Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon

by F.E. Peters

Isolates terms and offers an evolutionary history of the concept instead of a mere definition

Genres: Philosophy, Reference

234 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1967

Reviews

[William Bies · Rating 4 out of 5]

If one venture to study ancient philosophy in the original, he will be immediately confronted with the problem of vocabulary. As anyone conversant in more than one language knows, terms do not always neatly map bijectively from one to another. Even if one were prepared to employ the original terminology, there remains still the difficulty of knowing what it could have meant to the ancient authors – who themselves are striking out into uncharted waters, not being in possession of an intellectual tradition of their own but having to invent a philosophical significance which they wish to confer on the words they borrow from their literary and mythological sources.

Now, a standard Greek-English lexicon like Liddell-Scott, say, while perhaps sufficient to the purpose of deciphering a text, fails to be all that useful since its definitions, in typical dictionary fashion, tend to be quite terse. Therefore, the serious scholar will want to turn to a specialized philosophical dictionary. Far the best among those readily available these days is that by F.E. Peters, subject of the present review. Also very convenient for looking up loci classici: for instance, where does Aristotle propound the doctrine of the four causes (answer, in article on aitia [p. 16]: Physics 194b-195a + Metaphysics 1013a-1014a).

Some highlights: an excellent entry on aisthesis traces its meaning from the Ionians to Plotinus [pp. 8-15]. If one reads straight through rather than treating Peters merely as a reference work, one will encounter surprising little tidbits along the way that make it worth the effort. For instance, Peters remarks on the identification of apeiron with the material principle and hence its involvement in the problematic of evil [p. 20], see kakon! A few of the other extended entries deserve mention in particular: dynamis [pp. 42-25]; eidos [pp. 46-51]; hen [pp. 78-83]; kinesis and kinoun [pp. 101-108]; noesis [pp. 121-128]; nous [pp. 132-139]; ouranioi and ouranos [pp. 146-151]; physis [pp. 158-160]; psyche [pp. 166-176]; stoicheion [pp. 180-185]; and lastly theos [pp. 194-196].

Merely to list entries of note, however, fails to convey a full sense of the pleasure one derives from poring over the history of a term, under Peters’ masterly guidance. Moreover, since he complements his pocket histories with complete references to primary sources, one knows just where to look to follow up on a key juncture. If one possesses already some familiarity with many of the ancient authors, Peters helps one to fill in the dots and to review again the sources one knows at another level. To conclude, the historical approach can be very illuminating, especially as to how the remote origins of a concept can to our eyes appear naïvely materialistic yet over course of time may be refined and become highly abstract. For instance, consider the progression of the concept of time [chronos] extending from the mythological figure who rules over the world and who can be identified with Saturn [Kronos], still somewhat personified in Anaximander, via the Pythagoreans, Plato, Aristotle and the Epicureans all the way to Plotinus’ life of the intelligibles.

There are some oddities in where a topic is treated, e.g. no separate article on analogia but one has to check entries on agnostos, dike, thesis and onoma – which are at least cross-referenced at the blank entry for analogia. Unfortunately, none of the terms is set in Greek type, even once. All around, though, very much to be recommended to the budding classicist – even a brief few paragraphs in Peters concisely open up a panoply of reflections for the adept!

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review:

February 2007

A very useful resource with one small flaw

This book is of tremendous use to anyone interested in Greek Philosophy. It is a dictionary that also gives (in a rather abbreviated form, naturally) the history of the usage of a given philosophical term. Now, this terse 'history' of the term is confined to the realm of ancient (or non-monotheistic) thought. Thus 'hyle', for example, is defined and discussed not only in Aristotelian terms but also in comparison with its usage in Plato, Stoicism and Plotinus too. As indicated, this is done in an extremely abbreviated manner. Now, all Greek terms are transliterated into our Alphabet - which is good; but it would also have been even more helpful if the term appeared written in the Greek alphabet too. Why? This would help students begin to recognize the Greek term whenever it appears in texts. Many specialized studies in Greek philosophy, for example, assume that anyone reading the text is already fully competent in Greek and thus they do not bother to translate or transliterate Greek terms. But I can assure you that this competence is not always the case! Thus, a book like this which was intended to be helpful to students could have been even more helpful by at least once printing the term in Greek next to its transliteration into our alphabet. The perfect spot to have done this would have been the useful 30 page English-Greek Index that ends the book. Also note that since this book is aimed at the 'intermediate student' it was presumed that the reader has "some familiarity with the material it has been judged safe to substitute, in a fairly thorough way, a terminology transliterated directly from the Greek for their English equivalents in a modest effort at lightening the historical baggage." This means that they usually use, for example, 'stoicheion' for 'element' and 'physis' for 'nature'. And this is a good thing. But they still should have shown each term at least once in the original Greek...

That said, this book is a wonderful accessory to the study of Greek philosophical terms made necessary by the fact that the philosophical tradition has, over the many centuries, turned words that were used in ordinary Greek language into technical terms. So this book is also a work of recovery. Of course, this turn towards technical language is not simply a post-classical innovation. In fact, our author insists that "the implication the Socratic-centered Platonic dialogue is still that two reasonably educated citizens can sit down and discuss these matters. Whether this is the truth of the matter or mere literary rhetoric we cannot tell. But no such premiss is visible in Aristotle who insists on a standardized technical usage." So we see, according to our author, that relatively early ordinary Greek terms began taking on resonances that the ordinary Greek would not have known. Where the usual History of Philosophy tells its story through successive schools of thought, this book, though of course not intended as an ordinary history, tells the story of Greek Philosophy through the movement of the meaning (and use) of concepts. The entries, though terse, are cross-referenced and this too I found to be quite useful. Also, and this too was quite useful, citations of the Greek texts are usually given. Thus if one isn't certain of the explanation one can go to the cited text and see its full usage. This book has been an excellent resource for me. Naturally, you will need to supplement this book, which only contains Greek Philosophical Terms, with a copy of Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon. How would I improve this book? First and most importantly, each Greek philosophical term must, at least once, appear in the Greek script. Secondly, some of the entries really do need to be expanded. The historical lexicon itself is only 200 pages. However, these are quibbles, four and a half stars for a very useful book for beginning to intermediate students. Generally, when one is beyond that level of competence, the only opinion one trusts is ones own...

In order to give an idea of the range of this dictionary I close by listing the entries for 'a':

adiaphoron
aer
agathon
agenetos
agnostos
agrapha dogmata
agraphos nomos
aidios
aion
aisthesis
aisthesis koine
aistheton
aither
aition
aletheia
algos
allegoria
alloiosis
analogia
anamnesis
ananke
anaplerosis
apatheia
apeiron
aphairesis
aphthartos
apodeixis
aporia
aponia
aporrhoai
arche
arete
arithmos
arithmos eidetikos
arithmos mathematikos
asymmetron
ataraxia
athanatos
atomon
autarkeia
automaton

Now, note that some of these terms had no information, they simply direct a student to another entry. Thus the 'agraphos nomos' entry only has the accepted translation, 'unwritten law', and then the redirect, 'See nomos'. Of these 41 entries 11 are merely 'redirects' to other entries. The length of the entries varies from 5 lines for apodeixis (pointing out, demonstration, truth) to 7 pages for aisthesis (perception, sensation). While there are several entries almost as terse as the entry for apodeixis, the entry for aisthesis is by far the longest of the above. There is no other entry, in 'a', that even reaches a full 2 pages. The entries for 'a' go from page 3 to page 29. The final entry to our lexicon (zoon: living being animal) concludes on page 201. Note that 'b' only has two entries (boulesis: wish and bouleusis: deliberation) and both are redirects. I have only provided these brief indications because Amazon (ultimately, the publisher) provides no 'Search Inside this Book' feature for this book...

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gloria şi blestemul filosofiei greceşti ţin de faptul că ea este lipsită de trecut. Neavând la îndemână altceva decât vorbirea comună şi potenţialul elastic al limbii greceşti, filosofii eleni nu numai că au formulat o problematică în tiparele căreia aveau să-şi toarne propriile lor reflecţii toţi gânditorii de mai târziu, ci au inventat totodată o complexă şi sofisticată terminologie ca vehicul pentru gândurile lor. Peste termenii şi peste conceptele folosite de ei s-a depus apoi, timp de un mileniu şi jumătate, o crustă de conotaţii pe care, oricât ne-am osteni, n-o mai putem îndepărta cu totul. Filosoful sau teologul din zilele noastre pot încerca să regândească conceptul, dar rostirea le va fi potrivnică: partea de sediment pe care gânditorul s-a străduit s-o îndepărteze va fi pusă la loc de către cititor. „Suflet” şi „Zeu” rămân masiv încărcate de sedimentul îndelungatei lor istorii.
Printr-o ironie întâlnită şi aiurea, noi proiectăm viitorul lor filosofic asupra trecutului nostru grecesc într-o multitudine de moduri. Avem experienţa unui Platon whiteheadean şi nietzschean, a unui Aristotel tomist şi hegelian şi chiar a unui Diogene existenţialist. Aşa cum au născocit atâtea alte lucruri, grecii au inventat şi acest sofism istoric particular. E clar că stoicii îl citeau pe Heraclit prin lentila propriei lor viziuni filosofice şi că neoplatonicienii îl citeau pe Platon prin prisma lui Plotin.
Este o necesitate evidentă să încercăm a ne apropia de greci printr-o mai mare fidelitate faţă de limbajul lor. Cred că lucrul acesta nu poate fi realizat în chip optim pe calea obişnuitei abordări cronologice şi istorice, care, în pofida împărţirilor în „şcoli” şi „succesiuni”, nu duce la limpezirea, ci mai degrabă la încâlcirea firului evoluţiilor pe care le-am putea altminteri desluşi în filosofia, antică. El poate fi realizat, în schimb, din perspectiva problematică pe care o dă în vileag tratarea succesivă a unora din conceptele de bază. Aceasta se poate face în mai multe moduri şi în proporţii diferite; metoda şi scara de lucru adoptate în lucrarea de faţă răspund cel mai bine nevoilor unui „cercetător intermediar” al domeniului, nu celor ale unui începător care ia primul său contact cu filosofia greacă şi căruia i-ar fi mai de folos o istorie a filosofiei antice plus, eventual, un dicţionar al termenilor de bază, şi nici celor ale cercetătorului de profesie, care ar avea nevoie de o tratare mai amplă şi totodată mai nuanţată.
Cum despre acest „cercetător intermediar” se poate presupune că e într-o oarecare măsură familiarizat cu materialul, am socotit nimerit ca în locul echivalentelor să folosim mai peste tot o terminologie transliterată direct din limba greacă, într-un modest efort de uşurare a bagajului istoric. De jargon e mai uşor să te lecuieşti decât de idei preconcepute şi tocmai această speranţă ne-a făcut să scriem stoicheion pentru element şi physis pentru natură. La sfârşitul cărţii cititorul va găsi şi un indice complet, cu trimiteri la toţi termenii greceşti relevanţi.
Prezentarea, care urmează desprinde, aşadar, un număr de copaci din pădurea care câteodată ameninţă să ne covâr-sească pe toţi, încercând să urmărească în ce mod se dezvoltă fiecare din ei de la ghindă până la stejarul matur. Ea încearcă de asemenea – dacă mi-e îngăduit să mai zăbovesc puţin în această metaforă – să dea în vileag câte ceva din împletitura rădăcinilor. Fiecare articol cuprinde ample trimiteri la altele, iar ansamblul acestor referinţe creează în jurul fiecărui termen un context filosofic destul de complet. Fiecare articol oferă o cantitate de informaţie, dar semnificaţia trebuie căutată în complexele mai largi, în fine, fiecare articol a fost conceput în aşa fel încât să fie citit împreună cu textele filosofilor înşişi şi, în acest scop, la fiecare pas al drumului se fac numeroase trimiteri la asemenea texte. Acestea reprezintă elementele finale în construcţia unui context fecund, în care istoria anterioară a conceptului aduce lumină în textul filosofic, în timp ce textul sporeşte înţelegerea termenului.