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1. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 30 > Issue: 1/2
Editor's Foreword
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on universals
2. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 30 > Issue: 1/2
Paolo Crivelli The One-Over-Many Argument and Common Things
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In On Ideas, Aristotle presents and criticizes an argument for ideas referred to as “the One-over-Many.” On the basis of an uncontroversial fact concerning a group (for instance, the fact that each of the many men is a man), the One-over-Many infers that there is something predicated of each of the members of the group (for instance, that there is something predicated of each of the many men). It then tries to show that the thing predicated in common is an idea. Aristotle criticises this argument by claiming that if it were sound it would show that there are ideas of negations, a result which the Platonists should reject. Since Aristotle himself refuses the existence of “common things,” i.e., Aristotelian universals, of negations, he is committed to the view that the One-over-Many fails to prove the existence not only of ideas, but also of “common things.”
3. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 30 > Issue: 1/2
Gyula Klima Aquinas vs. Buridan on the Universality of Human Concepts and the Immateriality of the Human Intellect
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Under the traditional classification of medieval positions on the issue of universals, both Aquinas and Buridan would have to be deemed to be “conceptualists”: they both deny the existence of mind-independent, Platonic universals (against “realists”), and they both attribute universality primarily to the representative function of our universal concepts, and thus only secondarily to universal names of human languages (against “nominalists”). Yet, Aquinas is quite appropriately classified as a “moderate realist,” and Buridan as an “Ockhamist nominalist.” This paper will argue that what justifies these more refined classifications is the two authors’ radically different conceptions of the representative function of our universal concepts. The paper will show how this difference results in their opposing judgments concerning the demonstrability of the thesis of the immateriality of the human intellect and will reply to Buridan’s main objection to Aquinas’s argument for this thesis, by pointing out the objection’s conflation of merely indifferent, non-distinctive singular representation with genuinely universal intellectual representation. In its conclusion, the paper will briefly gesture at an important contemporary implication of Aquinas’s thesis concerning a metaphysical limitation of artificial intelligence.
4. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 30 > Issue: 1/2
Marco Sgarbi Before Kant: Universals in German Enlightenment
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The paper deals with the problems of universals in German Enlightenment before Kant. The first part reconstructs the sources of the problem of universals, focusing in particular on Leibniz and Locke. The second part examines the early eclectic positions of Brucker, Baumgarten, Hollmann and Crusius. In the fourth part the essay investigates the relation between universals and the various combinatorial projects like those of Ploucquet and Lambert.
5. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 30 > Issue: 1/2
Guido Imaguire What Is the Problem of Universals About?
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The Problem of Universals is one of the oldest problems of metaphysics. And still, there is no agreement, neither about its nor about its . What is the most adequate formulation of the problem? And what kind of explanation does it require? My aim in this paper is to offer an overview of these two basic questions in the contemporary debate. I will present the four most important formulations (section 1), discuss their connections (section 2) and how the three most prominent are related to these formulations (section 3). We will see that, despite the long history of the problem, in recent years new formulations and approaches have been proposed which may open up original perspectives on its solution.
articles
6. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 30 > Issue: 1/2
Leonel Ribeiro dos Santos, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Acerca do Ente e do Uno (De Ente et Uno).: Tradução, Apresentação e Notas
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We propose here the first translation into Portuguese of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s small treatise De Ente et Uno (1491). The translation is preceded by a brief presentation in which the work is contextualized within the scope of the thought of its young author and in the Florentine philosophical environment of the end of the Quattrocento. In the aftermath of the controversies between defenders of Plato and defenders of Aristotle, a quarrel brought by Greek and Byzantine intellectuals into Italy, who exacerbated the differences between the two philosophers, there were also others who tried to show the essential concord between them, a purpose of which Pico’s treatise is one of the most expressive and relevant documents, seeking to prove the equivalence between Plato’s One and Aristotle’s Being.
7. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 30 > Issue: 1/2
Sacha Zilber Kontic Visão do infinito, visão no infinito: a prova ontológica e a distinção entre sentimento e ideia em Malebranche
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The present article aims to analyze the relation between the finitude of the soul and the perception of the infinite in Malebranche’s philosophy. We will initially address the relationship that Malebranche establishes between the spirit and God through the simple vue proof of the existence of God, and the subsequent infinitesimal perception that follows from this immediate apprehension of the infinite. We will then turn specifically to the function that the idea of the infinite plays for Malebranchean theory of perception. On the basis of this analysis, it will become clear how the infinite is not only perceived by the spirit, but also how it becomes, after the introduction of the notion of intelligible extension, a structuring part of perception.
8. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 30 > Issue: 1/2
Brent Delaney Do Humean Relations Exist?
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Since the publication of Hume’s Treatise, scholars have been divided on how to interpret the ontology of Humean relations. In particular, is Hume’s theory of relations consistent with positivism, (skeptical) realism, or anti-realism? In this essay, I propose a novel distinction separating impressions and ideas from relations such that relations are construed as forming a distinct category equal to impressions and ideas. In so doing, I interpret Hume as fundamentally agnostic toward the ontology of relations.
9. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 30 > Issue: 1/2
David Batho Addiction, Identity, and Disempowerment
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Supposing that addicts choose to act as they do, rather than being compelled to behave in particular ways, what explains the choices that they make? Hannah Pickard has recently pointed out that we can go a long way to answering this question if we can make sense of why addicts value the ends they pursue. She argues that addiction is a social identity that gives purpose and structure to life and that the choices that addicts make are valuable to them as ways of sustaining this social identity. But if addicts freely make choices towards ends that they perceive as valuable in terms of a social identity to which they contribute, and therefore if addiction involves the deployment of quite considerable agential apparatus, how are we to hold on to the natural assumption that addictions are disempowering? In this paper I present an answer to this question. Drawing on the resources of the phenomenological tradition, I argue that some social identities give purpose and structure to life in a way that inhibits, rather than enables, the exercise of a capacity that is central to our form of life. I elaborate the hypothesis that paradigmatic cases of addiction involve this sort of disempowering social identity.
book review
10. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 30 > Issue: 1/2
Luisa Ribeiro Ferreira Fernanda Henriques, Martha Nussbaum: Uma filosofia comprometida com a cidade
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11. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 29 > Issue: 58
Filipa Afonso Editorial
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artigos
12. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 29 > Issue: 58
António Rocha Martins Neoplatonismo Político Medieval: Receção de Proclo
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The political foundation tends to be consummated to the exact extent that any referent of theological content is completely excluded. Constantly associated with the intelligible and with the ideal of deifying man, neither Neoplatonism nor medieval thought could contemplate any reference of political content. This article aims to show precisely that the medieval reception of Proclus, simultaneously with the mediation of Pseudo-Dionysus, reveals a political meaning present in the thought of the Greek Neoplatonic philosopher. Specifically, it examines the way in which Proclus is used by the ecclesiological--political discourse of the last third of the 13th century, seeking to find in him the foundation and legitimacy for a form of government (monarchical-absolutist).
13. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 29 > Issue: 58
Paulo Borges «[...] de olhos abertos não viu nada, e este nada era Deus»: A visão/experiência de Deus em Mestre Eckhart
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This study aims to show how Meister Eckhart’s commentary on the ecstasy of St Paul is a good starting point for understanding the multiple aspects of his mystical-metaphysical experience of divinity as “nothingness” (Nichts), as the absence of determinations that is the abyssal ground without ground of all possible determinations.
14. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 29 > Issue: 58
Maria Luísa Ribeiro Ferreira Cudworth, um filósofo em contra corrente
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In the European philosophical tradition there is a dialogue between two different guidelines - objectivity and the appeal to symbolic and allegoric thought. In the 17th century science plays a dominant part but mystery and hermetism are also present. Ralph Cudworth represents this line of thought as he deals with the relations between reason and faith, philosophy and theology, spirit and matter, innatism and experience. Cudworth tried to establish links between the Cabala and ancient and modern thought, establishing a dialogue with philosophers such as Descartes, Hobbes, Espinosa, Locke and Leibniz. While trying to conciliate different points of view, he strived in the search of universal truths that would satisfy everybody.
15. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 29 > Issue: 58
Nuno Ornelas Martins Adam Smith and the Cambridge Platonists
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Adam Smith is usually seen as the founding father of modern economics, interpreted as a science that explains human agency in terms of the pursuit of egoistic self-interest. But a reading of Smith’s writings on moral sentiments shows how critical he was of explanations of society which focus solely on self-interest. When engaging in a critique of those individualistic explanations, Smith refers to the criticism that Thomas Hobbes received from the Cambridge Platonists, who argued against the fatalist view of the human agent driven solely by self-interest. Here the connections between Smith’s view and the Cambridge Platonists are further explored, while also assessing its implications for the common interpretation of Adam Smith as the founding father of modern economics.
16. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 29 > Issue: 58
Diogo Ferrer Sobre a Interpretação do Neoplatonismo por Hegel
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This article shows that Hegel was a pioneer in the rediscovery of Neoplatonism, and that this rediscovery was an important influence on his thought. The importance of Neoplatonism in the early period of Hegel’s thought is addressed, when the Neoplatonic influence is apparent in themes such as the absolute as an original unity, the oppositions produced by the reflective thought, love as synthesis of the finite and the infinite, the importance of the first two hypotheses of Plato’s Parmenides, the concept of a “trinitarian” process of separation and return from the finite into the absolute, and the need of a via negationis for the thought of the absolute. The interpretations of Plotinus and Proclus in Hegel’s Lessons on the History of Philosophy are thereupon studied. Proclus is understood as the culmination of ancient philosophy, as he both anticipates and influences Hegel on issues such as the relationship between the negative-rational and the positive-rational or speculative moment of the Hegelian method, the categories as an expression of the absolute or the nous as a third moment that develops the determinations of the absolute and prepares the return to it. Finally, Hegel emphasizes that other main philosophical elements for the understanding of Modernity, which were inaccessible to Neoplatonism, are a contribution of Christianism.
17. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 29 > Issue: 58
Magda Costa Carvalho Apresença de Plotino no pensamento de Henri Bergson: arqueologia de uma relação
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Henri Bergson’s statements on Plotinus are an interesting case-study for his readers, contrasting between an avowed sympathy (in the Courses at the Collège de France) and an almost absence of references (in his writings). While Bergson-the-professor is interested in the study of Plotinus’ work for its own sake, Bergson-the-philosopher identifies the Neoplatonist with the matrix of an entire metaphysical body of knowledge: the Ancient Greek philosophy. The article seeks to highlight the articulation between the professor and the philosopher, exploring the scope of Plotinian influences in the construction and consolidation (albeit implicit) of Bergson’s thought - whether by adherence or demarcation -, focusing on three essential concepts: soul, sympathy, and causality.
18. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 29 > Issue: 58
Oscar Federico Bauchwitz Heidegger e o Neoplatonismo
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In Heidegger’s extensive work, the presence of mentions and analyzes dedicated to recognizably Neoplatonic authors is minimal. It is proposed, then, to investigate the reception of Neoplatonism by Heidegger from a metaphysical perspective, confronting a part of Neoplatonism - medieval Christian - to the criticism carried out by Heidegger about the history of metaphysics, characterized by the forgetfulness of being and by its onto-theological constitution, taking as a hypothesis that it is possible to discern a certain primacy of a negativity in Neoplatonic metaphysics that allows evading Heidegger’s critique. As the world, god and the human being are thought of from a perspective that goes beyond traditional ontology and theology, based on a notion of thought and language, it is expected to highlight the proximity between Neoplatonic and Heideggerian metaphysics. From this hypothesis, an attempt is made to present the thoughts of three significant representatives of medieval and Christian Neoplatonism, namely, John Scottus Eriugena, Meister Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa.
19. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 29 > Issue: 58
António Rocha Martins Receção do Neoplatonismo em Pierre Hadot
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The Neoplatonic reference nuclearly condenses a historically consolidated proposal for the intelligibility of Philosophy. Characterizing the philosophical meaning inherent in the original formation of Neoplatonism, Pierre Hadot develops a perspective according to which Philosophy is equivalent to the existential configuration of texts produced in classical antiquity. In the present study, there are three moments of reflection: 1. the relationship of mutual determination between philosophy and philosophical discourse; 2. Neoplatonism as an articulation and proclamation of the “age of the text”, (exegesis), being formed according to a “textual” teaching method; 3. The fundamental concepts of Neoplatonism, which emphasizes and notes the Porphyry perspective between being as «infinitive» and being as «participle», becoming a historical moment that clearly operates the distinction between being and entity, it is, being as “subject first” and being “without subject”.
20. Philosophica: International Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume > 29 > Issue: 57
Vinícius França Freitas O Ceticismo de George Berkeley na Leitura de Thomas Reid
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The paper advances two hypotheses concerning Thomas Reid’s reading of George Berkeley’s immaterialist system. First, it is argued that, on Reid’s view, Berkeley is skeptic about the existence of the objects of the material world, not in virtue of a doubt about the senses but for his adoption of the principle that ideas are the immediate objects of the operations of mind. On Reid’s view, that principle is a skeptical principle by its own nature. Secondly, it is argued that Berkeley really accepts in his system the notion of ‘idea’ such as Reid understands it, namely, as an entity distinct from mind and its operations.