Publication Details

Abstract

The paper deals with Antisthenes' account of language (logos) as well as with the role the logical paradoxes played in Antisthenes' thought. The author doesn't see Antisthenes' logical investigations as a part of the early Sophistic writings. Rather he tries to show the connection between Antisthenes using of the logic and Socratic ethics of taking care of the self. Socratic thought in Antisthenes' fragments is neither skeptical nor dialectical. Contrary to both of these 'intellectualistic' tendencies Antisthenes underlines the continual ethical activity of the wise. Antisthenes' using of logical paradoxes (mainly ouk estin antilegein) should have probably served as a demonstration of an anti-Platonic conviction: Ethics is always prior to metaphysics and logic.