The democratic tradition from Protagoras to Plotinus: a reconsideration.

• Grant number: 24/10140-9
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: November 19, 2024
• End date: December 18, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Mauricio Pagotto Marsola
• Grantee: Mauricio Pagotto Marsola
• Visiting researcher: Jean-Marc Narbonne
• Visiting researcher institution: Université Laval, Canada
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

1. During the visit, research will continue into the Greek democratic heritage, with a special focus on the links between Aristotle and Protagoras.2. The aim is to determine whether Plotinus knew Aristotle's treatise on Politics in his own right and whether he used it for his own thinking. We know, of course, that, in general, his inclinations in this area correspond pretty much to what we read in the Republic, i.e. that he defends a type of aristocracy or monarchical regime and, at the very least, abhors or distrusts anything approaching a popular or democratic government. A few passages from the Aeneid could easily convince us of this state of affairs. Suffice it to say that in treatise 33 / Against the Gnostics, for example, Plotinus shows how he sees the people, namely as "a mediocre multitude, artisans, as it were, of the products needed by people of greater value" (33 (II 9), 9, 10-11). (AU)