numerical. Specific unity is a unity of nature which the shares with other individuals. For example, twin daughters are both human females, and share a unity of nature and this specific unity, according to Aristotle, is derived from Form, for it is form which makes an individual substance the kind of thing it is. But two individuals can share exactly the form, yet not be one in number. What is the principle by which two individuals differ in number alone and this cannot be a common property. As Bonaventure later argued, there is no form of which we imagine a similar one, thus there can be identical twins, triplets, quadruplets. For any such form would then be common to several things, what is the criterion for a thing being an individual. The Persian philosopher Avicenna first introduced a term which was translated into Latin as signatum. However, he did not work out any definite or detailed theory of individuation and his successor Averroes argued that matter is numerically one, since it is undetermined in itself and has no definite boundaries. However, since it is divisible, this must be caused by quantity, the theories of Averroes and Avicenna had a great influence on the later theory of Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas never doubted the Aristotelian theory of individuation by matter, but was uncertain which of the theories of Avicenna or Averroes are correct, later still, he seems to have returned to the first theory when he wrote the Quodlibeta. Giles of Rome believed that individuation happens by the quantity in the matter, Duns Scotus held that individuation comes from the numerical determination of form and matter whereby they become this form and this matter. Individuation is distinguished from a nature by means of a distinction on the side of the thing. Later followers of Scotus called this principle haecceity or thisness, the nominalist philosopher William of Ockham regarded the principle as unnecessary and indeed meaningless, since there are no realities independent of individual things. An individual is distinct of itself, not multiplied in a species and his contemporary Durandus held that individuation comes about through actual existence. Thus the common nature and the individual nature differ only as one conceived, the late scholastic philosopher Francisco Suárez held, in opposition to Scotus, that the principle of individuation can only be logically distinguished from the individual being
13.
Ancient Greek philosophy
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Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC and continued throughout the Hellenistic period and the period in which Ancient Greece was part of the Roman Empire. Philosophy was used to sense out of the world in a non-religious way. It dealt with a variety of subjects, including political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric. Many philosophers around the world agree that Greek philosophy has influenced much of Western culture since its inception, alfred North Whitehead once noted, The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. Clear, unbroken lines of lead from ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers to Early Islamic philosophy, the European Renaissance. Some claim that Greek philosophy, in turn, was influenced by the wisdom literature. But they taught themselves to reason, Philosophy as we understand it is a Greek creation. Subsequent philosophic tradition was so influenced by Socrates as presented by Plato that it is conventional to refer to philosophy developed prior to Socrates as pre-Socratic philosophy. The periods following this, up to and after the wars of Alexander the Great, are those of classical Greek, the pre-Socratics were primarily concerned with cosmology, ontology and mathematics. They were distinguished from non-philosophers insofar as they rejected mythological explanations in favor of reasoned discourse, Thales of Miletus, regarded by Aristotle as the first philosopher, held that all things arise from water. It is not because he gave a cosmogony that John Burnet calls him the first man of science, according to tradition, Thales was able to predict an eclipse and taught the Egyptians how to measure the height of the pyramids. He began from the observation that the world seems to consist of opposites, therefore, they cannot truly be opposites but rather must both be manifestations of some underlying unity that is neither. This underlying unity could not be any of the classical elements, for example, water is wet, the opposite of dry, while fire is dry, the opposite of wet. Anaximenes in turn held that the arche was air, although John Burnet argues that by this he meant that it was a transparent mist, the aether. Xenophanes was born in Ionia, where the Milesian school was at its most powerful, Burnet says that Xenophanes was not, however, a scientific man, with many of his naturalistic explanations having no further support than that they render the Homeric gods superfluous or foolish. He has been claimed as an influence on Eleatic philosophy, although that is disputed, and a precursor to Epicurus, a representative of a total break between science and religion. Pythagoras lived at roughly the time that Xenophanes did and, in contrast to the latter. Parmenides of Elea cast his philosophy against those who held it is and is not the same, and all travel in opposite directions, —presumably referring to Heraclitus
14.
Anamnesis (philosophy)
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In philosophy, anamnesis is a concept in Platos epistemological and psychological theory that he develops in his dialogues Meno and Phaedo, and alludes to in his Phaedrus. It is the idea that humans possess knowledge from past incarnations, which of all the things you dont know will you set up as target for your search. And even if you come across it, how will you know that it is that thing which you dont know. And, as consequence, if the converse is true, and you do know the attributes, properties and/or other descriptive markers of this thing, then you shouldnt need to seek it out at all. The result of this line of thinking is that, in either instance, there is no point trying to gain that something, in the case of Platos aforementioned work, Socrates response is to develop his theory of anamnesis. He suggests that the soul is immortal, and repeatedly incarnated, knowledge is in the soul from eternity, what one perceives to be learning, then, is the recovery of what one has forgotten. And thus Socrates sees himself, not as a teacher, but as a midwife, the theory is illustrated by Socrates asking a slave boy questions about geometry. At first the boy gives the answer, when this is pointed out to him, he is puzzled. This is intended to show that, as the boy wasnt told the answer, he could only have reached the truth by recollecting what he had already known, in Phaedo, Plato develops his theory of anamnesis, in part by combining it with his theory of Forms. The body and its senses are the source of error, knowledge can only be regained through the use of our reason, secondly, he makes clear that genuine knowledge, as opposed to mere true belief, is distinguished by its content. One can only know eternal truths, for they are the truths that can have been in the soul from eternity. For the later interpreters of Plato, anamnesis was less an epistemic assertion than an ontological one and they were more objects of experience, of inner knowledge or insight, than of recollection. Despite this, in Neoplatonism, the theory of anamnesis became part of the mythology of the descent of the soul, porphyrys short work De Antro Nympharum elucidated this notion, as did Macrobiuss much longer Commentary on the Dream of Scipio. As such, psychic recollection was intrinsically connected to the Platonic conception of the soul itself, since the contents of individual material or physical memories were trivial, only the universal recollection of Forms, or divine objects, drew one closer to the immortal source of being. Anamnesis is the closest that human minds can come to experiencing the freedom of the prior to its being encumbered by matter. The process of incarnation is described in Neoplatonism as a trauma that causes the soul to forget its experiences, norman Gulley, Platos Theory of Knowledge, pp. 1–47
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Arete (moral virtue)
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Arete, in its basic sense, means excellence of any kind. The term may also mean moral virtue, in its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function, the act of living up to ones full potential. The term from Homeric times onwards is not gender specific, Homer applies the term of both the Greek and Trojan heroes as well as major female figures, such as Penelope, the wife of the Greek hero Odysseus. In the Homeric poems, Arete is frequently associated with bravery, the man or woman of Arete is a person of the highest effectiveness, they use all their faculties—strength, bravery and wit—to achieve real results. In the Homeric world, then, Arete involves all of the abilities and potentialities available to humans, in some contexts, Arete is explicitly linked with human knowledge, where the expressions virtue is knowledge and Arete is knowledge are used interchangeably. The highest human potential is knowledge and all other human abilities are derived from this central capacity, the Ancient Greeks applied the term to anything, for example, the excellence of a chimney, the excellence of a bull to be bred and the excellence of a man. The meaning of the word changes depending on what it describes, since everything has its own peculiar excellence and this way of thinking comes first from Plato, where it can be seen in the Allegory of the Cave. By the 5th and 4th centuries BC, arete as applied to men had developed to include quieter virtues, Plato attempted to produce a moral philosophy that incorporated this new usage, but it was in the work of Aristotle that the doctrine of arete found its fullest flowering. Aristotles Doctrine of the Mean is an example of his thinking. Arete has also used by Plato when talking about athletic training. Stephen G. Miller delves into this usage in his book Ancient Greek Athletics, Aristotle is quoted as deliberating between education towards arete. or those that are theoretical. Educating towards arete in this means that the boy would be educated towards things that are useful in life. But even Plato himself says that arete is not something that can be agreed upon and he says, Nor is there even an agreement about what constitutes arete, something that leads logically to a disagreement about the appropriate training for arete. It was commonly believed that the mind, body, and soul each had to be developed and prepared for a man to live a life of arete and this led to the thought that athletics had to be present in order to obtain arete. They did not need to consume ones life, merely exercise the body into the condition for arete, just like the mind. In Homers Iliad and Odyssey, arete is used mainly to describe heroes and nobles and their mobile dexterity, with reference to strength and courage. Penelopes arete, for example, relates to co-operation, for which she is praised by Agamemnon, the excellence of the gods generally included their power, but, in the Odyssey, the gods can grant excellence to a life, which is contextually understood to mean prosperity. Arete was also the name of King Alcinouss wife, according to Bernard Knoxs notes found in the Robert Fagles translation of The Odyssey, arete is also associated with the Greek word for pray, araomai
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Being
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Being is an extremely broad concept encompassing objective and subjective features of reality and existence. Anything that partakes in being is called a being, though often this usage is limited to entities that have subjectivity. The notion of being has, inevitably, been elusive and controversial in the history of philosophy, as an example of efforts in recent times, Martin Heidegger adopted German terms like Dasein to articulate the topic. Several modern approaches build on such continental European exemplars as Heidegger, and apply metaphysical results to the understanding of human psychology and the human condition generally. By contrast, in mainstream Analytical philosophy the topic is more confined to abstract investigation, in the work of influential theorists as W. V. O. Quine. One most fundamental question that continues to exercise philosophers is put by William James, from nothing to being there is no logical bridge. The deficit of such a bridge was first encountered in history by the Pre-Socratic philosophers during the process of evolving a classification of all beings, Aristotle, who wrote after the Pre-Socratics, applies the term category to ten highest-level classes. They comprise one category of substance existing independently and nine categories of accidents, in Aristotle, substances are to be clarified by stating their definition, a note expressing a larger class followed by further notes expressing specific differences within the class. The substance so defined was a species, for example, the species, man, may be defined as an animal that is rational. As the difference is potential within the genus, that is, an animal may or may not be rational, the difference is not identical to, and may be distinct from, the genus. Applied to being, the system fails to arrive at a definition for the reason that no difference can be found. The species, the genus, and the difference are all equally being, the genus cannot be nothing because nothing is not a class of everything. The trivial solution that being is being added to nothing is only a tautology, there is no simpler intermediary between being and non-being that explains and classifies being. Pre-Socratic reaction to this deficit was varied, as substance theorists they accepted a priori the hypothesis that appearances are deceiving, that reality is to be reached through reasoning. Parmenides reasoned that if everything is identical to being and being is a category of the thing then there can be neither differences between things nor any change. To be different, or to change, would amount to becoming or being non-being, therefore, being is a homogeneous and non-differentiated sphere and the appearance of beings is illusory. Heraclitus, on the hand, foreshadowed modern thought by denying existence. Reality does not exist, it flows, and beings are an illusion upon the flow, what being is, is just the question, what is substance
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Cosmos
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The cosmos is the universe regarded as a complex and orderly system, the opposite of chaos. Cosmology is the study of the cosmos in several of the above meanings, all cosmologies have in common an attempt to understand the implicit order within the whole of being. In this way, most religions and philosophical systems have a cosmology, Cosmology is a branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of the universe, a theory or doctrine describing the natural order of the universe. The basic definition of Cosmology is the science of the origin, in modern astronomy the Big Bang theory is the dominant postulation. In physical cosmology, the cosmos is often used in a technical way. Our particular cosmos, the universe, is generally capitalized as the Cosmos. According to Charles Peter Mason in Sir William Smith Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Pythagoreans described the universe. It appears, in fact, from this, as well as from the extant fragments, the second book appears to have been an exposition of the nature of numbers, which in the Pythagorean theory are the essence and source of all things. In theology, the cosmos is the heavenly bodies. In Christian theology, the word is used synonymously with aion to refer to worldly life or this world or this age as opposed to the afterlife or World to Come. The book The works of Aristotle mentioned Aristotle says the poet Orpheus never existed, bertrand Russel noted The Orphics were an ascetic sect, wine, to them, was only a symbol, as, later, in the Christian sacrament. The intoxication that they sought was that of enthusiasm, of union with the god and they believed themselves, in this way, to acquire mystic knowledge not obtainable by ordinary means. This mystical element entered into Greek philosophy with Pythagoras, who was a reformer of Orphism as Orpheus was a reformer of the religion of Dionysus, from Pythagoras Orphic elements entered into the philosophy of Plato, and from Plato into most later philosophy that was in any degree religious. Cosmos – Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cosmos and Cosmic Law Greene, B, the Elegant Universe, Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. Norton, New York Hawking, S. W, yulsman, T. Origins, The Quest for our Cosmic Roots
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Demiurge
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In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge is an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. The term was adopted by the Gnostics, depending on the system, they may be considered to be either uncreated and eternal, or considered to be the product of some other entity. The philosophical usage and the proper noun derive from Platos Timaeus, written c.360 BC and this is accordingly the definition of the demiurge in the Platonic and Middle Platonic philosophical traditions. In the various branches of the Neoplatonic school, the demiurge is the fashioner of the real, perceptible world after the model of the Ideas, Plato, as the speaker Timaeus, refers to the Demiurge frequently in the Socratic dialogue Timaeus, c.360 BC. The main character refers to the Demiurge as the entity who fashioned and shaped the material world, Timaeus describes the Demiurge as unreservedly benevolent, and hence desirous of a world as good as possible. The world remains imperfect, however, because the Demiurge created the world out of a chaotic, Platos work Timaeus is a philosophical reconciliation of Hesiods cosmology in his Theogony, syncretically reconciling Hesiod to Homer. In Numeniuss Neo-Pythagorean and Middle Platonist cosmogony, the Demiurge is second God as the nous or thought of intelligibles and sensibles, Plotinus and the later Platonists worked to clarify the Demiurge. To Plotinus, the second emanation represents a second cause. In order to reconcile Aristotelian with Platonian philosophy, Plotinus metaphorically identified the demiurge within the pantheon of the Greek Gods as Zeus, the first and highest aspect of God is described by Plato as the One, the source, or the Monad. This is the God above the Demiurge, and manifests through the work of the Demiurge, the Monad emanated the demiurge or Nous from its indeterminate vitality due to the monad being so abundant that it overflowed back onto itself, causing self-reflection. This self-reflection of the indeterminate vitality was referred to by Plotinus as the Demiurge or creator, the second principle is organization in its reflection of the nonsentient force or dynamis, also called the one or the Monad. Plotinus form of Platonic idealism is to treat the Demiurge, nous as the contemplative faculty within man which orders the force into conscious reality. In this he claimed to reveal Platos true meaning, a doctrine he learned from Platonic tradition that did not appear outside the academy or in Platos text. This tradition of creator God as nous, can be validated in the works of philosophers such as Numenius. Before Numenius of Apamea and Plotinus Enneads, no Platonic works ontologically clarified the Demiurge from the allegory in Platos Timaeus. The idea of Demiurge was, however, addressed before Plotinus in the works of Christian writer Justin Martyr who built his understanding of the Demiurge on the works of Numenius. The figure of the Demiurge emerges in the theoretic of Iamblichus, here, at the summit of this system, the Source and Demiurge coexist via the process of henosis. The One is further separated into spheres of intelligence, the first and superior sphere is objects of thought, then within this intellectual triad Iamblichus assigns the third rank to the Demiurge, identifying it with the perfect or Divine nous with the intellectual triad being promoted to a hebdomad
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Potentiality and actuality
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The concept of potentiality, in this context, generally refers to any possibility that a thing can be said to have. Aristotle did not consider all possibilities the same, and emphasized the importance of those that become real of their own accord when conditions are right and nothing stops them. Actuality, in contrast to potentiality, is the motion, change or activity that represents an exercise or fulfillment of a possibility and these concepts, in modified forms, remained very important into the middle ages, influencing the development of medieval theology in several ways. This is most obvious in words like energy and dynamic--words first used in physics by the German scientist and philosopher. Another example is the concept of an entelechy. Potentiality and potency are translations of the Ancient Greek word dunamis as it is used by Aristotle as a concept contrasting with actuality and its Latin translation is potentia, root of the English word potential, and used by some scholars instead of the Greek or English variants. Dunamis is an ordinary Greek word for possibility or capability, in early modern philosophy, English authors like Hobbes and Locke used the English word power as their translation of Latin potentia. In his philosophy, Aristotle distinguished two meanings of the word dunamis, for example, sometimes we say that those who can merely take a walk, or speak, without doing it as well as they intended, cannot speak or walk. This stronger sense is mainly said of the potentials of living things and he treats these as having a different and more real existence. The potencies which persist in a material are one way of describing the nature itself of that material. Actuality is often used to translate both energeia and entelecheia, actuality comes from Latin actualitas and is a traditional translation, but its normal meaning in Latin is anything which is currently happening. The two words energeia and entelecheia were coined by Aristotle, and he stated that their meanings were intended to converge, in practice, most commentators and translators consider the two words to be interchangeable. They both refer to something being in its own type of action or at work, as all things are when they are real in the fullest sense, and not just potentially real. For example, to be a rock is to strain to be at the center of the universe, energeia is a word based upon ἔργον, meaning work. It is difficult to translate his use of energeia into English with consistency, Joe Sachs renders it with the phrase being–at–work and says that we might construct the word is-at-work-ness from Anglo-Saxon roots to translate energeia into English. Aristotle says the word can be clear by looking at examples rather than trying to find a definition. Two examples of energeiai in Aristotles works are pleasure and happiness, pleasure is an energeia of the human body and mind whereas happiness is more simply the energeia of a human being a human. Kinesis, translated as movement, motion, or in some change, is also explained by Aristotle as a particular type of energeia
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Episteme
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Plato contrasts episteme with doxa, common belief or opinion. Episteme is also distinguished from techne, a craft or applied practice, the word epistemology is derived from episteme. In subsequent writings, he made it clear that several epistemes may co-exist and interact at the same time, the episteme is the ‘apparatus’ which makes possible the separation, not of the true from the false, but of what may from what may not be characterised as scientific. Foucaults use of episteme has been asserted as being similar to Thomas Kuhns notion of a paradigm, moreover, Kuhns concept seems to correspond to what Foucault calls theme or theory of a science, but Foucault analysed how opposing theories and themes could co-exist within a science. Kuhn doesnt search for the conditions of possibility of opposing discourses within a science, Kuhns and Foucaults notions are both influenced by the French philosopher of science Gaston Bachelards notion of an epistemological rupture, as indeed was Althusser. In 1997, Judith Butler used the concept of episteme in her book Excitable Speech, truth is a thing of this world, it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it induces regular effects of power, Foucault, Michel, LArchéologie du savoir, Paris, Gallimard. Foucault, Michel, Les Mots et Les Choses, New York, Vintage
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Ethos
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Ethos is a Greek word meaning character that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence emotions, behaviours, Early Greek stories of Orpheus exhibit this idea in a compelling way. The words use in rhetoric is closely based on the Greek terminology used by Aristotle in his concept of the three artistic proofs, Ethos is a Greek word originally meaning accustomed place, custom, habit, equivalent to Latin mores. Ethos forms the root of ethikos, meaning moral, showing moral character, used as a verb in the neuter plural form ta ethika, used for the study of morals, it is the origin of the modern English word ethics. In modern usage, ethos denotes the disposition, character, or fundamental values particular to a person, people, corporation, culture. For example, the poet and critic T. S. Eliot wrote in 1940 that the ethos of the people they have to govern determines the behaviour of politicians. Similarly the historian Orlando Figes wrote in 1996 that in Soviet Russia of the 1920s the ethos of the Communist party dominated every aspect of public life, Ethos may change in response to new ideas or forces. the ethos of rapid development. In rhetoric, ethos is one of the three artistic proofs or modes of persuasion discussed by Aristotle in Rhetoric as a component of argument, speakers must establish ethos from the start. This can involve moral competence only, Aristotle however broadens the concept to include expertise, Ethos is limited, in his view, by what the speaker says. According to Aristotle, there are three categories of ethos, phronesis – practical skills & wisdom arete – virtue, goodness eunoia – goodwill towards the audience In a sense, ethos does not belong to the speaker but to the audience. Thus, it is the audience that determines whether a speaker is a high- or a low-ethos speaker, completely dismissing an argument based on any of the above violations of ethos is an informal fallacy. The argument may indeed be suspect, but is not, in itself, for Aristotle, a speakers ethos was a rhetorical strategy employed by an orator whose purpose was to inspire trust in his audience. While moral virtue comes about as a result of habit, whence also its name ethike is one that is formed by a variation from the word ethos. Crafting an ethos within such restrictive moral codes, therefore, meant adhering to membership of what Nancy Fraser, rather they are deceptions in the sophistic sense, recognitions of the ways one is positioned multiply differently. Rhetorical scholar Michael Halloran has argued that the understanding of ethos emphasizes the conventional rather than the idiosyncratic. According to Nedra Reynolds, ethos, like postmodern subjectivity, shifts and changes over time, across texts, however, Reynolds additionally discusses how one might clarify the meaning of ethos within rhetoric as expressing inherently communal roots. Rhetorical scholar John Oddo also suggests that ethos is negotiated across a community, in the era of mass-mediated communication, Oddo contends, ones ethos is often created by journalists and dispersed over multiple news texts. With this in mind, Oddo coins the term intertextual ethos, pittman writes, Unfortunately, in the history of race relations in America, black Americans ethos ranks low among other racial and ethnic groups in the United States
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Eudaimonia
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Etymologically, it consists of the words eu and daimōn. Discussion of the links between virtue of character and happiness is one of the concerns of ancient ethics. As a result there are varieties of eudaimonism. Two of the most influential forms are those of Aristotle and the Stoics, Aristotle takes virtue and its exercise to be the most important constituent in eudaimonia but acknowledges also the importance of external goods such as health, wealth, and beauty. By contrast, the Stoics make virtue necessary and sufficient for eudaimonia, everyone wants to be eudaimon, and everyone agrees that being eudaimon is related to faring well and to an individual’s well being. The really difficult question is to specify just what sort of activities enable one to live well, Aristotle presents various popular conceptions of the best life for human beings. The candidates that he mentions are a life of pleasure, a life of political activity, one important move in Greek philosophy to answer the question of how to achieve eudaimonia is to bring in another important concept in ancient philosophy, arete. Aristotle says that the life is one of “virtuous activity in accordance with reason”. And even Epicurus who argues that the life is the life of pleasure maintains that the life of pleasure coincides with the life of virtue. So the ancient ethical theorists tend to agree that virtue is closely bound up with happiness, however, they disagree on the way in which this is so. We shall consider the main theories in a moment, but first a warning about the translation of areté. As already noted, the Greek word areté is usually translated into English as virtue, one problem with this is that we are inclined to understand virtue in a moral sense, which is not always what the ancients had in mind. For a Greek, areté pertains to all sorts of qualities we would not regard as relevant to ethics, for example, physical beauty. So it is important to bear in mind that the sense of ‘virtue’ operative in ancient ethics is not exclusively moral and includes more than such as wisdom, courage. The sense of virtue which areté connotes would include saying something like speed is a virtue in a horse, doing anything well requires virtue, and each characteristic activity has its own set of virtues. The alternative translation excellence might be helpful in conveying this general meaning of the term, the moral virtues are simply a subset of the general sense in which a human being is capable of functioning well or excellently. What we know of Socrates philosophy is almost entirely derived from Platos writings, scholars typically divide Platos works into three periods, the early, middle, and late periods. This division will be employed here in dividing up the positions of Socrates, as with all other ancient ethical thinkers Socrates thought that all human beings wanted eudaimonia more than anything else
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Henosis
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Henosis is the classical Greek word for mystical oneness, union, or unity. In Platonism, and especially Neoplatonism, the goal of henosis is union with what is fundamental in reality, the One, the Neoplatonic concept has precedents in the Greek mystery religions as well as parallels in Eastern philosophy. It is further developed in the Corpus Hermeticum, in Christian theology, soteriology, the term is relatively common in classical texts, and has the meaning of union or unity. Henosis, orprimordial unity, is rational and deterministic, emanating from indeterminism an uncaused cause, each individual as a microcosm reflects the gradual ordering of the universe referred to as the macrocosm. In mimicking the demiurge, one unites with The One or Monad, thus the process of unification, of The Being, and The One, is called Henosis. The culmination of Henosis is deification, Henosis for Plotinus was defined in his works as a reversing of the ontological process of consciousness via meditation toward no thought and no division within the individual. As is specified in the writings of Plotinus on Henology, one can reach a tabula rasa and this absolute simplicity means that the nous or the person is then dissolved, completely absorbed back into the Monad. Within the Enneads of Plotinus the Monad can be referred to as the Good above the demiurge, the Monad or dunamis is of one singular expression all is contained in the Monad and the Monad is all. All division is reconciled in the one, the stage before reaching singularity, called duality, is completely reconciled in the Monad. As the one, source or substance of all things the Monad is all encompassing, as infinite and indeterminate all is reconciled in the dunamis or one. It is the demiurge or second emanation that is the nous in Plotinus and it is the demiurge or nous that perceives and therefore causes the force to manifest as energy, or the dyad called the material world. Nous as being, being and perception manifest what is called soul, Plotinus words his teachings to reconcile not only Plato with Aristotle but also various World religions that he had personal contact with during his various travels. Plotinus works have a character in that they reject matter as an illusion. Matter was strictly treated as immanent, with matter as essential to its being, having no true or transcendential character or essence, substance or ousia and this approach is called philosophical Idealism. Within the works of Iamblichus of Chalcis, The One and reconciliation of division can be obtained through the process of theurgy, by mimicking the demiurge, the individual is returned to the cosmos to implement the will of the divine mind. One goes through a series of theurgy or rituals that unites the initiate to the Monad and these rituals mimic the ordering of the chaos of the Universe into the material world or cosmos. Thus one without conflict internal or external is united and is The One, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but also in western mysticism, henosis can be acquired by theoria, hesychasm and contemplative prayer. Yet, the concept of theosis, or deification, differs from henosis, since created beings cannot become God in His transcendent essence, nondualism Absolute Apotheosis Fana Form of the Good Moksha Monolatrism The All Theosis http, //www. goddess-athena. org/Encyclopedia/Friends/Iamblichus/index. htm
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Hexis
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Hexis is a relatively stable arrangement or disposition, for example a persons health or knowledge or character. It is a Greek word, important in the philosophy of Aristotle and it stems from a verb related to possession or having, and Jacob Klein, for example, translates it as possession. It is more typically translated in modern texts occasionally as state, sachs points to Aristotles own distinction, explained for example in categories 8b, which distinguishes the word diathesis, normally uncontroversially translated as disposition. Another common example of a human hexis in Aristotle is health and in cases where hexis is discussed in the context of health, it is sometimes translated as constitution. Other uses also occur, for example it is translated as habit, based upon the classical translation from Greek to Latin habitus. Being in a fixed state, as opposed to being stable, is not implied in the original Aristotelian usage of this word. He uses the example of health being a hexis, so according to Aristotle, a hexis is a type of disposition which he in turn describes in the same as follows. And specifically it is the type of disposition in virtue of which the thing which is disposed is disposed well or badly, the wording in virtue of which was also described in the same passage. In Aristotle then, a hexis is an arrangement of such that the arrangement might have excellence, being well arranged, or in contrast. Also see Aristotles Categories viii where a hexis is contrasted with a disposition in terms of it being more permanent, in perhaps the most important case, Aristotle contrasted hexis with energeia at Nicomachean Ethics I. viii. 1098b33 and Eudemian Ethics II. i. 1218b
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Hylomorphism
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Hylomorphism is a philosophical theory developed by Aristotle, which conceives being as a compound of matter and form. The word is a 19th-century term formed from the Greek words ὕλη hyle, wood, matter and μορφή, morphē, Aristotle defines Xs matter as that out of which X is made. For example, letters are the matter of syllables, thus, matter is a relative term, an object counts as matter relative to something else. For example, clay is matter relative to a brick because a brick is made of clay, change is analyzed as a material transformation, matter is what undergoes a change of form. For example, consider a lump of bronze thats shaped into a statue, bronze is the matter, and this matter loses one form and gains a new form. According to Aristotles theory of perception, we perceive an object by receiving its form with our sense organs, thus, forms include complex qualia such as colors, textures, and flavors, not just shapes. Medieval philosophers who used Aristotelian concepts frequently distinguished between substantial forms and accidental forms, a substance necessarily possesses at least one substantial form. It may also possess a variety of accidental forms, for Aristotle, a substance is an individual thing—for example, an individual man or an individual horse. The substantial form of substance S consists of Ss essential properties, in contrast, Ss accidental forms are Ss non-essential properties, properties that S can lose or gain without changing into a different kind of substance. In some cases, a substances matter will itself be a substance, if substance A is made out of substance B, then substance B is the matter of substance A. However, what is the matter of a substance that is not made out of any other substance. According to Aristotelians, such a substance has only prime matter as its matter, prime matter is matter with no substantial form of its own. Thus, it can change into various kinds of substances without remaining any kind of all the time. Aristotle applies his theory of hylomorphism to living things and he defines a soul as that which makes a living thing alive. Life is a property of living things, just as knowledge, therefore, a soul is a form—that is, a specifying principle or cause—of a living thing. Furthermore, Aristotle says that a soul is related to its body as form to matter, hence, Aristotle argues, there is no problem in explaining the unity of body and soul, just as there is no problem in explaining the unity of wax and its shape. Just as a wax object consists of wax with a shape, so a living organism consists of a body with the property of life. On the basis of his theory, Aristotle rejects the Pythagorean doctrine of reincarnation. According to Timothy Robinson, it is unclear whether Aristotle identifies the soul with the bodys structure, according to one interpretation of Aristotle, a properly organized body is already alive simply by virtue of its structure
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Theory of forms
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Platos theory of Forms or theory of Ideas argues that non-physical forms represent the most accurate reality. When used in this sense, the form or idea is often capitalized. However, the theory is considered a classical solution to the problem of universals, the early Greek concept of form precedes attested philosophical usage and is represented by a number of words mainly having to do with vision, sight, and appearance. The words, εἶδος and ἰδέα come from the Indo-European root *weid-, eidos is already attested in texts of the Homeric era, the earliest Greek literature. This transliteration and the tradition of German and Latin lead to the expression theory of Ideas. The word is not the English idea, which is a mental concept only. The pre-Socratic philosophers, starting with Thales, noted that appearances change, the answer was substance, which stands under the changes and is the actually existing thing being seen. The status of appearances now came into question, what is the form really and how is that related to substance. Thus, the theory of matter and form was born, starting with at least Plato and possibly germinal in some of the presocratics the forms were considered as being in something else, which Plato called nature. The latter seemed as carved wood, ὕλη in Greek, corresponding to materia in Latin, from which the English word matter is derived, shaped by receiving forms. The Forms are expounded upon in Platos dialogues and general speech, in every object or quality in reality has a form, dogs, human beings, mountains, colors, courage, love. Form answers the question, What is that, Plato was going a step further and asking what Form itself is. He supposed that the object was essentially or really the Form and that the phenomena were mere shadows mimicking the Form, that is, momentary portrayals of the Form under different circumstances. For example, Parmenides states, Nor, again, if a person were to show that all is one by partaking of one, but if he were to show me that the absolute one was many, or the absolute many one, I should be truly amazed. Matter is considered particular in itself, for Plato, forms, such as beauty, are more real than any object that imitate them. Though the forms are timeless and unchanging, physical things are in a constant change of existence, where forms are unqualified perfection, physical things are qualified and conditioned. These Forms are the essences of various objects, they are that without which a thing would not be the kind of thing it is. For example, there are tables in the world but the Form of tableness is at the core
