The collective monograph "Ontology of Stative Situations - Linguistic Modeling. A Contrastive Bulgarian-Russian Study" includes research carried out within the project of the same name "Ontology of stative situations – linguistic modeling. A contrastive Bulgarian-Russian study", supported by the "Scientific Research" Fund of the Ministry of Education and Science in Bulgaria (№ КП-06-РУСИЯ / 23) and from the Russian Fund for Fundamental Research (No. 20-512-18005).

In times of growing populism throughout the world, the article offers a rethinking of its nature and manifestations with the help of Pierre Rosanvallon’s critical democratic theory. The French social thinker offers a comprehensive concept of this world phenomenon as a product of democracy and its borderline form. In line with his approach of considering each phenomenon in its theoretical and historical dimensions, Rosanvallon derives the “invariant elements” of populism, traces their manifestations from the late 19th century to the present (...) day, critiques key theoretical ideas of populism as they have been applied in practice, and suggests various ways to overcome the aporias of populism arising from the structural indeterminacy of democracy. Rosanvallon’s analysis was used to pose questions specific to contemporary Bulgarian society. (shrink)

I consider problem of questions used with the purpose of manipulating. If one is proficient in the art of asking questions, he/she can manipulate answers to the posed questions. If one does not want to be manipulated by questions, one should manipulate questions themselves. Moreover, I show that questions are not only a tool of gaining new information.

Ancient Greek Philosophy routinely relied upon concepts of number to explain the tangible order of the universe. Plotinus' contribution to this tradition, however, has been often omitted, if not ignored. The main reason for this, at first glance, is the Plotinus does not treat the subject of number in the Enneads as pervasively as the Neopythagoreans or even his own successors Lamblichus, Syrianus, and Proclus. Nevertheless, a close examination of the Enneads reveals that Plotinus systematically discusses number in relation to (...) each of his underlying principles of existence--the One, Intellect, and Soul. Plotinus on Number offers the first comprehensive analysis of Plotinus' concept of number, beginning with its origins in Plato and the Neopythagoreans and ending with its influence on Porphyry's arrangement of the Enneads. It's main argument is that Plotinus adapts Plato's and the Neopythagoreans' cosmology to place number in the foundation of the intelligible realm and in the construction of the universe. Through Plotinus' defense of Plato's Ideal Numbers from Aristotle's criticism, Svetla Slaveva-Griffin reveals the founder of Neoplatonism as the first post-Platonic philosopher who purposefully and systematically develops what we may call a theory of number, distinguishing between number in the intelligible realm and number in the quantitative, mathematical realm. Finally, the book draws attention to Plotinus' concept as a necesscary and fundamental linke between Platonic and late Neoplatonic schools of philosophy. (shrink)

Edited by Svetla S. Griffin and Ilaria L.E. Ramelli. Harvard University Press, Hellenic Studies 88, 2019, ca 600 pages. ISBN-10: 0674241320; ISBN-13: 978-0674241329. Contributors: Luc Brisson, Kevin Corrigan, John Dillon, Harold Tarrant, John Turner, John Finamore, Ilaria Ramelli, Karla Pollmann, Carlos Lévy, Lenka Karfíková, Pauliina Remes, Mark J. Edwards, Pier Franco Beatrice, Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, Aaron Johnson, Dimka Gocheva, Olivier Dufault, and Robert Hannah.

The Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism is an authoritative and comprehensive survey of the most important issues and developments in one of the fastest growing areas of research in ancient philosophy. An international team of scholars situates and re-evaluates Neoplatonism within the history of ancient philosophy and thought, and explores its influence on philosophical and religious schools worldwide. Over thirty chapters are divided into seven clear parts: sources, instruction and interaction Methods and Styles of Exegesis Metaphysics and Metaphysical Perspectives Language, Knowledge, (...) Soul, and Self Nature: Physics, Medicine and Biology Ethics, Political Theory and Aesthetics The legacy of Neoplatonism. The Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism is a major reference source for all students and scholars in Neoplatonism and ancient philosophy, as well as researchers in the philosophy of science, ethics, aesthetics and religion. (shrink)

The concept of number is the troublemaker in the history of Platonism. It separated the followers of Plato and Aristotle into two camps for generations. For Plotinus, however, the concept becomes the peacemaker, which reconciles the camps. The importance of this reconciliation is central to Plotinus’ philosophical system because it not only uses Aristotle to defend Plato from Aristotle himself, but establishes Plotinus’ concept of number as the fundamental link between the number theories of the Neopythagoreans and the later Neoplatonists.This (...) book demonstrates that the subject of number should be considered among the most important concepts for understanding Plotinus’ philosophy and therefore deserves greater scholarly attention than it has received. Plotinus adopts and adapts Platonic and Neopythagorean cosmology to place number in the foundation of the intelligible realm and the construction of the universe. Throughout the Enneads and especially in Ennead VI.6, he systematically peels off the layers of mathematical and quantitative perception from the concept of number to reveal that real intelligible number is the primary activity of substance, which orders the unfolding of the universe from its absolute source into a finite multiplicity. (shrink)

This chapter traces the historical and philosophical background of the concept of number from the Presocratics’ understanding of One and Many through Plato’s concepts of Limit and Unlimited, and Aristotle’s debate on the nature of number with Speusippus and Xenocrates, to the Neopythagoreans and Plotinus. Next, it examines the main difficulties with the concept of number in Plotinus: the unsystematic presentation of the concept in the Enneads, the lack of scholarly interest, and the brevity of Plotinus’ treatment of the subject. (...) At the end, this examination focuses on the presentation of the concept in Ennead VI.6, the treatise On Numbers. From a bird’s-eye view, the subject of multiplicity begins and ends the thematic composition of the treatise. As multiplicity unfolds from the One and enfolds to the One, so does the composition of the treatise unfold and enfold in nesting circles, moving away from and yet turning toward their center. The concentric composition of VI.6 conveys non-discursively the higher ontological presence of number in the intelligible realm and iconically sketches the spherical figure of the universe. (shrink)

This chapter investigates the Neopythagorean roots of Plotinus’ concept of number. Porphyry’s reports of Plotinus’ use of Neopythagorean sources in his teachings are quickly confirmed in the Enneads. In addition to Numenius’ influence on the definition of multiplicity as “separation,” this chapter reveals the programmatic significance of Moderatus’ distinction between the monad as the principle of numbers and the one as the principle of enumerated things on Plotinus’ two kinds of number. This discovery also shows Plotinus’ use of Moderatus’ definition (...) of mathematical number in the formulation of the outward and inward directions of multiplicity. Next, the chapter examines the elements from Nicomachus of Gerasa’s Introduction to Arithmetic in Plotinus’ concept of multiplicity. The final conclusion of the chapter shows that Plotinus views multiplicity exclusively as number, which preserves it from dissipating into infinity and thus non-existence. (shrink)

This chapter analyzes the relationship between number and substance in the intelligible realm. Plotinus formulates three hypotheses about the existence of number in the intelligible: 1) number is posterior to the Forms; 2) number is simultaneous with the Forms; and 3) number is anterior to the Forms. He proves that the last hypothesis is true. Based on the distinction between substance as ontological actualization of beings and quantity as the countability of individual units, he defines two kinds of number: Substantial (...) Number, which is the activity of substance and a power of being; and Monadic Number, which enumerates individual things. As an activity of substance, the former enacts the limiting role of the Monad, while, as a power of substance, it enacts the role of the Indefinite Dyad as potentiality, limited into existence by the Monad. While substantial number actualizes the existence of that which has separated from the One in the intelligible, monadic number expresses quantitatively that which has been already defined by substantial number. Plotinus also pioneers the view of the substantial number as henad and, in turn, shapes the development of later Neoplatonic theory of number. (shrink)

This chapter examines the relationship of Substantial Number and all intelligible entities: Absolute Being as “unified number;” Intellect as “number moving in itself”; beings as “unfolded number;” and the Complete Living Being as “encompassing number.” A closer examination reveals that the four aspects of substantial number correspond to Plato’s primary kinds of rest, movement, otherness, and sameness respectively. The chapter concludes that the properties of substantial number enact the above four primary kinds, while the fifth primary kind, that of being, (...) is the common denominator which represents them all. This conclusion also elucidates the relationship of substantial number with the One and Soul, as Plotinus does not identify them with a particular property of number. Since the properties of substantial number order Intellect on the inside and since both the One and Soul stand on the outside of Intellect, they do not inherit a particular property of number. Substantial number is an ontological expression of the One “beyond Being,” which does not possess any particular characteristic. Soul, however, as an image of Intellect, possesses all the properties of substantial number. (shrink)

This book is Yount's second installment in the Bloomsbury Studies in Ancient Philosophy. It comes on the heels of his debut in the series with Plotinus the Platonist: A Comparative Account of Plato and Plotinus' Metaphysics. The titles of both works clearly indicate what is close to Yount's heart; and he delivers, here as well as previously, the same passionate defense that there is an essentially inseparable connection between the philosophies of Plato and Plotinus. This stance may come as a (...) surprise to the expert reader of late ancient philosophy. For no opinion to the contrary has been put forth in the Neoplatonic scholarship in the last 120 years if we take, with Yount, as our terminus post quem Shorey's... (shrink)

This chapter examines the relationship between Plotinus’ concept of the origin of multiplicity as “separation from the One” and Plato’s presentation of the Demiurge’s composition of the universe in the Timaeus. The two terms characterize the “top-down” approach in Ennead VI.6 and the “bottom-up” approach in the Timaeus. The two works achieve the same goal—the explanation of the universe—with the same means—according to number—but from opposite starting points. The missing conceptual link between the two approaches, the chapter discovers, is found (...) in Numenius’ concept of the Three Gods, ordering the universe: the Father, the Maker, and the Creation. The characteristics of Numenius’ First God convey the dichotomy between rest, as being and stability, and motion, as change, in the first principle. The explicit paradox of ontological stability and innate motion in Numenius’ First God is implicitly present in Plotinus’ explanation of the origin of the universe as “separation.” This chapter concludes that Plotinus induces the concept of multiplicity as a measurement of the ontological distance from the One. It also opens the possibility for stronger Neopythagorean influences. (shrink)

This chapter analyzes Plotinus’ refutation of the Aristotle’s criticism of Plato’s view of number in the Parmenides. By rejecting any quantitative value of number in the intelligible realm, Plotinus specifically focuses on Aristotle’s inability to understand the Monad and the Indefinite Dyad as the principles of creation and order of the intelligible. The chapter shows that Plotinus not only follows the steps of his Platonic and Neopythagorean predecessors in defence of Plato’s position, but cleverly uses Aristotle’s own ideas in arguing (...) that number in the intelligible is activity and a property of primary substance. The result is an original and ontologically elaborate theory of substantial number which offers a new and more successful defence of Plato’s “true numbers” against Aristotle’s criticism and explains the relationship between substantial non-quantitative number and monadic quantitative number as that between intelligible paradigm and its material copy. (shrink)

Chapter six examines the relationship between Plotinus’ concepts of number and multiplicity, and Porphyry’s organization of the Enneads. Porphyry’s thematical arrangement of the Enneads is traditionally considered to be more detrimental than beneficial for understanding Plotinus’ thought. The chapter re-examines this issue and discovers that Porphyry fuses Plotinus’ philosophy with Neopythagorean numerical symbolism to reveal the central organizing theme of Plotinus’ universe. In the Neopythagorean tradition, the number six is considered to be the first perfect number and the hexad is (...) identified as the number of Soul, while the completion of the universe is represented by the number nine, which is “called ‘ennead’ as if it were the ‘henad’ of everything within it, by derivation from the ‘one’.” The individual treatises are consequently grouped in nines, because they enclose the numerical essence of the universe from “henad” to “ennead.” Porphyry’s arrangement of the Enneads encrypts numerically the perfect unity of Plotinus’ universe, for which Ennead VI.6 provides the conceptual blueprint. (shrink)

The article reviews the book "Philosophy and Myth: A Review of Recent Scholarship," by Svetla Slaveva-Griffin.

Name der Zeitschrift: Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie Jahrgang: 98 Heft: 2 Seiten: 231-234.

This article explores the substitution and complementary effects between political and social strategies on firm performance in the context of an emerging market (EM). Using in‐depth, historical case‐study approach, the article investigates how companies integrate political and social resources in this market. Corporate performance includes traditional measures, such as accounting performance and nonfinancial measures like the ease of doing business. The study finds that social strategies are stronger enablers of firm long‐term performance than political strategies. The latter have a short‐term (...) impact on performance, but their success over time is limited. The main drawback of reliance on political resources in EMs is the lack of political stability, fragmented polity, and weak political coalitions. We identify rather limited evidence of firms using these two strategies as complements. Thus, we suggest that firms should employ both these strategies in the EM. (shrink)

Platonic discourses concerning the soul are incredibly rich and multitiered. Plato's own diverse and disparate arguments and images offer competing accounts of how we are to understand the nature of the soul. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that the accounts of Platonists who engage Plato’s dialogues are often riddled with questions. This volume takes up the theories of well-known philosophers and theologians, including Plato, Plotinus, Proclus, the emperor Julian, and Origen, as well as lesser-known but equally important figures (...) in a collection of essays on topics such as transmigration of the soul, the nature of the Platonist enlightenment experience, soul and gender, pagan ritual practices, Christian and pagan differences about the soul, mental health and illness, and many other topics. Contributors include Crystal Addey, Sara Ahbel-Rappe, Dirk Baltzly, Robert Berchman, Jay Bregman, Luc Brisson, Kevin Corrigan, John Dillon, John F. Finamore, Lloyd P. Gerson, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, Elizabeth Hill, Sarah Klitenic Wear, Danielle A. Layne, Ilaria L. E. Ramelli, Gregory Shaw, Svetla Slaveva-Griffine, Suzanne Stern-Gillet, Harold Tarrant, Van Tu, and John D. Turner. (shrink)

The authors of this volume elucidate the remarkable role played by religion in the shaping and reshaping of narrative forms in antiquity and late antiquity in a variety of ways. This is particularly evident in ancient Jewish and Christian narrative, which is in the focus of most of the contributions, but also in some “pagan” novels such as that of Heliodorus, which is dealt with as well in the third part of the volume, both in an illuminating comparison with Christian (...) novels and in an inspiring rethinking of Heliodorus's relation to Neoplatonism. All of these essays, from different perspectives, illuminate the interplay between narrative and religion, and show how religious concerns and agendas shaped narrative forms in Judaism and early Christianity. A series of compelling and innovative articles, all based on fresh and often groundbreaking research by eminent specialists, is divided into three large sections: part one deals with ancient Jewish narrative, and part two with ancient Christian narrative, in particular gospels, acts, biographies, and martyrdoms, while part three offers a comparison with “pagan” narrative, and especially the religious novel of Heliodorus, both in terms of social perspectives and in terms of philosophical and religious agendas. Like the essays collected by Marília Futre Pinheiro, Judith Perkins, and Richard Pervo in 2013, which investigate the core role played by narratives in Christian and Jewish self-fashioning in the Roman Empire, the present volume fruitfully bridges the disciplinary gap between classical studies and ancient Jewish and Christian studies, offers new insights, and hopefully opens up new paths of inquiry. Contributions by (in alphabetical order): Cathryn Chew, Mark J. Edwards, Erich Gruen, Vincent Hunink, David Konstan, Karen King, Dennis MacDonald, Laura S. Nasrallah, Judith Perkins, Richard Pervo, Ilaria Ramelli, Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta, Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, and Lawrence Wills. (shrink)

I discuss the foundations of predicate ontologies based on two model notions – elementary states of affairs and eventualities, i.e. ordered pairs of initial and end states of affairs. Vendlerian classifications are oriented towards elementary states and tense logic, while Davidsonian classifications deal with eventualities and event logic. There are two kinds of atemporal predicates - fact and properties. Facts are propositional arguments of second-order predicates which add a special meaning that the embedded proposition was verified. Properties are atemporal first-order (...) predicates that lack eventive interpretation and are not associated with factive frames. Davidsonian states are homogeneous durable spatiotemporal things distinct both from atemporal properties and spatiotemporal dynamic predicates. Davidsonian states are causally independent, while resultatives are causally determined as they reconstruct a preceding event that has caused the end state p. I discuss the contrast between external and internal Davidsonian states. The former lack a priority argument and can be quantified extensionally. The latter have a priority experiential argument and can only be quantified intensionally. External states can be observed, while internal states cannot. (shrink)