Volume 72 (2017), 2

The concept of philosophy as an art or a way of life is an invention of Socratic philosophy. During the Hellenistic era, later Stoics developed the original Socrates’ conviction of the care of the self into a systematic attitude called “art of living”. The paper deals with differences we see between Socratic and Stoic concepts of philosophy on the background of… Read more

The extant writings of Crates the Cynic include a poem about a city called Travelling Bag (Pera). It is a peculiar example of uniting the Cynic literary expression (tropos) with Cynic way of life (bios). The paper focuses on two aspects of the poem. The first one concerns the poem’s form: It shows the tendency to parody the poetic authority (Homer), mixing jest… Read more

After disproving Meletus, Socrates begins the next part of his defense in the court by explaining his activities. He explains to a hypothetical opponent what he considers to be really shameful (αἰσχρόν). To illustrate his speech, he uses the analogy of demi- gods who fell in the Trojan war. He focuses on the son of the goddess Thetis, i.e. Achilles, the most… Read more

In the paper we try to grasp the philosophical aspects of the poetic work of Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-68 BC.). We analyze supposed philosophical and ideological inspirations of his work, as well as the character of his time, the so-called Pax Augusta, which determined his efforts to give the Roman society a revival impetus. Further, we focus on the thesis… Read more

The paper re-examines the traditional view of the relationship between Diogenes of Sinope and Plato. The first part analyses one particular anecdote about Plato’s labeling Diogenes „Socrates who has gone mad“. This narration serves as a starting point of a closer examination of the whole anecdotal tradition of Plato’s encounters with Diogenes. The next part… Read more

Language can be modeled in various ways, highlighting either its social or systemic character. I assume that language is a normative phenomenon enabling speakers to communicate. At any particular time language is used, however, we are capable of determining the function which maps the expressions produced using this language to their meanings. In this contribution… Read more