On the Road from Athens to Thebes Again: Some Thirteenth-Century Thinkers on Converse Relations

TY - JOUR

T1 - On the Road from Athens to Thebes Again

T2 - Some Thirteenth-Century Thinkers on Converse Relations

AU - Hansen, Heine

PY - 2016/5/3

Y1 - 2016/5/3

N2 - If Sophroniscus is the father of Socrates, then Socrates is the son of Sophroniscus. If Socrates is similar to Plato, then Plato is similar to Socrates. But how many relations does Sophroniscus and Socrates being so related involve? How many does Plato and Socrates being thus related? Is there a difference between the two cases? These are questions that have featured prominently in discussions of relations in recent years, but they are by no means new. Focusing on a text by the later Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Kilwardby (d. 1279), this paper explores some of the replies and main arguments advanced by a number of philosophers working in the Latin west in the mid-to-late thirteenth century.

AB - If Sophroniscus is the father of Socrates, then Socrates is the son of Sophroniscus. If Socrates is similar to Plato, then Plato is similar to Socrates. But how many relations does Sophroniscus and Socrates being so related involve? How many does Plato and Socrates being thus related? Is there a difference between the two cases? These are questions that have featured prominently in discussions of relations in recent years, but they are by no means new. Focusing on a text by the later Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Kilwardby (d. 1279), this paper explores some of the replies and main arguments advanced by a number of philosophers working in the Latin west in the mid-to-late thirteenth century.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Medival Philosophy

U2 - 10.1080/09608788.2015.1055230

DO - 10.1080/09608788.2015.1055230

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0960-8788

SP - 468

EP - 489

JO - British Journal for the History of Philosophy

JF - British Journal for the History of Philosophy

ER -