Papers by Peter L P Simpson
Political Illiberalism, 2017
The Classical Quarterly, 2019
ARISTOTLE'S ETHICA EVDEMIA: THE TEXT AND CHARACTER OF THE COMMON BOOKS AS FOUND IN ETH. EVD. MS... more ARISTOTLE'S ETHICA EVDEMIA: THE TEXT AND CHARACTER OF THE COMMON BOOKS AS FOUND IN ETH. EVD. MSS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2019
Peter L.P. Simpson
Aristotle's Ethica Eudemia (Eth. Eud.) and Ethica Nicomachea (Eth. Nic.), as is well known and much discussed, contain three books in common (Eth. Eud. 4–6 = Eth. Nic. 5–7). Less well known, at least until Dieter Harlfinger alerted scholars to the fact in 1971, is that some of the manuscripts of Eth. Eud. do, contrary to the then prevailing consensus, contain the text of these common books. Even less well known is that Harlfinger's discovery was anticipated some 50 years before by Walter Ashburner, who had uncovered this fact about Eth. Eud. MSS in the Laurentian library of Florence. Ashburner's anticipation of Harlfinger, however, is not the real value of his article. Its value rather is that it contains collations of readings for the common books, and thereby gives us an excellent resource for examining the text of the common books as this text is contained in exclusively Eth. Eud. MSS. The Eth. Eud. tradition of the common books has hitherto received little attention. Modern editions of Eth. Eud. do not include these books, and editions of Eth. Nic. have other MSS for the purpose. Ashburner's collations are the more valuable because they are taken from (among others) the one MS that, in Harlfinger's learned stemma, appears as the archetype for all the rest.
Scroll down this page to the paper heading:
ARISTOTLE'S ETHICA EUDEMIA: THE TEXT OF THE COMMON BOOKS AS FOUND IN EE MSS
for a pre-publication version of this paper
Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , May 2019 , pp. 187 - 201
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838819000430 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2019
Hypnos Revista Do Centro De Estudos Da Antiguidade Issn 2177 5346, 2005
No Velho Testamento Deus expressa, atraves do profeta Samuel, ideias sobre o governo humano, simi... more No Velho Testamento Deus expressa, atraves do profeta Samuel, ideias sobre o governo humano, similares as de Socrates na Republica de Platao. Ambos defendem que a melhor organizacao politica e aquela na qual nenhuma pessoa ou classe domina, mas aquela onde cada um rege a si mesmo atraves de um principio interno de justica. Uma “anarquia” justa deste tipo nao e apenas a melhor, mas tambem possivel de ser alcancada. Ao menos em certos periodos os filhos de Israel a obtiveram. Deveriamos imita-los.
Hypnos Revista Do Centro De Estudos Da Antiguidade Issn 2177 5346, 2011
Górgias sobre o nada: resumo de seus argumentos O tratado de Górgias sobre o nada, a partir dos f... more Górgias sobre o nada: resumo de seus argumentos O tratado de Górgias sobre o nada, a partir dos fragmentos que nos chegaram (do Corpus Aristotelicum e Sexto Empirico), divide-se em três partes, ou em três provas sucessivas de três teses diferentes: são elas: 1) nada é ou existe; 2) mesmo que existisse algo não poderia ser conhecido; 3) mesmo que pudesse ser conhecido, não poderia ser comunicado a outrem. Segue um resumo (embora não completo) dos argumentos de Górgias.
Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought, 2011
First I must thank Matt Edge for taking the time to respond to my review. I could wish that peopl... more First I must thank Matt Edge for taking the time to respond to my review. I could wish that people would take my articles as seriously as he has taken that one review of mine. But I will be grateful for small mercies. There are a number of curiosities, nevertheless, about what Edge says. He presents his article as a criticism of my review and yet he agrees with me on almost everything of substance. He also thereby shows that what I intended in the review came across loud and clear. His distinction between two kinds of ideology is particularly striking in this regard. One kind he describes as fairly benign and as just referring to a theory or set of ideas. The other is pejorative and problematic and refers to a set of ideas that gets in the way of truth and is hostile and obstructive because of the values espoused. He then says, quite rightly, that what I complain about in my review is the second kind. Hence he and I agree that this kind of ideology is a bad thing and to be avoided. He only complains that I do not show how the contributors I criticize were ideological in this bad sense. Well I do, but I need to make some clarifications first. For Edge goes on to muddy the fine distinction he has just drawn. The first kind of ideology is, after all, not ideology but just another name for thinking. Edge describes it as the fact that we have no access to a world independent of our senses and judgments. Indeed. No one can think without thinking and, since we are sensing creatures, without sensing either. But Edge then immediately slides into a suggestio falsi by glossing what he said as that we always think, when we think, with an inherited language-picture of the world. He then gives a further gloss that the drive to get beyond such a picture to 'the resplendent and glorious room of objectivity' is 'fruitless' because we cannot get to a place 'independent of human thought, talk, language and belief'. Of course not. But whoever thought one had to in order to get to objectivity, to truth, to the way things are? One gets to objectivity by thinking. Edge is insinuating that we cannot get to objectivity by thinking because thinking is always a picturing and picturing is always a something we impose on things. Hence what we think is always ideological because we are always using pictures to think with and the pictures are neither objective nor stay the same from age to age. There is no 'unvarnished news' to report, he says quoting Skinner. In other words, we never get to objective truth, or never know for sure that we have. Hence Edge persistently fights shy in his article of the word 'truth' (and also 'facts'). But this view is radically incoherent, despite the big names Edge marshals in its support. For to say that we cannot reach truth or know that we have
The Classical Quarterly, 2013
Aristotle's Ethica Eudemia (EE) Book 2 Chapter 2 contains, at lines 1220b10–11, a well-known ... more Aristotle's Ethica Eudemia (EE) Book 2 Chapter 2 contains, at lines 1220b10–11, a well-known crux in the phrase ἐν τοῖς ἀπηλλαγμένοις. The context makes clear that Aristotle is using this phrase to refer to some writing or other, but scholars have been puzzled both about what the phrase means and what writing it refers to.
American Political Science Review, 1998
Journal of Social Philosophy, 1990
The Western liberal democracies are now enjoying a period of unprecedented political success. The... more The Western liberal democracies are now enjoying a period of unprecedented political success. Their great enemies of the postwar countries of Eastern Europe dominated by Soviet Russia have visibly disintegrated, and not only the satellites but even Soviet Russia herself are moving in the direction of liberal democracy. China has, of course, gone backwards since the massacre of Tiananmen Square, but even there the reaction, while real, is not complete. The Chinese authorities seem to have wanted, and still to want, to liberalize their regime, but not as fast or as much as the students did. At all events the communists' predictions of imminent collapse in the West have proved spectacularly false, and the reverse predictions of the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan have proved spectacularly true. For while the East is convulsed the West continues to flourish in virtually every respect. To adapt the words of a late British prime minister, the West has never had it so good. But it would be false to suppose that it is only now that liberal democracy has proved itself a political success. On the contrary it has proved itself to be this from the beginning. This is because it offers the people freedom to live life in their own way. Non-liberal regimes on the other hand, old and new, impose on their people some one vision of the good life, and forbid them, on pain of imprisonment or death, to pursue any other. So much is true, even obvious. But it is not enough, when discussing liberalism's success, to talk only of the idea of freedom; one must also talk of the idea of peace. It is a feature of non-liberal regimes that they introduce into the heart of the regime the fiercest of controversies. I mean the controversy over the good life. The good life or some vision of the good life is the principle and goal of non-liberal regimes, what they stand or fall by, and nothing through history seems to have thrown nations into more turmoil, strife and war than disagreement over the good life. For to disagree about this and to try to pursue some different and opposed vision of the good is necessarily to attack the very life of the existing regime, and so to become a subversive, a traitor, a mortal foe. Liberalism avoids this fearful consequence, not because it does not require agreement (all regimes require that if they are to be communities at all), but because it does not require agreement about the good life. By an ingenious trick that we owe to Hobbes, it requires
Hypnos 34, 2015
Resumo: O artigo tem por foco o problema de como aos modos gregos antigos (harmoniai) puderam ser... more Resumo: O artigo tem por foco o problema de como aos modos gregos antigos (harmoniai) puderam ser atribuídos a tão amplos e diversos efeitos morais e emocionais pelos autores antigos. A interpretação moderna padrão dos modos gregos torna impossível ler os autores antigos literalmente. Uma solução satisfatória ao problema, contudo, está disponível a partir de um livro de Kathleen Schlesinger sobre os modos, injustamente caluniado. Este artigo explica, com o auxílio de diagramas, os aspectos fundamentais da solução de Schlesinger e por que devemos levá-la a sério.
Hypnos 34 (Sao Paolo, Brazil, 2015): 1-22, 2015
In Pr. 19.48 we read, in Mayhew's translation, the following: Why do choruses in tragedy sing nei... more In Pr. 19.48 we read, in Mayhew's translation, the following: Why do choruses in tragedy sing neither in Hypodorian nor in Hypophrygian? Is it because these harmoniai have the least melody, which is most necessary to the chorus? Now the Hypophrygian has a character of action, and this is why in the Geryone the marching out and the arming (episodes) are composed in this manner, while the Hypodorian has a magnificent and steadfast character, and this is why of the harmoniai it is most suited to kithara song. But these (harmoniai) are both inappropriate to the chorus, and more suitable to the (actors) on the stage. For the latter are imitators of heroes; but in the old days the (chorus) leaders alone were heroes, while the people, of whom the chorus consists, were humans. And this is why a mournful and quiet character and melody are appropriate to it; for (the chorus) is human. Now the other harmoniai have these, but the Phrygian has them least, since it is inspirational and Bacchic, (and the Mixolydian certainly has them most of all). Under the influence of this (harmonia), therefore, we are affected in a certain way; and the weak are affected more than the strong, which is why even this one is appropriate to choruses; but under the influence of the Hypodorian and Hypophrygian we act...
Studia Gilsoniana, 2014
In Nicomachean Ethics book 5 chapter 7 (or Eudemian Ethics book 4 chapter 7), Aristotle introduce... more In Nicomachean Ethics book 5 chapter 7 (or Eudemian Ethics book 4 chapter 7), Aristotle introduces the topic of natural justice. His brief and elliptical discussion has provoked much controversy. It seems to confuse the issue rather than do anything to clear it up. The natural just, if there is such a thing, must be the same everywhere, for nature is the same everywhere, as Aristotle concedes with his example of fire that burns upwards here and in Persia. Yet he goes on to argue that there is nothing naturally just the same everywhere for everyone, but that the natural, at least for us human beings, always changes. There are clues in the passage in question that scholars have focused on in order to unravel Aristotle’s meaning. But there is one clue that scholars have hitherto almost entirely ignored (an exception is Dirlmeier, who
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 1991
In the Aristotelian corpus of writings as it has come down to us, there are four works specifical... more In the Aristotelian corpus of writings as it has come down to us, there are four works specifically on ethics: the Nicomachean ethics, the Eudemian ethics, the Magna moralia (or Great ethics), and the short On virtues and vices. Scholars are now agreed that the first two are genuinely by Aristotle and most also believe that the Nicomachean is the later and better of the two. About the Magna moralia, there is still a division of opinion, though probably most scholars hold that it is not genuine. Those who hold it is genuine suppose it to be an early work or a redaction of an early work made by a later Peripatetic. As for On virtues and vices almost everyone holds it to be a spurious work written some two centuries after Aristotle's death. However, the arguments scholars give for these opinions are entirely unconvincing. In fact, they beg the question by assuming the conclusion in order to prove the conclusion. My own contention is that all the hard evidence we have compels us to ...
Arius Didymus on Peripatetic Ethics, Household Management, and Politics, 2017
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Papers by Peter L P Simpson
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2019
Peter L.P. Simpson
Aristotle's Ethica Eudemia (Eth. Eud.) and Ethica Nicomachea (Eth. Nic.), as is well known and much discussed, contain three books in common (Eth. Eud. 4–6 = Eth. Nic. 5–7). Less well known, at least until Dieter Harlfinger alerted scholars to the fact in 1971, is that some of the manuscripts of Eth. Eud. do, contrary to the then prevailing consensus, contain the text of these common books. Even less well known is that Harlfinger's discovery was anticipated some 50 years before by Walter Ashburner, who had uncovered this fact about Eth. Eud. MSS in the Laurentian library of Florence. Ashburner's anticipation of Harlfinger, however, is not the real value of his article. Its value rather is that it contains collations of readings for the common books, and thereby gives us an excellent resource for examining the text of the common books as this text is contained in exclusively Eth. Eud. MSS. The Eth. Eud. tradition of the common books has hitherto received little attention. Modern editions of Eth. Eud. do not include these books, and editions of Eth. Nic. have other MSS for the purpose. Ashburner's collations are the more valuable because they are taken from (among others) the one MS that, in Harlfinger's learned stemma, appears as the archetype for all the rest.
Scroll down this page to the paper heading:
ARISTOTLE'S ETHICA EUDEMIA: THE TEXT OF THE COMMON BOOKS AS FOUND IN EE MSS
for a pre-publication version of this paper
Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , May 2019 , pp. 187 - 201
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838819000430 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2019
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2019
Peter L.P. Simpson
Aristotle's Ethica Eudemia (Eth. Eud.) and Ethica Nicomachea (Eth. Nic.), as is well known and much discussed, contain three books in common (Eth. Eud. 4–6 = Eth. Nic. 5–7). Less well known, at least until Dieter Harlfinger alerted scholars to the fact in 1971, is that some of the manuscripts of Eth. Eud. do, contrary to the then prevailing consensus, contain the text of these common books. Even less well known is that Harlfinger's discovery was anticipated some 50 years before by Walter Ashburner, who had uncovered this fact about Eth. Eud. MSS in the Laurentian library of Florence. Ashburner's anticipation of Harlfinger, however, is not the real value of his article. Its value rather is that it contains collations of readings for the common books, and thereby gives us an excellent resource for examining the text of the common books as this text is contained in exclusively Eth. Eud. MSS. The Eth. Eud. tradition of the common books has hitherto received little attention. Modern editions of Eth. Eud. do not include these books, and editions of Eth. Nic. have other MSS for the purpose. Ashburner's collations are the more valuable because they are taken from (among others) the one MS that, in Harlfinger's learned stemma, appears as the archetype for all the rest.
Scroll down this page to the paper heading:
ARISTOTLE'S ETHICA EUDEMIA: THE TEXT OF THE COMMON BOOKS AS FOUND IN EE MSS
for a pre-publication version of this paper
Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , May 2019 , pp. 187 - 201
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009838819000430 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2019
This book deconstructs the story of liberalism that John Rawls, author of Political Liberalism, and many others have put forward. Peter L.P. Simpson argues that political liberalism is despotic because it denies to politics a concern with the comprehensive human good; political illiberalism overcomes this despotism and restores genuine freedom. In Political Illiberalism, Simpson provides a detailed account of these political phenomena and presents a political theory opposed to that of Rawls and other proponents of modern liberalism. Simpson analyses and confronts the assumptions of this liberalism by challenging its view of liberty and especially its cornerstone that politics should not be about the comprehensive good. He presents the fundamentals of the idea of a truer liberalism as derived from human nature, with particular attention to the role and power of religion, using the political thought of Aristotle, the founding fathers of the United States, thinkers of the Roman Empire, and contemporary practice. Political Illiberalism concludes with reflections on morals in the political context of the comprehensive good. Simpson views the modern state as despotically authoritarian; consequently, seeking liberty within it is illusory. Human politics requires devolution of authority to local communities, on the one hand, and a proper distinction between spiritual and temporal powers, on the other. This thought-provoking work is essential for all political scientists and philosophy scholars.
The book with supplement is also available from my website aristotelophile.com and in print from Amazon.com
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