Project aligns study of classical Greek philosophy with international standards

Focused on Plato and Aristotle, the study brings together researchers from several institutions at the University of São Paulo and conducts an intensive exchange with universities abroad.

By José Tadeu Arantes

Agência FAPESP – An in-depth study of classical Greek philosophy focused on its two main protagonists, Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) and Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC), is currently underway at the University of São Paulo (USP). It is the FAPESP-funded thematic project, “Greek classical philosophy: Plato, Aristotle and their influence in antiquity.”

As paradoxical as it may seem, this study of the ancients, in a manner of speaking, constitutes an encouraging trend. For several decades, classical Greek philosophy has been practically absent from many Brazilian universities, as if philosophical activity began only in the 17th century with Frenchman René Descartes (1596–1650).

“Our project was broadly conceived as a way to embrace the various interests of the researchers who are working with Plato and Aristotle, providing a way for professors in the philosophy department and the Greek department at USP to work together,” said project coordinator Marco Antônio de Ávila Zingano, professor of ancient philosophy at USP, in comments to Agência FAPESP.

The reference to Greek professors is important because one of the prerequisites for participation in the group of nearly 15 researchers is the ability to handle the texts of Plato and Aristotle in their original language, ancient Greek – or, in the case of Roman philosophy, classical Latin.

“The main course, in which all interests converge, consists of reading and interpreting Topics by Aristotle,” Zingano said. This statement refers to a work written in the final period of Aristotle’s 20-year discipleship at the Plato Academy, which ended in 348 BC, just after the death of the master.

“In Topics, Aristotle establishes a series of rules for the dialectical method, which involves discussion of a subject on the basis of reasoned arguments. Such work is essential for all who dedicate themselves to in-depth study of ancient Greek thought. Topics works as a type of key for interpreting many other texts and discussions,” said the thematic project coordinator.

The group’s routine consists of two monthly meetings to discuss Topics and special lectures on specific subjects in the philosophies of Plato or Aristotle associated with metaphysics or action theory. “In addition to this, every semester we welcome three professors from other institutions to give intensive seminars,” Zingano said.

Exchanges

The basic idea is that philosophy is studied by reading original texts in their original language, with intensive exchanges between researchers from institutions in Brazil and abroad. The tangible results are the production and publication of books or articles with translations of texts or discussions of relevant themes.

“One of the exchanges worthy of mention is our current program with Princeton University, in the United States. We take turns meeting in either São Paulo or Princeton for three days in January. For these meetings, we select certain texts in advance and distribute them to all the doctoral candidates so that each text can be presented and discussed by a pair made up of one USP student and one Princeton student. The pairs prepare the presentation by email, give the presentation together, and then everyone takes part in the discussion,” explained the coordinator.

Among the various subtopics covered by the project, two are particularly provocative for those interested in philosophy, even those who are not experts.

One is the relationship of the so-called Neoplatonists – Plotinus (205 AD – 270 AD) and his followers – with original Platonic thought. To what extent were the Neoplatonists, as they insisted on calling themselves, faithful trustees and exegetes of the philosophy of Plato, and to what extent were they radical innovators?

Another subtopic is the relationship between Aristotle and Plato. Do the oft-noted differences between the disciple and his master make Aristotelian thought totally divergent from the Platonic tradition or simply one of the various possible developments of Platonism?

Monism versus dualism

With regard to the Neoplatonists, one researcher from the group who is dedicated to its study, especially with regard to the thinking of Plotinus, is Mauricio Pagotto Marsola, professor of the history of ancient philosophy at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp).

His doctoral work, completed in 2005 with a scholarship from FAPESP, examined the Plotinian exegesis of a passage from the dialogue The Republic by Plato. More recently, he received a post-doctoral scholarship abroad to participate in the project of re-editing the writings of Plotinus.

“I studied how Plotinus read Plato. This led me to a central theme of Plotinian thought, which refers to the One (Hen, in Greek), the First Principle, ineffable and intangible to the human intellect, which engenders all reality,” Marsola said.

Plotinus declared himself only an exegete of Plato. He proposed to clarify any obscurities or contradictions presented in Plato’s texts.

“However, Plotinus viewed exegesis as a methodological strategy for thinking about philosophical issues,” Marsola explained. “His work, the Enneads, referred to issues directly raised by the dialogues of Plato, issues from the Platonists who immediately came after Plato, issues from the Platonists who came just before Plotinus, and issues from Aristotelianism or Stoicism.”

A key influence in the writings of Plotinus’ thought came from Ammonius, his teacher in Alexandria. Ammonius was perhaps the most obscure figure in the history of philosophy. He published nothing and asked his disciples not to divulge his teachings. Biographical information about him is minimal and subject to controversy.

“However, Porphyry, a disciple of Plotinus, claimed that Plotinus read the texts by Plato according to the Nous (intellect) of Ammonius. In other words, he read the texts in accordance with the exegesis already practiced by Ammonius,” Marsola commented.

“In the exegesis of Plato according to the spirit of Ammonius, Plotinus constructed his own extremely original philosophy. He sought to understand reality as a single, articulated and coherent whole, entirely derived from the First Principle,” he said.

“In his system, there are two intermediate scales between the First Principle (One) and the sensible world: the Nous (intellect) and the Psyche (soul). However, everything is understood to flow from the First Principle. Plotinus himself used the metaphor of the fountain to illustrate this flow of all reality from one single principle. One of the slogans of Neoplatonism is ‘Hen to Pan’ (One is the All),” Marsola said.

The researcher explained that Plotinus constructed his system in contrast to the dualistic viewpoint of the Gnostics of his time, with whom he debated. Gnosticism was a heterogeneous mystical-philosophical current that sought to synthesize many influences and presented several divisions and subdivisions that were expressed under various guises within the contexts of paganism, Judaism and Christianity.

“For a certain version of Gnosticism, the reality was governed by two principles: the good, which would have produced the intelligent world, and the bad, which would have produced the sensible world,” Marsola said.

“So the sensible world was associated with the bad, and this gave this version of Gnosticism an escapist perspective that was one of rejecting the material world. Plotinus questioned this view and reaffirmed the harmony of reality, understanding the sensible world as a reflection of the intelligible world, both coming from the One,” he said.

Young Aristotle and mature Aristotle

Regarding the path of Aristotelian thought in his relationship with Platonism, Zingano, an expert on Aristotle, points to three great interpretations of the works by this philosopher.

“One demonstrates less interest in the changes that occurred in the works of Aristotle and seeks primarily to emphasize the unity of the texts, or even limit this unity to some texts, or revert to the idea of a large and coherent Aristotelian system. Another, introduced by German philologist Werner Jaeger (1888–1961), consists of seeing one Aristotle who slowly distanced himself from Plato to the point at which, by the end of his career, he had abandoned metaphysics to embrace scientific research. A third, that I personally think is the most interesting, was proposed in the 1950s by Welsh philosopher Gwilym Ellis Lane Owen (1922–1982),” he said.

According to Zingano, Owen saw the path of Aristotle first as a point of separation and then as one of re-approximation with regard to the Platonic tradition.

“He envisioned a young Aristotle who was rebellious like most adolescents and repudiated Plato at all costs, but later he matured and, little by little, recovered the Platonic themes in another key concept,” the researcher explained.

“Thus, in Categories, a text written in his youth, Aristotle, with regard to Plato, maintains a view of a being limited to sensible substances, with no prospects for a general doctrine of how to be. Years later, however, in Metaphysics, he goes back to declaring the possibility of such a science. Aristotle affirms this possibility based on notions that are already completely outside the Platonic domain. However, the fact of affirming them demonstrates a return to the themes of Platonism,” he said.

The thematic project, “Greek classical philosophy: Plato, Aristotle and their influence in Antiquity,” will continue through May 2015.

The research group regularly publishes articles, chapters in books and books about topics in ancient philosophy. Zingano recently edited – together with Pierre Destrée, a researcher from the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) and professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, and Ricardo Salles, researcher at the Institute of Philosophical Research at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma of México – the book What is up to us? Studies on Agency and Responsibility in Ancient Philosophy, which is a collection of articles by various scholars. The publication was released this year by Academia Verlag.

The next books to be released by members of the thematic project are Protágoras, de Platão: tradução, introdução e comentário [Plato’s Protagoras: translation, introduction and commentary] by Daniel Lopes, professor of Greek language and literature at the USP Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences, by Editora Perspectiva scheduled for release in 2015; and Theoria – studies on the status and meaning of contemplation in Aristotle’s Ethics, edited by Zingano and Destrée and published by Peeters Publishers of Belgium, with release scheduled for later this year.