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A New Perspective on Antisthenes

A New Perspective on Antisthenes

Logos, Predicate and Ethics in his Philosophy

  • Author: Meijer, Piet; Aksoycan, Inge; Stork, Peter
  • Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
  • ISBN: 9789462982987
  • eISBN Pdf: 9789048532957
  • Place of publication:  Amsterdam , Netherlands
  • Year of digital publication: 2017
  • Month: January
  • Pages: 270
  • Language: English
Antisthenes (c. 445- c. 365 BC), was a prominent follower of Socrates and bitter rival of Plato. In this revisionary account of his philosophy in all its aspects, P. A. Meijer claims that Plato and Aristotle have corrupted our perspective on this witty and ingenious thinker. The first part of the book reexamines afresh Antisthenes' ideas about definition and predication and concludes from these that Antisthenes never held the (in)famous theory that contradiction is impossible. The second part of the book argues that Antisthenes' logical theories bear directly on his activities as an exegete of Homer and hence as a theological thinker. Part three, finally, offers innovative readings of Antisthenes' ethical fragments.
  • Cover
  • Contents
  • Preface
  • Abbreviations
  • Primary sources – editions used
  • Introduction
    • 1 Antisthenes’ status
    • 2 The importance of Antisthenes’ philosophical views
  • Part I – Logos and predicate
    • Chapter I. Contradiction
      • 1 Did Antisthenes claim that there is no such thing as contradiction?
      • 2 Was Antisthenes the first theoretician of the predicate?
      • 3 Aristotle contra Antisthenes
      • 4 A ‘mad’ contradictor
      • 5 Antisthenes and ouden legein
      • 6 Aristotle’s unconvincing rejoinder
      • 7 The silver‒tin analogy
      • 8 The Antistheneans
      • 9 Was makros logos an unusual notion?
      • 10 The enumerative definition
        • 1 Was the enumerative definition a trouvaille of the Antistheneans?
        • 2 Does ‘one cannot say what a thing is’ conflict with Antisthenes’ own view?
      • 11 Antisthenes’ followers and teaching
      • 12 Aristotle’s to ti ēn einai (τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι) and the ‘was’ (ἦν) of Antisthenes’ explanation of logos
      • 13 The imperfect tense in the logos formula, why not also a future tense?
    • Chapter II. Investigation of names
      • 1 Name (onoma)
      • 2 An example of the investigation of a name (polytropos)
      • 3 The logos formula reconsidered
      • 4 Brancacci’s solution to the imperfect ἦν
      • 5 An interim assessment: Antisthenes contra Plato?
      • 6 Reconsideration of the issue of contradiction (Plato’s Euthydemus)
      • 7 ‘To speak falsely’ (ψεύδεσθαι)
      • 8 ‘Nearly’ (σχεδόν)
      • 9 Antisthenes’ teaching practice
      • 10 Appendix I: Guthrie’s systematic survey
  • Part II – Antisthenes’ views on theology: His theoretical approach to the study of Homer
    • Chapter I. Theology
      • 1 Antisthenes and monotheism: was Antisthenes the first monotheist?
      • 2 Aphrodite’s case
      • 3 Pleasure as background to theological issues
      • 4 Antisthenes and the popular gods
    • Chapter II. Antisthenes’ scientific approach to the study of Homer
      • 1 Polytropos
        • 1 Section 1
        • 2 Section 2 (lysis)
        • 3 Section 3
      • 2 Commentary on the sections
        • 1 Strange section 3
        • 2 Antisthenes’ logical style
        • 3 Argumentation in Section 2
        • 4 Section 3 revisited
      • 3 Aristotle corrected
    • Chapter III. Antisthenes’ interpretation of other Homeric figures
      • 1 A critical observation: Antisthenes in favour of Homer and the Cyclopes
      • 2 Calypso
      • 3 Other places in Homer: On Wine
  • Part III – Antisthenean ethics
    • Chapter I. Ethics and myth
      • 1 Introduction: moral strength
      • 2 Heracles: ethics and paideia
      • 3 Heracles and heavenly matters
      • 4 Heracles and money
      • 5 Heracles and virtue
      • 6 Properties of virtue and wisdom (phronēsis)
    • Chapter II. Sex, marriage, family
      • 1 Antisthenes’ teaching regarding sex and marriage
      • 2 Adultery
      • 3 Family
    • Chapter III. Aspasia
      • 1 Introduction
      • 2 Aspasia and Pericles
      • 3 Aspasia and Menexenus
    • Chapter IV. Alcibiades
      • 1 Alcibiades and beauty
      • 2 Alcibiades’ bad behaviour
    • Chapter V. Antisthenes and politics
      • 1 Introduction
      • 2 Archelaus, the bad king?
      • 3 Whence Antisthenes’ preference for Cyrus as the good king?
      • 4 Antisthenes’ Cyrus works and Xenophon’s Cyropaedia
      • 5 Good and bad in the state
      • 6 Social theory
    • Chapter VI. The wise
      • 1 The wise person
      • 2 The wise as models
    • Chapter VII. Antisthenes and Xenophon
      • 1 Introduction
      • 2 Jealousy and envy
      • 3 Friendship
      • 4 Friendship and ‘orthosemantics’
    • Chapter VIII. A portrait of Antisthenes in Xenophon’s Symposium
      • 1 Antisthenes in Xenophon’s Symposium
      • 2 The teachability of virtue
      • 3 Antisthenes as a cross-examiner
      • 4 Antisthenes and Niceratus on Homer
      • 5 Antisthenes’ speech
      • 6 Pandering
      • 7 Two incidental appearances
      • 8 The final scene between Socrates and Antisthenes
      • 9 Antisthenean themes in Xenophon’s Symposium
  • Epilogue: Antisthenes, an assessment
  • Appendix II: The Speeches of Ajax and Odysseus
    • Introduction
    • Antisthenes’ sources
    • The aim of the speeches
    • Ajax’s speech: ‘Not words but deeds’
    • Odysseus’ speech: ‘I alone am the saviour of the Greeks by secret acts’
    • Antisthenes’ book On Courage
  • Bibliography
  • Concordance Giannantoni (SSR) – Caizzi (D.C.)
  • Index
    • Index of fragments cited
    • Index of passages cited
    • Index of names
    • Index of modern scholars
    • Index of Greek words

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