Probabilities, Hypotheticals, and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek Thought

Probabilities, Hypotheticals, and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek Thought

Author: Victoria Wohl

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-09-11

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 1107050499

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This book examines ancient Greek thinking about the probable, hypothetical, and counterfactual across a variety of disciplines (philosophy, science, politics, literature, art).


Book Synopsis Probabilities, Hypotheticals, and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek Thought by : Victoria Wohl

Download or read book Probabilities, Hypotheticals, and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek Thought written by Victoria Wohl and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines ancient Greek thinking about the probable, hypothetical, and counterfactual across a variety of disciplines (philosophy, science, politics, literature, art).


Probabilities, Hypotheticals, and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek Thought

Probabilities, Hypotheticals, and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek Thought

Author: Victoria Wohl

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 9781107671249

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This volume explores the conceptual terrain defined by the Greek word eikos: the probable, likely, or reasonable. A term of art in Greek rhetoric, a defining feature of literary fiction, a seminal mode of historical, scientific, and philosophical inquiry, eikos was a way of thinking about the probable and improbable, the factual and counterfactual, the hypothetical and the real. These thirteen original and provocative essays examine the plausible arguments of courtroom speakers and the 'likely stories' of philosophers, verisimilitude in art and literature, the likelihood of resemblance in human reproduction, the limits of human knowledge and the possibilities of ethical and political agency. The first synthetic study of probabilistic thinking in ancient Greece, the volume illuminates a fascinating chapter in the history of Western thought.


Book Synopsis Probabilities, Hypotheticals, and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek Thought by : Victoria Wohl

Download or read book Probabilities, Hypotheticals, and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek Thought written by Victoria Wohl and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the conceptual terrain defined by the Greek word eikos: the probable, likely, or reasonable. A term of art in Greek rhetoric, a defining feature of literary fiction, a seminal mode of historical, scientific, and philosophical inquiry, eikos was a way of thinking about the probable and improbable, the factual and counterfactual, the hypothetical and the real. These thirteen original and provocative essays examine the plausible arguments of courtroom speakers and the 'likely stories' of philosophers, verisimilitude in art and literature, the likelihood of resemblance in human reproduction, the limits of human knowledge and the possibilities of ethical and political agency. The first synthetic study of probabilistic thinking in ancient Greece, the volume illuminates a fascinating chapter in the history of Western thought.


Counterfactuals

Counterfactuals

Author: Christopher Prendergast

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-04-04

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1350090107

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What are counterfactuals and what is their point? In many cases, none at all. It may be true that if kangaroos didn't have tails, they would fall over, but they do have tails and if they didn't they wouldn't be kangaroos (or would they?). This is the sort of thing that can give counterfactuals a bad name, as inhabitants of a La La Land of the mind. On the other hand, counterfactuals do useful service across a broad range of disciplines in both the sciences and the humanities, including philosophy, history, cosmology, biology, cognitive psychology, jurisprudence, economics, art history, literary theory. They are also richly, albeit sometimes treacherously, present in the everyday human realm of how our lives are both imagined and lived: in the 'crossroads' scenario of decision-making, the place of regret in retrospective assessments of paths taken and not taken, and, at the outer limit, as the wish not to have been born. Christopher Prendergast take us on a dizzying exploratory journey through some of these intellectual and human landscapes, mobilizing a wide range of reference from antiquity to the present, and sustained by the belief that, whether as help or hindrance, and with many variations across cultures, counterfactual thinking and imagining are fundamental to what it is to be human.


Book Synopsis Counterfactuals by : Christopher Prendergast

Download or read book Counterfactuals written by Christopher Prendergast and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-04-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are counterfactuals and what is their point? In many cases, none at all. It may be true that if kangaroos didn't have tails, they would fall over, but they do have tails and if they didn't they wouldn't be kangaroos (or would they?). This is the sort of thing that can give counterfactuals a bad name, as inhabitants of a La La Land of the mind. On the other hand, counterfactuals do useful service across a broad range of disciplines in both the sciences and the humanities, including philosophy, history, cosmology, biology, cognitive psychology, jurisprudence, economics, art history, literary theory. They are also richly, albeit sometimes treacherously, present in the everyday human realm of how our lives are both imagined and lived: in the 'crossroads' scenario of decision-making, the place of regret in retrospective assessments of paths taken and not taken, and, at the outer limit, as the wish not to have been born. Christopher Prendergast take us on a dizzying exploratory journey through some of these intellectual and human landscapes, mobilizing a wide range of reference from antiquity to the present, and sustained by the belief that, whether as help or hindrance, and with many variations across cultures, counterfactual thinking and imagining are fundamental to what it is to be human.


Resemblance and Reality in Greek Thought

Resemblance and Reality in Greek Thought

Author: Arum Park

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-09-13

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1317355334

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Resemblance and Reality in Greek Thought follows the construction of reality from Homer into the Hellenistic era and beyond. Not only in didactic poetry or philosophical works but in practically all genres from the time of Homer onwards, Greek literature has shown an awareness of the relationship between verbal art and the social, historical, or cultural reality that produces it, an awareness that this relationship is an approximate one at best and a distorting one at worst. This central theme of resemblance and its relationship to reality draws together essays on a range of Greek authors, and shows how they are unified or allied in posing similar questions to classical literature.


Book Synopsis Resemblance and Reality in Greek Thought by : Arum Park

Download or read book Resemblance and Reality in Greek Thought written by Arum Park and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resemblance and Reality in Greek Thought follows the construction of reality from Homer into the Hellenistic era and beyond. Not only in didactic poetry or philosophical works but in practically all genres from the time of Homer onwards, Greek literature has shown an awareness of the relationship between verbal art and the social, historical, or cultural reality that produces it, an awareness that this relationship is an approximate one at best and a distorting one at worst. This central theme of resemblance and its relationship to reality draws together essays on a range of Greek authors, and shows how they are unified or allied in posing similar questions to classical literature.


Classical Antiquity in Video Games

Classical Antiquity in Video Games

Author: Christian Rollinger

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-01-09

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1350066656

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From gaming consoles to smartphones, video games are everywhere today, including those set in historical times and particularly in the ancient world. This volume explores the varied depictions of the ancient world in video games and demonstrates the potential challenges of games for scholars as well as the applications of game engines for educational and academic purposes. With successful series such as “Assassin's Creed” or "Civilization” selling millions of copies, video games rival even television and cinema in their role in shaping younger audiences' perceptions of the past. Yet classical scholarship, though embracing other popular media as areas of research, has so far largely ignored video games as a vehicle of classical reception. This collection of essays fills this gap with a dedicated study of receptions, remediations and representations of Classical Antiquity across all electronic gaming platforms and genres. It presents cutting-edge research in classics and classical receptions, game studies and archaeogaming, adopting different perspectives and combining papers from scholars, gamers, game developers and historical consultants. In doing so, it delivers the first state-of-the-art account of both the wide array of 'ancient' video games, as well as the challenges and rewards of this new and exciting field.


Book Synopsis Classical Antiquity in Video Games by : Christian Rollinger

Download or read book Classical Antiquity in Video Games written by Christian Rollinger and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From gaming consoles to smartphones, video games are everywhere today, including those set in historical times and particularly in the ancient world. This volume explores the varied depictions of the ancient world in video games and demonstrates the potential challenges of games for scholars as well as the applications of game engines for educational and academic purposes. With successful series such as “Assassin's Creed” or "Civilization” selling millions of copies, video games rival even television and cinema in their role in shaping younger audiences' perceptions of the past. Yet classical scholarship, though embracing other popular media as areas of research, has so far largely ignored video games as a vehicle of classical reception. This collection of essays fills this gap with a dedicated study of receptions, remediations and representations of Classical Antiquity across all electronic gaming platforms and genres. It presents cutting-edge research in classics and classical receptions, game studies and archaeogaming, adopting different perspectives and combining papers from scholars, gamers, game developers and historical consultants. In doing so, it delivers the first state-of-the-art account of both the wide array of 'ancient' video games, as well as the challenges and rewards of this new and exciting field.


Tragedy, Philosophy, and Political Education in Plato's Laws

Tragedy, Philosophy, and Political Education in Plato's Laws

Author: Ryan Krieger Balot

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 0197647227

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Previous scholars and writers have either celebrated the idealism in Plato's Laws or denounced its totalitarianism. Ryan K. Balot, by contrast, refuses to interpret the dialogue as a political blueprint, whether admirable or misguided. Instead, he shows that it constitutes Plato's greatest philosophical investigation of political life. In this transformative re-appraisal, Balot reveals that Plato's goal was to cultivate a tragic attitude toward our political passions, commitments, and aspirations.


Book Synopsis Tragedy, Philosophy, and Political Education in Plato's Laws by : Ryan Krieger Balot

Download or read book Tragedy, Philosophy, and Political Education in Plato's Laws written by Ryan Krieger Balot and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Previous scholars and writers have either celebrated the idealism in Plato's Laws or denounced its totalitarianism. Ryan K. Balot, by contrast, refuses to interpret the dialogue as a political blueprint, whether admirable or misguided. Instead, he shows that it constitutes Plato's greatest philosophical investigation of political life. In this transformative re-appraisal, Balot reveals that Plato's goal was to cultivate a tragic attitude toward our political passions, commitments, and aspirations.


Shaping the Canons of Ancient Greek Historiography

Shaping the Canons of Ancient Greek Historiography

Author: Ivan Matijašić

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-08-06

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 3110476274

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The main focus of this book is the ancient formation and development of the canons of Greek historiography. It takes a fresh look on the modern debate on canonical literature and deals with Greek historiographical traditions in the works of ancient rhetors and literary critics. Writings on historiography by Cicero, Quintilian, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus are chiefly taken into account to explore the canons of Greek historians in Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Ages. Essential in canon-formation was the concept of classicism which took shape in the Age of Augustus, but whose earlier developments can be traced back to Isocrates, a model rhetor according to Dionysius at the end of the 1st century BC. The analysis explores also late-antique authors of school treatises and progymnasmata, a field where historiography had a pedagogical function. Previous studies on canonical literature have rarely considered historiography. This book examines not only the works of ancient historians and their legacy, but also the relationship between historiography, literary criticism, and the rhetorical tradition.


Book Synopsis Shaping the Canons of Ancient Greek Historiography by : Ivan Matijašić

Download or read book Shaping the Canons of Ancient Greek Historiography written by Ivan Matijašić and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main focus of this book is the ancient formation and development of the canons of Greek historiography. It takes a fresh look on the modern debate on canonical literature and deals with Greek historiographical traditions in the works of ancient rhetors and literary critics. Writings on historiography by Cicero, Quintilian, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus are chiefly taken into account to explore the canons of Greek historians in Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Ages. Essential in canon-formation was the concept of classicism which took shape in the Age of Augustus, but whose earlier developments can be traced back to Isocrates, a model rhetor according to Dionysius at the end of the 1st century BC. The analysis explores also late-antique authors of school treatises and progymnasmata, a field where historiography had a pedagogical function. Previous studies on canonical literature have rarely considered historiography. This book examines not only the works of ancient historians and their legacy, but also the relationship between historiography, literary criticism, and the rhetorical tradition.


Sight and the Ancient Senses

Sight and the Ancient Senses

Author: Michael Squire

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1317515382

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It is to Greek critical thinking about seeing that we owe our conceptual framework for theorizing the senses, and it is also to such thinking that we owe the lasting legacy of Greco-Roman imagery. Sight and the Ancient Senses is the first thorough introduction to the conceptualization of sight in the history, visual culture, literature and philosophy of classical antiquity. Examining how the Greeks and Romans interpreted what they saw, the collection also considers sight in relation to the other senses. This volume brings together a number of interdisciplinary perspectives to deliver a broad and balanced coverage of this subject. Contributors explore the cultural, social and intellectual backdrops that gave rise to ancient theories of seeing, from Archaic Greece through to the advent of Christianity in late antiquity. This series of specially commissioned thematic chapters demonstrate how theories about sight informed Graeco-Roman philosophy, science, poetry rhetoric and art. The collection also reaches beyond its Graeco-Roman visual framework, showcasing how ancient ideas have influenced the longue durée of western sensory thinking. Richly illustrated throughout, including a section of color plates, Sight and the Ancient Senses is a wide-ranging introduction to ancient theories of seeing which will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of classical antiquity.


Book Synopsis Sight and the Ancient Senses by : Michael Squire

Download or read book Sight and the Ancient Senses written by Michael Squire and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is to Greek critical thinking about seeing that we owe our conceptual framework for theorizing the senses, and it is also to such thinking that we owe the lasting legacy of Greco-Roman imagery. Sight and the Ancient Senses is the first thorough introduction to the conceptualization of sight in the history, visual culture, literature and philosophy of classical antiquity. Examining how the Greeks and Romans interpreted what they saw, the collection also considers sight in relation to the other senses. This volume brings together a number of interdisciplinary perspectives to deliver a broad and balanced coverage of this subject. Contributors explore the cultural, social and intellectual backdrops that gave rise to ancient theories of seeing, from Archaic Greece through to the advent of Christianity in late antiquity. This series of specially commissioned thematic chapters demonstrate how theories about sight informed Graeco-Roman philosophy, science, poetry rhetoric and art. The collection also reaches beyond its Graeco-Roman visual framework, showcasing how ancient ideas have influenced the longue durée of western sensory thinking. Richly illustrated throughout, including a section of color plates, Sight and the Ancient Senses is a wide-ranging introduction to ancient theories of seeing which will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of classical antiquity.


The Materialities of Greek Tragedy

The Materialities of Greek Tragedy

Author: Mario Telò

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-06-14

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1350028819

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Situated within contemporary posthumanism, this volume offers theoretical and practical approaches to materiality in Greek tragedy. Established and emerging scholars explore how works of the three major Greek tragedians problematize objects and affect, providing fresh readings of some of the masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The so-called new materialisms have complemented the study of objects as signifiers or symbols with an interest in their agency and vitality, their sensuous force and psychosomatic impact-and conversely their resistance and irreducible aloofness. At the same time, emotion has been recast as material "affect,†? an intense flow of energies between bodies, animate and inanimate. Powerfully contributing to the current critical debate on materiality, the essays collected here destabilize established interpretations, suggesting alternative approaches and pointing toward a newly robust sense of the physicality of Greek tragedy.


Book Synopsis The Materialities of Greek Tragedy by : Mario Telò

Download or read book The Materialities of Greek Tragedy written by Mario Telò and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-14 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Situated within contemporary posthumanism, this volume offers theoretical and practical approaches to materiality in Greek tragedy. Established and emerging scholars explore how works of the three major Greek tragedians problematize objects and affect, providing fresh readings of some of the masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The so-called new materialisms have complemented the study of objects as signifiers or symbols with an interest in their agency and vitality, their sensuous force and psychosomatic impact-and conversely their resistance and irreducible aloofness. At the same time, emotion has been recast as material "affect,†? an intense flow of energies between bodies, animate and inanimate. Powerfully contributing to the current critical debate on materiality, the essays collected here destabilize established interpretations, suggesting alternative approaches and pointing toward a newly robust sense of the physicality of Greek tragedy.


Sculpture, weaving, and the body in Plato

Sculpture, weaving, and the body in Plato

Author: Zacharoula Petraki

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-08-21

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 3111178218

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Plato’s Timaeus is unique in Greek Antiquity for presenting the creation of the world as the work of a divine demiurge. The maker bestows order on sensible things and imitates the world of the intellect by using the Forms as models. While the creation-myth of the Timaeus seems unparalleled, this book argues that it is not the first of Plato’s dialogues to use artistic language to articulate the relationship of the objects of the material world to the world of the intellect. The book adopts an interpretative angle that is sensitive to the visual and art-historical developments of Classical Athens to argue that sculpture, revolutionized by the advent of the lost-wax technique for the production of bronze statues, lies at the heart of Plato’s conception of the relation of the human soul and body to the Forms. It shows that, despite the severe criticism of mimēsis in the Republic, Plato’s use of artistic language rests on a positive model of mimēsis. Plato was in fact engaged in a constructive dialogue with material culture and he found in the technical processes and the cultural semantics of sculpture and of the art of weaving a valuable way to conceptualise and communicate complex ideas about humans’ relation to the Forms.


Book Synopsis Sculpture, weaving, and the body in Plato by : Zacharoula Petraki

Download or read book Sculpture, weaving, and the body in Plato written by Zacharoula Petraki and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-08-21 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plato’s Timaeus is unique in Greek Antiquity for presenting the creation of the world as the work of a divine demiurge. The maker bestows order on sensible things and imitates the world of the intellect by using the Forms as models. While the creation-myth of the Timaeus seems unparalleled, this book argues that it is not the first of Plato’s dialogues to use artistic language to articulate the relationship of the objects of the material world to the world of the intellect. The book adopts an interpretative angle that is sensitive to the visual and art-historical developments of Classical Athens to argue that sculpture, revolutionized by the advent of the lost-wax technique for the production of bronze statues, lies at the heart of Plato’s conception of the relation of the human soul and body to the Forms. It shows that, despite the severe criticism of mimēsis in the Republic, Plato’s use of artistic language rests on a positive model of mimēsis. Plato was in fact engaged in a constructive dialogue with material culture and he found in the technical processes and the cultural semantics of sculpture and of the art of weaving a valuable way to conceptualise and communicate complex ideas about humans’ relation to the Forms.