Published by De Gruyter

Volume 102 Issue 3

Issue of Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available September 11, 2020

Titelseiten

Page range: I-III

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Articles

July 18, 2020

**Conceptions of Truth in Plato’s*Sophist***

Michail Peramatzis

Page range: 333-378

Abstract

The paper seeks to specify how, according to Plato’s Sophist , true statements achieve their being about objects and their saying that ‘what is about such objects is’. Drawing on the 6th definition of the sophist, I argue for a normative-teleological conception of truth in which the best condition of our soul –in its making statements or having mental states– consists in its seeking to attain the telos of truth. Further, on the basis of Plato’s discussion of original and image, his distinction between correct and incorrect image, and the 7th definition, I argue that achieving the telos of truth involves preserving the original’s proportions and appropriate features. The view that Plato’s conception of truth takes statements or mental states to be certain types of image is not ground-breaking. The important contribution of my argument is that it offers a plausible way to understand two recalcitrant claims made by Plato: first, that falsity obtains not only in the region of incorrect images (appearances) but also within correct images (likenesses); second, that some incorrect images are based on knowledge and so could be true.

Open Access August 19, 2020

Avicenna on Mathematical Infinity

Mohammad Saleh Zarepour

Page range: 379-425

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Abstract

Avicenna believed in mathematical finitism. He argued that magnitudes and sets of ordered numbers and numbered things cannot be actually infinite. In this paper, I discuss his arguments against the actuality of mathematical infinity. A careful analysis of the subtleties of his main argument, i. e., The Mapping Argument , shows that, by employing the notion of correspondence as a tool for comparing the sizes of mathematical infinities, he arrived at a very deep and insightful understanding of the notion of mathematical infinity, one that is much more modern than we might expect. I argue, moreover, that Avicenna’s mathematical finitism is interwoven with his literalist ontology of mathematics, according to which mathematical objects are properties of existing physical objects.

July 18, 2020

Kant über die Vollständigkeit der „Tafel der Kategorien der Freiheit“

Stephan Zimmermann

Page range: 426-452

Abstract

Kant’s repeated statement in the Critique of Pure Reason that the so-called table of judgements and, as a consequence, the table of pure concepts of the understanding or categories, is fully exhaustive is well-known. This ambitious assertion has worried and challenged generations of authors. However, thus far the entire discussion has completely disregarded the fact that in his Critique of Practical Reason Kant undertakes a coordinate venture. For the “Table of the Categories of Freedom”, which he sets out, with only a few explanations, in the “Second Chapter” of the Critique , Kant makes, when looked at more closely, the very same claim to completeness. This article shows that this same claim is made, even though Kant does not state this assertion as explicitly as one might have expected. And it poses the question, which underlying, yet concealed assumptions this view might appeal to. Or is it that Kant has merely failed to provide the evidence in this case?

August 25, 2020

Kant’s Conception of Theodicy and his Argument from Metaphysical Evil against it

Amit Kravitz

Page range: 453-476

Abstract

A series of attempts have been made to determine Kant’s exact position towards theodicy, and to understand whether it is a direct consequence of his critical philosophy or, rather, whether it is merely linked to some inner development within his critical philosophy. However, I argue that the question of Kant’s critical relation to theodicy has been misunderstood; and that in fact, Kant redefines the essence of the theodicean question anew. After introducing some major aspects of Kant‘s new conception of theodicy, I show how understanding this conception is necessary for correctly analysing his specific arguments against theodicy. I demonstrate this point by examining Kant’s second argument against theodicy, in which he tackles the Leibnizian problem of ‘metaphysical evil’, and show why, in light of the above, interpretations thus far have failed to capture the essence of Kant’s claim in this regard.

August 13, 2020

The Six Faces of Beauty. Baumgarten on the Perfections of Knowledge in the Context of the German Enlightenment

Alessandro Nannini

Page range: 477-512

Abstract

In this essay, I investigate Baumgarten’s doctrine of the six perfections of knowledge (wealth, magnitude, truth, clarity, certainty, and life), which is famously one of the most characteristic and enigmatic features of his philosophy. Recent scholarship has almost unanimously stressed the rhetorical background of the categories. Instead, I argue that Baumgarten elaborates his theory in close relationship with coeval philosophy. To support this claim, I examine the position of some Thomasian philosophers, such as Johann Liborius Zimmermann, who had indicated a list of criteria similar to that of Baumgarten. Moreover, I analyse the distinction between formal and material perfections, tracing it back to the Wolffian milieu. On these bases, I propose a new reconstruction of Baumgarten’s doctrine, with particular attention to its aesthetic application. Finally, I outline the reception of the six categories in the late German Enlightenment until Kant.

Book Reviews

July 18, 2020

Sergio Yona, Epicurean Ethics in Horace. The Psychology of Satire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, 360 pp.

Michael Erler

Page range: 513-518

July 18, 2020

Cinzia Arruzza, A Wolf in the City. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, xi + 296 pp.

Christopher Bobonich

Page range: 518-524

About this journal

The journal publishes exceptional articles in all areas of Western philosophy from antiquity up to contemporary philosophy. The Archiv articles are distinguished by precise argumentation and lucid prose.

Volume 102 Issue 3

Issue of Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie

Titelseiten

Conceptions of Truth in Plato’sSophist

Abstract

Avicenna on Mathematical Infinity

Abstract

Kant über die Vollständigkeit der „Tafel der Kategorien der Freiheit“

Abstract

Kant’s Conception of Theodicy and his Argument from Metaphysical Evil against it

Abstract

The Six Faces of Beauty. Baumgarten on the Perfections of Knowledge in the Context of the German Enlightenment

Abstract

Sergio Yona, Epicurean Ethics in Horace. The Psychology of Satire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, 360 pp.

Cinzia Arruzza, A Wolf in the City. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, xi + 296 pp.

**Conceptions of Truth in Plato’s*Sophist***