Greek classical philosophy: Plato, Aristotle and their influence in Antiquity

• Grant number: 09/16877-3
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• Start date: June 01, 2010
• End date: May 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Marco Antônio de Ávila Zingano
• Grantee: Marco Antônio de Ávila Zingano
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Pesquisadores principais: Fátima Regina Rodrigues Évora ; Roberto Bolzani Filho
• Associated researchers: Barbara Botter ; Daniel Rossi Nunes Lopes ; João Francisco Nascimento Hobuss ; Luiz Henrique Lopes dos Santos ; Márcio Augusto Damin Custódio ; Mauricio Pagotto Marsola ; Tadeu Mazzola Verza ; Vivianne de Castilho Moreira
• Associated research grant(s): 14/02923-1 - International Symposium Plato and Rhetoric, AR.EXT; 12/14527-8 - Aristotle's Physics: a study, translation and a running commentary, AV.BR; 12/07119-0 - Form, matter, and definition in the medieval reception of Aristotle: Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus, AV.BR; 12/01117-6 - Choosing the good: 'to haireton' in ancient Greek ethics, AV.EXT; 11/50576-0 - Plato and Aristotle in Antiquity, AP.R
• Associated scholarship(s): 14/05224-7 - Dramatic and literary devices in Plato's Gorgias: reception and conversion, BP.MS; 14/07827-0 - The concept of active intellect in Aristotle, BP.MS; 14/07143-4 - The contemporary significance of Sextus Empiricus radical scepticim, BP.PD; + associated scholarships 12/13247-1 - Plato's Lysis: translation, introductory study and notes, BP.MS; 12/10618-9 - Plato's First Alcibiades: Study and Translation, BP.MS; 12/06639-0 - Dialectic and Definition: Problems of Method in Aristotelian Ethics, BP.DR; 11/02005-4 - The causes of Callicles' recalcitrance in Plato's 'Gorgias', BE.PQ; 11/03425-7 - Aristotle on the intellect, BP.PD; 11/04479-3 - Plato's Menexenus: translation, essay and critical notes, BP.MS; 11/01653-2 - The problem of poetry in books 2 and 3 of Plato's Republic, BP.IC; 08/00780-8 - Conceptual Logic and Propositional Logic - The Essence of Language and Sign - The Logic of Port Royal - Logic or the Art of Thinking - Translation with an Introduction., BP.PD - associated scholarships

Abstract

Classical Greek philosophy has in Plato and Aristotle its outstanding expression. Both philosophers agree on some central tenets about the nature of knowledge, the structure of the world, and the theory of action; in a word, both argue for realism within a strong rationalistic approach. Nevertheless, Aristotle made, as it is well known, sharp criticisms against Plato's philosophy. Hence, although it has adopted in many aspects a fundamentally rationalistic realism, as it was already current in the Academy, the Lyceum, the school of Aristotle, conceived of itself as in clear opposition to Platonism. Both philosophers had an impressive and decisive influence in Antiquity; most of our extant Ancient commentaries claimed themselves to follow Aristotelianism or Neoplatonism, until the moment in which it was pursued at any cost an eclectic harmonization between these two philosophers. The main interest of this research project is to scrutinize the central theses of both philosophers in two central aspects: their metaphysics and their ethics, as well as it aims at a better understanding of the way they have been thought of in Antiquity, either by way of a defense of their central tenets (as, for instance, Alexander of Aphrodisias in his reading of Aristotle), or in their reassessment (as one finds notably in Plotinus, who thinks of his philosophy as fundamentally Plato's), or else in an open contrast and clear rejection of the theses that delineate the boundaries of the Ancient World (as is the case, for instance, in Philoponus). (AU)