The individual and the city: human and political relationships in Aristotle and his time

• Grant number: 19/16414-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: January 01, 2020
• End date: December 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Agreement: CNRS
• Mobility Program: SPRINT - Projetos de pesquisa - Mobilidade
• Principal Investigator: Marco Antônio de Ávila Zingano
• Grantee: Marco Antônio de Ávila Zingano
• Principal researcher abroad: Cristina Viano
• Institution abroad: Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris 4), France
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Ana Beatriz Barbosa de Carvalho e Silva ; Daniel Rossi Nunes Lopes ; Dionatan Acosta Tissot ; Fernando Maciel Gazoni ; Pablo Souto Maior Harduin
• Associated research grant: 15/05317-8 - Theories of causation and human agency in ancient Greek philosophy, AP.TEM

Abstract

The present research project focuses on Aristotelian reflection about human relations, in a twofold perspective: the private one of personal relationships and the public one of the political and social relationship between members of the city. We propose to conduct our investigation in four main sections of the Aristotelian corpus, which embody different points of view about the individual and the community, i.e. Ethics, Rhetoric, Poetics and Politics. The proposed investigation would like to look at the texts as a reader of Aristotle in his time would. It aims, in other words, to understand Aristotelian anthropology in its historical and philosophical background. It is an eminently multidisciplinary research, involving not only history of philosophy, but also general history, politics, legal thinking and poetic production. Far from considering Aristotle's thought as a pure archaeological object belonging to a bygone era, our perspective, on the contrary, would like to present a double actuality. First, we want to understand the values with respect to which Aristotle formulated his complex analysis of human nature and private and public relations between men. Second we want to understand better the universal and timeless aspects of the solutions he presents to the great questions of our time, by situating them in their original context. (AU)