Author of the text: Friedrich Hohenstaufen Russian (orig) and Ukrainian versions According to Xenophon’s version, Socrates allegedly behaved honorably and majestically at the trial, and he considered his best defense to be his life up to that point. Socrates was not afraid of punishment, because by that time he had already “considered death to be preferable to life”. He supposedly did not think over his defense speech because he was…
Author of the text: Friedrich Hohenstaufen Russian and Ukrainian versions In this paper we will combine reviews of several works by Xenophon because they are all linked by one conceptual theme – the education of the ruler. This theme is presented in three ways. In the historical novel “Cyropaedia” the best example is given, where they show an idealized Persian monarch, his growth from childhood to the deepest old age.…
Author of the text: Friedrich Hohenstaufen Russian and Ukrainian versions In general, a set of dialogues called “Symposium” is a story about a group of virtuous friends who get into hilarious situations and make vulgar jokes about each other. Behind the jokes, there is sometimes an irony that points to the virtue of each character. But besides the banal self-glorification of Socrates’ friends, we are interested in the following points.…
Author of the text: Friedrich Hohenstaufen Russian and Ukrainian versions Considering the book called “Oeconomicus”, we will focus mainly on what interests us in terms of revealing Xenophon’s ethical-political and philosophical outlook, and in addition we will consider a very atypical work “On Income”, but first – “Oeconomicus”. Philosophical elements appear here almost immediately. Speaking by the mouth of Socrates’ disciple Critobulus, we are advised to evaluate things as “gain”…
Author of the text: Friedrich HohenstaufenWritten in 2021 Russian and Ukrainian versions Of the surviving tragedies of Euripides, the oldest by chronology was the drama “Alcestis” staged in 438 BC. It was staged together with the now lost plays “Cretans”, “Telephus” and “Alkmeon in Psophida”. In that year at the competition tragedians this tetralogy took second place, and the first was taken by none other than Sophocles himself. Of the…
Author of the text: Friedrich HohenstaufenWritten in 2019 Russian and Ukrainian versions After the above-mentioned five semi-mythical characters and poets of the “Cyclic” – follows the epoch of the “sages” (which, by the way, is very funny, because the word “philosopher” means a lover of wisdom, and “sage” therefore stands above “philosopher”). But the same “Cyclic” poets had other lyricist contemporaries, so before I go on to the “sages,” I…
Author of the text: Friedrich HohenstaufenWritten in 2019 Russian and Ukrainian versions The cycle “Ancient Philosophy: Formation of the Canon”: Introduction (Thales, Anaximander). First part (Pythagoras) – you are here. Second part (Xenophanes). Third part (Heraclitus). Fourth part (Parmenides). Fifth part (Summary). Now we know that the entire poetic culture, the Greek literary language itself, and with it the richest polities, including Miletus, the main colonial center of the Greeks,…
Pre-Philosophy Cycle: The beginnings of philosophy in India and China. Eastern influence (Phoenician, Egyptian and Babylonian philosophy). Mythological stage (compressed mythology). Heroic stage (compressed stories about heroes). Homeric period, Cyclic poets and Orphism. Context, role of tyrants and kings. Nine Lyrics. Seven Sages. Formation of classical theology – you are here. Pre-philosophy (final paper). The Conflict of Pindar and Simonides (taken out of the series, will post elsewhere). As we…
The title of this article was chosen for a reason; it is connected with such a scholar of the Epicurean school as Zeno of Sidon (150-75 BC). Who was this Zeno? We know that he was a man of considerable influence, and that it was under his patronage that Epicureanism became the leading doctrine in Rome. Even Cicero (in “De natura deorum”) called Zeno the wittiest of all Epicureans. According…
