Browsing by Author "Park, Jung Hoon"
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- ItemThe psychagogical function of the topos of anger in Greco-Roman moral philosophy(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Park, Jung Hoon; Thom, Johan Carl, 954-ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the psychological tradition of ancient philosophy, emotions were an important topic frequently treated by philosophers with a concern for soul-care. The analogy between philosophy and medical science describes the ancient moral philosophical perspective on emotions. According to the analogy, a philosopher is a doctor, emotions are psychological illnesses, and philosophical discourse is medicine for the soul. This analogy provided the basic frame of the moral philosophical way of deploying arguments on emotions. As the worst kind of emotion, anger was dealt with in this context. Although scholars have observed that anger had been a traditional topic frequently treated in a conventional way by ancient philosophers since Aristotle, there has not been a systematic analysis of the way in which anger was treated as a topos. Accordingly, the present study conducts topos analysis on four moral philosophical treatises on anger written in Greco-Roman period, namely, Philodemus’ De ira, Seneca’s De ira, Plutarch’s De cohibenda ira, and Galen’s De proporiorum animi cuiuslibet affectuum dignotione et curatione. The aim of analysing anger as a topos is to describe the way in which the argument on anger is deployed, its function, and how it performs its function. All four authors deploy their arguments on anger under three headings: 1) what is anger; 2) why is anger to be eradicated; and 3) how is anger to be eradicated. This indicates that the authors discuss anger with a psychagogical concern for curing the soul by eradicating anger. Also, it is observed that the conflict between the monistic and multipartite psychological models is at work in progress throughout the topos of anger, and, that the topos of anger performs a protreptic role as well. The study shows that topos analysis is a valid and effective approach to ancient texts because a better understanding of topoi leads to a more nuanced reading of ancient texts by assisting us in mapping out the ancient intellectual universe.
- ItemThe topos of the Great King(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Park, Jung Hoon; Thom, Johan Carl; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Ancient Studies.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In multiple ancient Greek texts, the phrase ‘the Great King’ (ὁ μέγας ὁ βασιλεύς) makes a frequent appearance. This phrase, when it was introduced to the ancient Greek world, referred to the ancient Persian kings such as Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius and Artaxerxes. In addition, it also referred to the leaders of hierarchically organised governances. However, Pseudo-Aristotle (De mundo 398a.30), Maximus of Tyre (Dissertationes 11.12), Aelius Aristides (Orationes 26.27) and Philo of Alexandria (De decalogo 61, 177-8, De opificio mundi 71, De somniis 140- 1) adopted this phrase in a distinctive way. This phrase entails an image of the monarchical system of governance, in which the Great King, who stays hidden in his palace, rules over his empire through his satraps, his eyes and ears and the beacon-signals. These four authors utilised this image of the phrase ‘the Great King’, which consists of the Great King, his subjects and the beacon-signals. These elements imply the main components of a Middle Platonic frame of the cosmos: 1) the prime god who is transcendent from the cosmos, 2) his divine mediators who are immanent in the cosmos and 3) the hierarchical order, according to which all existential beings are arranged. Consequently, it becomes clear that these four authors utilised this image to develop their own arguments on the basis of the Middle Platonic understanding of the cosmos prevalent in their time. Because of the function and implication of this image, this thesis labels the image as a topos, which indicates a conventional way of dealing with a traditional moral-philosophical topic. The main concern of this thesis is indeed to demonstrate that the image of the Great King as used by these authors is a moral-philosophical topos and to show how this topos is used in the respective texts.