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Moving Beyond Theoria Towards Theosis focuses on the telos of man as understood in Plato's theoria, envisioned in the allegory of the cave, and early Christian reinterpretation of theoria as theosis. In his famed allegory of the cave, Plato maintains that real life exists beyond our base perceptions of reality and is found in the realm of ideas. Theoria is eternal rest in this realm and is understood as the telos of mankind. Plato's theoria underwent change as it was reinterpreted under middle-Platonic and neo-Platonic thought. These systems incorporated a more mature idea of the divine than Plato, but still minimized the material world. This book explores how early Christianity inherited Plato's cosmology and terminology. Theoria was also reinterpreted within the Christian context. Eventually the term was abandoned for theosis. Theosis is beyond theoria, as it includes contemplation of the forms as well as union with the source of the forms and the affirmation of the material realm. In this volume, Justin A. Davis shows how the Orthodox use of icons can be key to understanding theosis. The icon is a material object that connects to a higher reality, and ultimately toward union with the divine. Plato's cosmology is collapsed and transfigured in union with the uncreated energy of God. Icons are the depiction of spiritual ascesis and the new telos of man, theosis.

Adentrando a história intelectual do Ocidente, Os Jardins da Academia promove uma investigação sobre as escolas da tradição grega – a Academia de Platão e o Liceu de Aristóteles –, passando pela criação da universidade na Idade Média e pelo Iluminismo do século XVIII, ao mesmo tempo que desnuda o dogmatismo presente na prática escolar e acadêmica brasileira. A partir de uma postura rigorosa, mas criativa, Alexandre H. Reis toma Platão e Aristóteles não como os famosos filósofos que lançaram as bases do pensamento ocidental, e sim como professores e fundadores de escolas. Essa posição permite convidá-los a um diálogo sobre a finalidade da educação e da ética no mundo contemporâneo. Tomás de Aquino, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ortega y Gasset e Wilson Martins também passeiam por este jardim, que constitui uma importante crítica da filosofia, da educação e da ética em nossos tempos.

Eric Covington examines the way in which Ephesians coherently holds together cosmological, Christological, ecclesiological, and ethical elements within its vision of the early Christian way of life. He begins by investigating the extent to which the categories of functional teleology featured within ethical reflection in both Greco-Roman and early Jewish traditions. Next, he analyzes the letter's Auslegungsgeschichte, focusing on Thomas Aquinas'medieval commentary, to demonstrate how Ephesians has previously been interpreted through the lens of teleology. Finally, he turns to an historical-exegetical examination of Ephesians to demonstrate the way in which the letter uses the categories and concepts of functional teleology. He concludes that Ephesians identifies the appropriate way of life in light of an individual and ecclesial telos within God's ultimus finis for all of creation.

In many discussions of ancient philosophy, teleology is acknowledged as an important theme. How do we act for a particular end or purpose? One common answer describes humans as acting with the intention of achieving a goal. A person selects particular actions with the thought that these actions will lead to that goal. Andrew Payne accepts that this is one good answer to our question but proposes that it is not the only one. In Plato's Republic, Socrates appeals to a different understanding of how humans act for the sake of ends as they live together in political communities and pursue knowledge. As they carry out activities that are necessary for human flourishing, their actions can produce unintended results that signal the full completion of human capacities. For example, performing the actions of a just individual can help promote the establishment of a just society as an unintended result. Such unintended results qualify as ends or purposes of human action. This volume fully explores this functional teleology of action in Plato's Republic.

From Aristotle to Darwin, from ancient teleology to contemporary genealogies, this book offers an overview of the birth and then persistence of Aristotle's framework into modernity, until its radical overthrow by the evolutionary revolution.

The first English-language study of Aristotle's natural philosophy from a continental perspective, the Feminine Symptom takes as its starting point the problem of female offspring. If form is transmitted by the male and the female provides only matter, how is a female child produced? Aristotle answers that there must be some fault or misstep in the process.This inexplicable but necessary coincidence—sumptoma in Greek—defines the feminine symptom. Departing from the standard associations of male-activity-form and female-passivity-matter, Bianchi traces the operation of chance and spontaneity throughout Aristotle's biology, physics, cosmology, and metaphysics and argues that it is not passive but aleatory matter— unpredictable, ungovernable, and acting against nature and teleology—that he continually allies with the feminine.Aristotle's pervasive disparagement of the female as a mild form of monstrosity thus works to shore up his polemic against the aleatory and to consolidate patriarchal teleology in the face of atomism and Empedocleanism.Bianchi concludes by connecting her analysis to recent biological and materialist political thinking, and makes the case for a new, antiessentialist politics of aleatory feminism.

Aristoteles'Ethik basiert auf der These, dass sich Güter als Strebensziele begreifen lassen. Die vorliegende Arbeit soll dabei helfen, diese These besser zu verstehen. Sie untersucht die Voraussetzungen und die Konsequenzen der teleologischen Konzeption des Guten. Der Gemeinplatz von der Aristotelischen'Strebensethik'wird neu beleuchtet.Als Ausgangspunkt dient eine genaue Lektüre der ersten Kapitel der Nikomachischen Ethik. Hier wird deutlich, dass Aristoteles einer teleologischen Güterkonzeption kritischer gegenübersteht, als üblicherweise angenommen wird. Die Gleichsetzung von Gütern und Zielen bietet zwar den Zugang zur Bestimmung des Glücks; sie ist aber keine Definition des Guten. Aristoteles geht vielmehr davon aus, dass die als Ziele aufgefassten Güter in relevanter Hinsicht verschieden sind. Wie aber kann man dieser Verschiedenheit gerecht werden, ohne die Identifikation von Gütern und Zielen aufzugeben? Die Arbeit zeigt, dass sich wesentliche Bestandteile der Nikomachischen Ethik auf genau diese Frage beziehen lassen. Dazu gehören etwa das'ergon-Argument'und die Einführung des Tugendhaften als'Maßstab'des in Wahrheit Guten. Auf diese Weise wird eine Antwort auf einige Deutungsprobleme gegeben, die die Debatten um diese Schrift nachhaltig geprägt haben. Außerdem eröffnet sich eine andere Sicht auf das Projekt, das Aristoteles in seiner Ethik verfolgt.

Nicholas Rescher's book Axiogenesis: An Essay in Metaphysical Optimalism is a detailed exposition of axiogenerts: the philosophical theory seeking to explain the world's facts on the basis of evaluative considerations. In classical antiquity, this theory was espoused by Plato (in the Timaeus) and neo-Platonic tradition; in early modern times, it was revived by Leibniz and continued to find favor in the development of rational mechanics from Maupertuis to William Hamilton. However, since then the principles behind axiogenesis and similar theories have fallen out of fashion. This book is therefore unique in that it argues in detail that this metaphysical approach still has traction and endeavors to formulate the theory in a manner that makes it available as a live option for contemporary thinkers. Advanced students of philosophy and professionals in this field, as well as anyone interested in the issue of speculative metaphysics, will find Rescher's contemporary refashioning of axiogenesis a distinctly compelling read.

Monte Johnson examines one of the most controversial aspects of Aristiotle's natural philosophy: his teleology. Is teleology about causation or explanation? Does it exclude or obviate mechanism, determinism, or materialism? Is it focused on the good of individual organisms, or is god or man the ultimate end of all processes and entities? Is teleology restricted to living things, or does it apply to the cosmos as a whole? Does it identify objectively existent causes in the world, or is it merely a heuristic for our understanding of other causal processes? Johnson argues that Aristotle's aporetic approach drives a middle course between these traditional oppositions, and avoids the dilemma, frequently urged against teleology, between backwards causation and anthropomorphism. Although these issues have been debated with extraordinary depth by Aristotle scholars, and touched upon by many in the wider philosophical and scientific community as well, there has been no comprehensive historical treatment of the issue. Aristotle is commonly considered the inventor of teleology, although the precise term originated in the eighteenth century. But if teleology means the use of ends and goals in natural science, then Aristotle was rather a critical innovator of teleological explanation. Teleological notions were widespread among his predecessors, but Aristotle rejected their conception of extrinsic causes such as mind or god as the primary causes for natural things. Aristotle's radical alternative was to assert nature itself as an internal principle of change and an end, and his teleological explanations focus on the intrinsic ends of natural substances - those ends that benefit the natural thing itself. Aristotle's use of ends was subsequently conflated with incompatible'teleological'notions, including proofs for the existence of a providential or designer god, vitalism and animism, opposition to mechanism and non-teleological causation, and anthropocentrism. Johnson addresses these misconceptions through an elaboration of Aristotle's methodological statements, as well as an examination of the explanations actually offered in the scientific works.

Plato's dialogue the Timaeus-Critias presents two connected accounts, that of the story of Atlantis and its defeat by ancient Athens and that of the creation of the cosmos by a divine craftsman. This book offers a unified reading of the dialogue. It tackles a wide range of interpretative and philosophical issues. Topics discussed include the function of the famous Atlantis story, the notion of cosmology as'myth'and as'likely', and the role of God in Platonic cosmology. Other areas commented upon are Plato's concepts of'necessity'and'teleology', the nature of the'receptacle', the relationship between the soul and the body, the use of perception in cosmology, and the work's peculiar monologue form. The unifying theme is teleology: Plato's attempt to show the cosmos to be organised for the good. A central lesson which emerges is that the Timaeus is closer to Aristotle's physics than previously thought.