HARALD HOLZ
Die Ironie des Sokrates, insbesondere im Blick auf Prozeß
und Tod
Socrates was one of the great innovators of Greek philosophy
inasmuch as he discovered the principal role of the general
notion as such in finding truth. Without a doubt, his criterion
in doing so was, besides an absolute confidence into reason,
something like a response to an instance he believed to be
somehow divine. This included a certain distance, rational
and existential, from all the principles and values of the
community in which he lived. A deeper analysis of Socrates'
essential intentions reveals a special view of existential
honor which made it impossible for Socrates to escape what
he considered his destiny. This existential attitude took
the form of irony, as his fellow-citizens were quite incapable
of understanding what he meant.
FILIP GRGIC
Plato’s Meno and the Possibility of Inquiry in the Absence
of Knowledge
In Meno 80d5-e5, we find two sets of objections concerning
the possibility of inquiry in the absence of knowledge: the
so-called ‹Meno’s paradox› and the ‹eristic
argument›. This essay first shows that the eristic argument
is not simply a restatement of Meno’s paradox, but instead
an objection of a completely different kind: Meno’s paradox
concerns not inquiry as such, but rather Socrates’ inquiry
into virtue as is pursued in the first part of the Meno, whereas
the eristic argument indicates a manner in which Meno’s
paradox can be generalized. This implies that they cannot
be resolved by the same argument. It is then argued that the
theory of recollection, as presented in Socrates’ experiment
with the slave, cannot resolve Meno’s paradox, its target
being only the eristic argument. Only the hypothetical method
of inquiry is the effective answer to Meno’s paradox.
Finally, this essay contends that, contrary to what the text
might suggest, Socrates, by introducing the hypothetical method,
does not abandon his principle that knowing what something
is precedes knowing what something is like.
BURKHARD MOJSISCH
Der Dialog als sechste wichtigste Gattung in Platons Sophistes
In his late dialogue The Sophist, Plato intends to
show that the universal contents ‹motion›, ‹rest›,
‹being›, ‹identity› and ‹difference›
differ from and yet intermingle with each other. Plato develops
this theory using the universal content ‹motion›
as an example, whereas the present essay concentrates on ‹dialogue›
as a further universal content linked with all the other contents.
It thereby aims to deepen the understanding of Plato’s
late theory of ideas, arriving at the conclusion that for
Plato the possibility of philosophy is due to the possibility
of the relational community of the universal contents. Plato,
however, does not investigate the possibility of possibility
itself - an issue which can indeed be seen as the principle
of the very possibility of universal contents and their relation.
REINHOLD F. GLEI
Lux Regiomontana. Der kategorische Imperativ in Ciceros De
officiis
Interpretation of Cicero’s De officiis mostly
focuses on questions of traditional Quellenforschung,
especially on its relationship with the lost works of Panaetius,
Posidonius and Hecato. This essay, on the contrary, tries
to illuminate Cicero’s work by confronting a pivotal
passage of De off. (3, 19-32) with Kant’s famous
categorical imperative. Cicero’s invention of a ‹formula›
to decide moral dilemmas as well as its anthropological grounds
and socio-political implications foreshadow the Kantian concept
in the Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten. This
suggests that there may even be a direct influence of Cicero
on Kant.
GERALD BECHTLE
Das Böse im Platonismus: Überlegungen zur Position Jamblichs
Proclus’ complex arguments developed in the context
of his theory of evil often seem to reflect various earlier
discussions of this topic. Above all, his predecessor Iamblichus
seems to be a major source for his concept of evil. This becomes
plausible when we attempt to outline Iamblichus’ own
philosophy of evil as revealed in such works as De mysteriis
or De communi mathematica scientia. Particularly the
latter work has not been sufficiently exploited in this respect,
although the similarities with Proclus are significant. All
relevant ideas with regard to Proclus’ notion of parupostasis
are prepared and prefigured in Iamblichus. This essay discusses
the mode of the existence of evil, the causation of evil and
its relation to being according to Iamblichus. Moreover, comparison
of Iamblichus’ doctrines with those of his predecessors
Plotinus and Porphyry reveals the design of his concept of
evil as apparently directed at Plotinus.
WAYNE J. HANKEY
Self-Knowledge and God as Other in Augustine: Problems for
a Postmodern Retrieval
Recent philosophical and theological writing on Augustine
in France, England and North America is sharply divided between
readings which serve either a historicist, anti-metaphysical,
postmodern retrieval or an ahistorical, metaphysical, modern
reassertion. The postmodern retrieval begins from a Heideggerian
«end of metaphysics» and goes at least some distance with
Jacques Derrida’s development of its consequences. This
essay starts from engagements with Augustine by Derrida and
Jean-Luc Marion, moving then to Rowan Williams on the De
trinitate, read to prevent comparison with Descartes’
Meditations, and considers how Williams relates Augustine
to Plotinus. The opposed modernist interpretation appears
in Stephen Menn’s Descartes and Augustine, which sees
a continuity between Plotinus, Augustine and Descartes. Finally,
the essay treats Plotinus and Augustine on God and self-knowledge,
maintaining that Augustine’s De trinitate is better
understood from within a modern ahistorical stance which,
within metaphysics, places Augustine together with Plotinus
and Descartes. This view better captures his difference from
Plotinus than the alternative postmodern perspective tending
to assimilate Augustine to Plotinus.
DOMINIK PERLER
Direkte und indirekte Bezeichnung. Die metaphysischen Hintergründe
einer semantischen Debatte im Spätmittelalter
Late medieval philosophers in the Aristotelian tradition
developed two theoretical models in order to explain the signification
of words. Some - including Thomas Aquinas - claimed that spoken
words immediately signify concepts, but extramental things
only mediately, while others - such as William of Ockham -
held the view that they immediately signify things. The present
essay analyzes these two semantic models, paying particular
attention to their metaphysical and epistemological background.
It shows that the «indirect signification model» defended
by Thomas is not a model committed to representationalism
or semantic idealism, as some recent commentators have claimed.
It is rather a model that relies upon two crucial theses:
(i) human beings form concepts by abstracting universal forms
from extramental things; and (ii) spoken words signify those
universal forms having an immaterial existence in the intellect.
Ockham’s refusal of the «indirect signification model»
is mainly motivated by his rejection of these controversial
claims.
ERWIN SONDEREGGER
Cusanus: Definitio als Selbstbestimmung
More often than not Cusanus is interpreted in a theological
manner, under strong theological presuppositions and within
a religious range. This is understandable since he was a cardinal
and had important functions in the Papal States. The inadequacy
of this approach, however, is evident when one considers that
not all of his texts are meant to assert traditional beliefs
but instead to reflect upon their presuppositions. A word-for-word
interpretation of the first proposition of the appendix of
the dialogue De non aliud («Definitio, quae se et omnia
definit, ea est, quae per omnem mentem quaeritur») reveals
a shift in the concept of ‹definitio› during the
dialogue. Cusanus begins in a quite traditional manner and
ends in a supremely abstract and speculative intuition. The
not-other determines itself in a vision, setting everything
in its proper place; a vision we aspire to repeat in our mental
life. In this way, Cusanus does what all great philosophers
do: he reflects in a given set of traditions and beliefs upon
their presuppositions.
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