Epicurean Transmission Or Parádosis, Between The Protreptikós Lógos And The Paraínesis
Keywords:
Epicurus, Transmission, Protreptic, Parenetic, Practical WisdomAbstract
At the beginning of the Letter to Menoeceus can be interpreted as a protreptikós lógos. However, the rest of the letter conforms to the pattern of parainesis which is the series of advice that a Master offered to his disciples, who had adhered to his philosophical school. Following this standpoint, Epicurus reminds Menoeceus of the exercise of the way of life he had chosen and the schemes (týpoi) of philosophy. This article intends to show that in the Letter to Menoeceus, both protreptikós lógos and paraínesis work as forms of transmission. By the analysis of the passages in which Epicurus refers that human beings must discover the end of nature (tò tês phýseos télos), which consists in knowing that good things (tò tón agathón péras) have a limit as well as the painful ones. The best-known formula of Epicurean ethics will also be analyzed, often called in secondary literature the tetraphármakos (quadruple medicine): “God presents no fears, death no worries. And while good is readily attainable, evil is readily endurable.” The aim of the research will be to point out that for Epicurus, the greatest source of pleasure (hedoné) is the virtue of practical wisdom (phrónesis). Connected to this, I argue that the Epicurean transmission (parádosis) used the protreptic (protreptikós lógos) and parenetic (paraínesis) discourse to urge the disciples the cultivation of phrónesis.
Downloads
References
Acosta, E. (1980). “En torno al Protréptico de la carta de Epicuro a Meneceo” Helmántica. Revista de filología clásica y hebrea 31, 94: 89-114.
Angeli, A. (1988). Agli amici di scuola: PHerc. 1005. Nápoli: Bibliópolis.
Annas, J. - G.Betegh (eds.) (2015). Cicero’s De Finibus. Philosophical Approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Arrighetti, G. (1960). Epicuro. Opere. Turín: Einaudi.
Arrighetti, G. (1980). “Aporie aristoteliche ed etica epicúrea”. Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 5: 9-26.
Arrighetti (2013) “Forme della comunicazione in Epicuro” en M. Erler, J.E. Hessler (ed.). Argument und literarische Form in antiken Philosophie. Berlin: De Gruyter: 315-338.
Alieva, O. (2018) “Protreptic: A Protean Genre” en Alieva, O., A. Kotzé y S. Van der Meeren. When Wisdom Calls: Philosophical Protreptic in Antiquity. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers: 29-48.
Asmis, E. (2001). “Basic Education in Epicureanism” en Lee Tee, Y. Education in Greek and Roman antiquity. Leiden: Brill: 210-239.
Aubenque, P. (1963). La Prudence chez Aristote. Paris: PUF.
Barrenechea, A.M. (1990). “La epístola y su naturaleza genérica”. Dispositio. Revista Hispánica de semiótica literaria XV, 39: 51- 65.
Bignone, E. (1936). L’ Aristotele perduto e la formazione filosofica di Epicuro. Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
Campos Daroca, F.J. y M. P. López Martínez (2010). “Communauté épicurienne et communication épistolaire. Lettres de Femmes selon le PHerc. 176: La correspondance de Batis en Antoni, A., G. Arrighetti; M.I. Bertagna y D. Delattre (eds.). Miscellanea Papyrologica Herculanensia. Vol. I. Pisa; Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore: 21-36.
Cicerón, M.T., De Finibus = Pimentel Álvarez, J., (2002), De los fines de los bienes y los males. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Clay, D. (1998). Paradosis and survival: three chapters in the history of Epicurean philosophy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press: 22.
Damiani, V. (2021). La Kompendienliteratur nella scuola di Epicuro. Forme, funzioni, contesto. Berlin-New York: De Gruyter.
Diógenes Laercio (DL) = Diogenes Laertius. Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Edited with Introduction Dorandi T. New York: Cambridge University Press.
De Sanctis, D.(2010). “Phrónesis e phrónimoi nel Giardino”. Cronache Ercolanesi 40: 75-86.
De Sanctis, D. (2015). “Questioni di stile: osservazioni sul linguaggio e sulla comunicazione del sapere nelle lettere maggiori di Epicuro” en De Sanctis, D., E. Spinelli, M. Tulli y F. Verde. Questioni epicuree. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag: 55-73.
De Sanctis, D. (2012). “Utile al singolo, utile a molti: il proemio dell’epistola a Pitocle”. Cronache Ercolanesi 42: 95-109.
Dorandi, T. (2020). “Epicurus and The Epicurean School” en Mitsis, P. (ed.). Oxford Handbook of Epicurus and Epicureanism. New York: Oxford University Press:12-42.
Dorandi, T. (2004) “Aspetti de la tradizione “gnomológica” di Epicuro e degli epicurei” en Funghi M.S.(éd.) Aspetti di litteratura gnómica nel mondo antico II. Firenze: L.S. Olschki Editore: 271-288.
Erler, M. (2010). “Nephón Logismós. A proposito del contesto letterario e filosofico di una categoria fondamentale del pensiero epicureo”. Cronache Ercolanesi 40 : 23-29.
Erler, M. (2012). “Aplanés Theoría. Einige Aspekte der epikureischen Vorstellung vom
Bíos Theoretikós”en Bénatouïl Th. - M. Bonazzi (eds.). Theoria, Praxis, and the Contemplative Life after Plato and Aristotle. Leiden-Boston: Brill: 41-55.
Gadamer, H.G. (1928). “Der Aristotelische Protreptikos und die Entwicklungsgeschichtliche Betrachtung der Aristotelischen Ethik” en Hermes 63, 3: 138-164.
Hadot, P. (1987). “La philosophie comme manière de vivre” en Hadot, P. Exercises Spirituels et Philosophie Antique. Paris: Études Agustiniennes: 217-227.
Hartlich, P. (1889). “De exhortationum a Graecis Romanisque scriptarum historia et indole”. Leipziger Studien zur classischen Philologie 11: 207-336.
Hessler, J.E. (2014). Epikur, Brief an Menoikeus. Basel: Schwabe Verlag.
Hessler, J.E. (2011). “Proposte sulla data di composizione e il destinatario dell’ Epistola a Meneceo Cronache Ercolanesi: 41: 7-11.
Jordan, M. (1986). “Ancient Philosophical Protreptic and the Problem of Persuasive Genres”. Rhetorica 4: 309-33.
Lucrecio. De Rerum Natura – De la Naturaleza (2012). Traducción, introducción y notas de Valentí Fiol, E. Barcelona: Acantilado.
Liddell, H.G. - R., Scott - H.S., Jones (1996) = LSJ. Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Long, A. A. – D.N., Sedley (1987). The Hellenistic Philosophers, vol.1 y 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Megino Rodríguez, C. (2006). Aristóteles. Protréptico: una exhortación a la filosofía. Madrid: Abada Editores.
Mitsis, Ph. (2015). L’Éthique d’Épicure. Les Plaisirs de l'invulnérabilité. Paris: Classiques Garnier.
Mitsis, Ph. (1993). “Committing Philosophy on the Reader: Didactic Coercion and Reader Autonomy in De Rerum Natura”. Materiali e discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 31: 111-128.
Morel, P.-M. (2019), “Épicure et la Phrónesis: Une autre Sagesse Pratique” en ETHIKE THEORIA. Studi sull’ Etica Nicomachea in onore di Carlo Natali. Masi F., S. Maso, C. Viano (a cura di) Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura: 365-386.
Morel, P-M. (2014), Epicurus’ Garden: Ethics and Politics, en J. Warren – Sheffield 2014, 469-481.
Morel, P.M. (2011). Épicure. Lettres, maximes et autres textes. Paris: GF-Flammarion.
Nussbaum, M. (2003). La terapia del deseo. Teoría y práctica en la ética helenística. Barcelona: Editorial Paidós.
Purinton, J. (1993) “Epicurus on the Telos” en Phrónesis 38, 3: 281-320.
Starr, J. (2004). “Was Paraenesis for Beginners?” en Starr J. and T. Engberg-Pedersen. Early Christian Paraenesis in Context. Berlin-New York: Walter De Gruyter: 73–112.
Sedley, D. (1973). “The structure of Epicurus’On nature”. Cronache Ercolanesi: 4: 89-92.
Sedley, D. (1998). “The inferential foundations of Epicurean ethics” en Everson S. (ed.), Ethics. Companions to Ancient Thought 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 129-50.
Swancutt, D. (2004). “Paraenesis in Light of Protrepsis. Troubling the Typical Dichotomy” en Starr J. and T. Engberg-Pedersen Early Christian Paraenesis in Context. Berlin-New York: Walter De Gruyter: 113-153.
Van der Meeren, S. (2002). “Le protreptique en philosophie: essai de définition d'un genre”. Revue des Études Grecques 115: 591-621.
Van der Meeren, S. (2011). Exhortation à la philosophie. Le dossier grec Aristote. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Verde, F. (2010). Epicuro. Epistola a Erodoto. Roma: Carocci.
Verde, F. (2013). Epicuro. Roma: Carocci: 9-22.
Usener, H. (1887), Epicurea. Leipzig: Teubner.
Usener, H. (1977), Glossarium Epicureum. Gigante, M. & W. Schmid (ed.). Roma: Edizioni dell’ Ateneo & Bizzarri.
Usener, H. (2002), Epicurea. Testi de Epicuro e Testimonianze Epicuree nella Raccolata di Hermann Usener, Testo Greco e Latino a fronte, Traduzione e nota Ramelli, I. Milán: Bompiani.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
ARK
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Páginas de Filosofía
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
