Body And Soul In Ancient Philosophy By Gesellschaft Fur Antike Philosophie. Kongress Dorothea Frede Burkhard Reis

564 Pages·1999·1.8 MB·English

by  Dorothea Frede and Burkhard Reis

Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy
≥

Body and Soul
in Ancient Philosophy
Edited by
Dorothea Frede and Burkhard Reis
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
(cid:2)(cid:2) Printedonacid-freepaperwhichfallswithin
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ISBN 978-3-11-020236-6
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie. Kongress (2nd : 2007 : University of
Hamburg)
Body and soul in ancient philosophy / edited by Dorothea Frede and
BurkhardReis.
p.cm.
“This volume contains a collection of papers presented at the Second
International Conference of the Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie e.V.
(GANPH)attheUniversityofHamburgfrom18to21July2007”-Pref.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-3-11-020236-6(hardcover:alk.paper)
1. Mindandbody-Congresses. 2. Soul-Congresses. 3. An-
cientphilosophy-Congresses. I.Frede,Dorothea,1941- II.Reis,
Burkhard. III.Title.
B105.M53G47 2007
1281.1093-dc22
2009027593
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Preface
This volume contains a collection of papers presented at the Second In-
ternational Conference of the Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie e.V.
(GANPH) at the University of Hamburg from 18 to 21 July 2007.
The relationship between the body and soul was chosen as the theme
for this conference because this issue was a key topic in the debates
among philosophers from the Archaic period to the beginnings of
early Christianity, and has not ceased to be of interest since antiquity.
In recent decades, however, discussion of the so-called mind-body
problem has intensified enormously due to the rapid progress of the
neurosciences, which has led to a more differentiated understanding
of theconnectionsandrelationshipbetweenphysiologicalandcognitive
processes. The question of the unity or duality of mind and brain has
therefore become one of the most controversial topics within and be-
tween the fields of philosophy, psychology, neurophysiology, and relat-
ed disciplines. Even if the philosophers in antiquity had no conception
of the complex processes underlying neurophysiology, they did antici-
pate key questions that are still at the center of attention nowadays.
The conference was made possible thanks to the financial contribu-
tions of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the University of Ham-
burg,theZEIT-Stiftung,andof theHamburgischeStiftungfürWissen-
schaften, Entwicklung und Kultur Helmut und Hannelore Greve. The
staffof theofficeof theGesellschaftfürantikePhilosophieprovidedor-
ganizational and planning assistance in preparing for the conference.
The fact that the conference itself progressed not only without a
break-down, but also to the participants’ expressed satisfaction, is due
to the careful planning and supervision of Dr. Burkhard Reis at all
stages, and also to the initiative and untiring support provided by the
conference assistants on the spot. Profound thanks are extended to all
organisations and persons who contributed to the success of the confer-
ence, notleastto thespeakers andto thefaithful andattentive audience.
Regrettably, due to page limitations, not all of the presentations de-
livered at the conference could be included in this volume. The neces-
sary limitations did not permit the inclusion of contributions by the fif-
teen younger scholars who were selected as speakers via a ‘call for pa-
pers’. Since the omitted presentations constituted valuable additions to
VI Preface
the program and were well received by the audience, it is to be hoped
that these contributions will be published in some other form.
This volume does not follow the program of the conference, where
thevarioussectionswereorganizedaccordingtospecificthemes.Thisis
due not only to the fact that there are no firm boundaries between the
various topics anyway, but also because readers who are interested in
tracing the influence of individual philosophers and their schools will
undoubtedly regard a chronological order of presentation as more use-
ful.
Special thanks are due to all of the authors whose papers are includ-
ed in this collection, not only for their individual contributions to the
success of the conference, but also for agreeing to revise their papers
for publication and making the extra effort to add bibliographical infor-
mation and indices. The editorial work for this volume was shouldered
by Stella Haffmans and Dr. Burkhard Reis; it is a pleasure to acknowl-
edge the care and conscientiousness with which they went about this
task.Lastly,Iwishtothankthepublishingcompany,WalterdeGruyter,
for turning the collection of manuscripts into a published volume.
Unlessindicatedotherwiseancientauthorsandworksarereferredto
according to the abbreviations listed in the Greek-English Lexicon of
Liddell, Scott & Jones, the Oxford Latin Dictionary and the Patristic
Greek Lexicon of Lampe.
Berkeley, March 2009 Dorothea Frede
Contents
Introduction ....................................... 1
I. Presocratics
Carl Huffman
The Pythagorean conception of the soul from Pythagoras to
Philolaus .......................................... 21
Christian Sch(cid:144)fer
DasPythagorasfragmentdesXenophanesunddieFragenachder
Kritik der Metempsychosenlehre ....................... 45
Brad Inwood
Empedocles and metempsych(cid:252)sis: The critique of Diogenes of
Oenoanda ......................................... 71
Anthony A. Long
Heraclitus on measure and the explicit emergence of rationality 87
Georg Rechenauer
Demokrits Seelenmodell und die Prinzipien der atomistischen
Physik ............................................ 111
II. Plato
David Sedley
Three kinds of Platonic immortality ..................... 145
Michael Erler
„Denn mit Menschen sprechen wir und nicht mit Göttern“.
Platonische und epikureische epimeleia tÞs psychÞs ........... 163
Gyburg Radke-Uhlmann
Die energeia des Philosophen – zur Einheit von literarischem
Dialog und philosophischer Argumentation in Platons Phaidon. 179
VIII Contents
Jan Szaif
Die aretÞ des Leibes: Die Stellung der Gesundheit in Platons
Güterlehre ......................................... 205
III. Aristotle
G(cid:240)nther Patzig
Körper und Geist bei Aristoteles –
zum Problem des Funktionalismus ...................... 249
Christopher Shields
The priority of soul in Aristotle’s De anima: Mistaking
categories? ......................................... 267
David Charles
Aristotle on desire and action .......................... 291
Friedemann Buddensiek
Aristoteles’ Zirbeldrüse? Zum Verhältnis von Seele und pneuma
in Aristoteles’ Theorie der Ortsbewegung der Lebewesen .... 309
Ursula Wolf
Aporieninderaristotelischen KonzeptiondesBeherrschtenund
des Schlechten ...................................... 331
IV. Academy
John Dillon
How does the soul direct the body, after all? Traces of a dispute
on mind-body relations in the Old Academy .............. 349
V. Hellenism
Keimpe Algra
Stoics on souls and demons: Reconstructing Stoic demonology 359
Tad Brennan
Stoic souls in Stoic corpses ............................ 389
Contents IX
Christopher Gill
Galen and the Stoics: What each could learn from the other
about embodied psychology ........................... 409
Martha C. Nussbaum
Philosophical norms and political attachments: Cicero and
Seneca ............................................ 425
VI. Philosophers of Early Christianity
Jonathan Barnes
Anima Christiana .................................... 447
Therese Fuhrer
Der Geist im vollkommenen Körper. Ein Gedankenexperiment
in Augustins De civitate dei 22 .......................... 465
Theo Kobusch
Die Auferstehung des Leibes ........................... 493
Bibliography ....................................... 511
Introduction
1 The topic
Thebody-soulproblemisnotaninventionofmodernity,buthasalong
history that can be traced back to the early age of Greek culture. The
problem is also not confined to Greek culture: ever since humankind
has been able to think at all it has been confronted by the question of
what happens at the moment of death, when life is extinguished with
the last breath. Whether the ‘exhalation’ of life means the end of
human existence, or something remains that becomes separate from
the body at the moment of death, is therefore an existential question
that has receivedand still receives different answers in different cultures.
In Greek as well as Latin the association of the word ‘soul’ with the
breath of life is already clear from etymology: the Greek word for
soul, psychÞ, just like its Latin counterpart, anima, originally meant
‘breath/breeze’ or ‘wind’. The notion that this breath should have a
continued existence is already present in Homer, who reserves the
name of ‘psychÞ’ for the souls of the dead. Exactly when the word
‘soul’ came to designate not only the principle of life in the living or-
ganism but also to apply to all psycho-physical faculties is still a matter
of controversy, in view of the scarcity of sources dating from the 7th
and 6th centuries BC. But even the much richer material provided by
the poets of the 5th century does not present a unified picture. Because
there was no orthodoxy in Greek religion, no firm set of convictions
emerged over the centuries concerning the nature of the soul and its
fate after death. The literary sources from the Archaic age through
late antiquity therefore present a diffuse picture of belief and unbelief,
of fear and hope. The artwork and other archaeological artefacts dating
from these periods provide vivid testimonies to this state of affairs, as is
witnessedbytheimagereproducedinthepostersandinvitationsforthe
conference, as well as on the jacket of the volume itself: painted on a
white-grounded lekythos by the ‘Sabouroff-painter’ sometime in the
5th century, this image on this grave-offering depicts the God Hermes,
with his emblematic traveller’s hat and staff, as he guides a dead young