(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Savulescu, G.
We are different individual beings as we live on the earth. We may find in us qualities of the humanity behind us and we are not aware of the inherited richness we have. This bunch of qualities we have, and which imposes on us unconsciously a style of living, is our Stylistic Matrix. Plato was right when he wrote that justice is to put each human in its right place in the city. If each of us may do our proper work, our specific work, to reveal mysteries by creation, that may mean the usual work and the
artistic work, if in each of us our qualities come out, that means we may have power by justice.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Strauss, D.F.M.
Die kontemporêre wetenskaplike klimaat vertoon die beeld van toenemende disintegrasie - 'n fragmentasie wat sekerlik nie los te maak is van die modernisme/postmodernisme debat nie. Alhoewel Plato se soeke na die vermeende (bo-sinnelike) statiese wese van dinge gevoed is deur 'n spekulatiewe metafisika wat langs antropologiese weg selfs 'n fundering wou bied vir sy siening
van die ideale staat, berus sy wysgerige refleksie op belangrike insigte wat dwarsdeur die geskiedenis van die filosofie 'n rigtinggewende rol sou bly speel. Veral sy kennisteoretiese insig
dat konstansie die basis vorm van veranderlikheid moet vermeld word; indien die "eie wese" van iets inherent veranderlik (d.w.s. nié konstant nie) was, sou dit onkenbaar wees. In hierdie bydrae word ingegaan op die onderliggende Eleatiese
agtergrond van Plato se ideëleer alvorens daar oorgegaan word tot 'n herwaardering van sy siening van geregtigheid as een van Plato se deugde. In hierdie konteks word enersyds aangetoon dat Plato in laaste instansie bloot 'n konstitutiewe regsopvatting ontwikkel (regsharmoniëring en die wering van juridiese eksesse) en andersyds geargumenteer dat die kern-insig in die aard van konstansie as basis van verandering 'n moontlikheid open om die
ankerlose relativisme van 'n gefragmenteerde postmodernistiese aanpak te bowe te kom.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Philippoussis, John
The purpose of this paper is, precisely, to exude, through a textual exegetical and hermeneutical analysis, the Periclean notions
of justice, excellence and citizenship, especially in their differentiation and opposition to both alternatives. The notions of
polis, aretê and dikaiosunê are central in this brief and cryptic paragraph and, regardless of whether they may be accepted or not, they are not any less relevant today than they were at the time. Since, at least according to Plutarch, Pericles has not left any text, all our judgment on the question of his polity, polities and policies has to rely on external sources and, in this particular case, on Thucydides's meticulous chronicles of a few of his speeches, one of
which, and undeniably the most important one, is the Funeral Oration. The question in this paper is not whether Pericles' polities and policies were historically consistent with the polity he describes in this Oration, but the principles he presents and their meaning and significance.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) Rauche, G.A.; South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities
If a study is made of ethics in Western thought, a structure in moral theories as they have been constituted throughout the centuries in terms of changing, variabie conditions of life, manis contingent life-experience, the universal experience of all men, will emerge. This structure, which illustrates the relationship between ethics (theory) and morality (practice), may be said to find its clear articulation for the first time in Plato's and Aristotle's ethics in terms of the triad; moral ground or moral incentive. The specific conflict-experience from which the practical need for a moral theory
on the grounds of the given contextual conditions of life arises; the moral norm indicated by the specific moral theory constituted, by which manis action can be judged good or evil, morally right or wrong. In other words, the moral norm facilitates moral judgement, and the practical moral act, the act that is performed in observation of the moral norm.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Papadopoulos, V.
What we shall be looking at is how justice was seen, by the Ottomans, by the monarchs of Europe, and by the Greeks. What the Ottomans understood by justice was preserving the power they had over their enslaved peoples; keeping absolute
jurisdiction over the lives, the honour and the property of the rayahs, behaving towards them arbitrarily and barbarously, and holding their Christian subjects obligated to work for them in order to assure their conquerors the necessaries of life. After the fall of Napoleon, the monarchs of Europe decided both within their own boundaries and beyond them to apply "the sacred principles of religion, justice and peace". It is, however, a commonplace that what these monarchs understood by justice was keeping their peoples enslaved and using bloody military
intervention to repress any popular aspirations to freedom, as exemplified by events in Italy and Spain. What the Greeks understood by justice was what the ordinary man understands by this word, namely, having what belonged to them, as the people they were.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) Van Marle, Karin
In this paper I would like to highlight the significa nee of an Aristotelian concept of justice for South African legal and political
transformation. I believe that if it is necessary in philosophy, political theory and other fields to emphasise the importanee of focusing on the particular and on a specific context when we address the question of justice, it is even more important to do this in law. If it can be said that philosophy, political theory and other fields tend to generalise without adhering to the ethical questions of difference and otherness, it is even more true of legal theory and of the law. In what follows, the main point that I want to make is that in our search for justice the particular should be highlighted. Rights should be
interpreted and phrased in such a way that not only universal ideals are addressed but concrete needs as well. In respect to the understanding and interpretation of rights, certain Aristotelian
concepts of justice, practical wisdom and practical judgement are very relevant to the South African political and legal context.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Tsolis, T.L.
The philosophical movements which evolved under circumstances of interaction of socio-political and cultural elements during late Hellenistic and early Roman times are characterised by a strong
interest in social problems, a humanistic perspective and a desire for involvement in politics, with the intention of correcting wrongs.
Cynics, Sceptics, Epicureans and Stoics become sensitive recipients of the changes taking place at the time and lay the foundations for a new era in philosophy. The Stoic thinkers in particular put forward original ideas, which will exert enormous influence on the political and moral
thinking of the years to fo11ow as well as pinpointing the change in the orientation of philosophy itself.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Mohamed, Y.
Miskawayh (d. 1030) was the first Arab philosopher to have written a substantial work on ethics, The Refinement of Character, which had a great impact on the development of Islamic philosophical ethics after him. In this paper we examine his theory of justice, and the manner in which he appropriated Greek notions of justice.
Miskawayh deals with the justice to the self as understood in Platonic psychology, and justice to others as understood by Aristotle. He harmonised these two concepts of justice by embracing the Aristotelian notion of justice and integrated it within the framework of Platonic psychology. I also show how Miskawayh introduced Islamic elements to bring his theory of justice more in line with the Islamic tradition.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Marshall, A.H.
Two books feature prominently in this article. The first is Karl Popper's Open Society and lts Enemies: The Spell of Plato written about 56 years ago during World War 11. The second is Plato's Republic written about 2,380 years ago, and just after the Peloponnesian War. Popper (1984:86) summarises the principle elements of Plato's Republic and concludes: "this programme can, I think, be fairly described as totalitarian" (Popper 1984: 86,87). As Popper was writing during World War 11 (Popper 1984: viii), his frame of reference for a totalitarian state would in all likelihood have been the fascist state.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Maritz, P.J. (Petrus Jacobus)
This paper will discuss approaching the ideal of becoming a good citizen from the perspective of transforming a non-citizen (understood in its modern context) into a good citizen (understood in
its Platonic sense ). In short, this is to be obtained through philosophic education, or through the realisation of the Platonic virtues, and through the actualisation of justice, in both individual and societal dimensions, as related to nature. For the purposes of this paper, this later aspect concerning the cosmos, its structuring, and its divisions will receive less attention; whereas the comparative relation between the functioning of the human body and the
functioning of the polis will be emphasised, as expressed in the Gorgias. This is done to indicate the relation between citizens and the state, in terms of the principles of truth, and virtues, good leadership and good citizenship, or on how to be a good member of society.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Marangianou, E.
The present paper aims to accentuate the necessity of feminine virtues in the formation of citizens, and the significanee they acquire for a person wishing to participate in public affairs in contemporary society. In so doing, reference is made to examples stemming from the long history of the Greek thought. To begin with, feminine virtue was of great importanee in ancient Greece, as both Plato and Aristotle had observed, despite the fact that, at the time, women did not participate actively as citizens in the management of polities.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Maniatis, Y.N.
In this essay lexamine the theory of alteration and identity of the cosmos and the Being in the Presocratics, from Thales to Parmenides. We try to show that it was really Heraclitus, the first
Presocratic philosopher, who invented this theory, which still echoes today in the most recent astrophysical theories on the universe.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Lambrellis, D.N.
It would appear that the familiar "theory-praxis" problem may be set out in a dramatic way as follows: Should a theory be radically reevaluated
or even renounced when it does not lead to its
implementation in practice, and not only this, but the practice to which it does lead is exactly the opposite of the theory concerned? This statement is a forcible exposition of the "theory-praxis" problem as it presents theory, the evaluation of theory, from the perspective-criterion of praxis and ultimately postulates praxis as the highest value/final goal. We propose to examine this problem and the question
concerning the value of theory from the standpoint of praxis, within the framework of a philosophy that is acknowledged to be socially
and politically important, that of Plato, and particularly in the context of the last phase of his philosophy. Our starting point will be the
same as that of the philosopher's social and political thought in Laws: the moral problem, the discourse on virtue.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Ladikos, Anastasios
Plato has adopted and adapted, abandoned or expanded and generally redetermined (or reascertained) and reshaped a vast range of criminological ideas and practices in such a way as to combine intense conservatism with radical innovation. As a political craftsman, he has skilfully, systematically and on the whole successfully utilised the material that lies to hand, to answer his own purposes.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Kasotaki-Gatopoulou, I.
Plato seems to be a feminist only in our imagination. It is extremely utopic even to imagine that, as a modern thinker, he would play a leading part in any claim for the improvement of the individual conditions of life and women. This, nevertheless, conceals, in my current opinion, a long settled matter for him, as to the conflict of the two sexes. The deconstruction of the concept of gender in the Republic where women philosophers also rule, could characterise him as a post-modern philosopher, to a greater extent than we gradually discover him to be. He renounces conflicts between men and women as belonging to a world that is more aggressively modernised and seemingly sensitised to the human rights, our own modern world, where people still oppress each other, fight and kill each other, excluded from the blissfulness of the Platonic Utopia.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Mare, Estelle Alma
The generic element of the Doric column in temple construction can be related to the intellectual
clarity of Greek architecture, but one may argue that it caused an aggravating inflexibility in using its formal systems in complex compositions (Howe 1985: 105-6). This may lead to a reassessment of the Doric column as limited by inflexibility, since inflexibility eliminates strife. However, counterpointed by the Erechtheion (421-05 BC), an lonic temple on the Acropolis, the female forms of caryatids attached to it is juxtaposed with the male order of the
Parthenon.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Higgs, P.
The ethical paradox of the postmodern condition is that it restores to agents the fullness of moral choice and responsibility, while simultaneously depriving them of the comfort of the universal guidance that modern self-confidence once promised.
(Bauman 1992:3)
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Gericke, J.D. (John Daniel)
As in past and present times, we will, in the new
millennium, hear the cries for justice. Many will probably loose their lives in the name of justice. Maybe we as philosophers will find it
beneficial to become citizens of the Platonic Ideal State - to live in the world of what "ought to be" instead of participating in the world of
the "here and now.
(South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities, 2000) South African Society for Greek Philosophy and the Humanities; Evangeliou, Christos
In what follows I would like to try to draw your
attention to certain passages from Plato and Xenophon which are indicative, I believe, of the Socratic way of philosophising as it relates to his novel conception of justice as virtue and harmony both in the well-ordered souls of ideal citizens. It will become clear, I hope, that Socrates' paradoxical politics of the human soul in search for true happiness through a virtuous life, and his conception of justice as an internal personal affair, contrasts sharply with the external and social theory of justice in its long history from Glaucon and Thrasymachus in antiquity, to Locke and Rousseau in modern times, to John Rawls in our times.
