The paper aims to show that ανoια is the general term for the diseases of the soul, and that μανία and αμαϑία are not necessarily two distinct species but two levels of the same disease: ignorance signifies the cognitive state, whereas madness indicates both a cognitive state and a specific phenomenal character. Plato's other remarks on psychic ailments can be incorporated into this account. The result can also be accommodated to the general theory of the soul–body relationship in the dialogue. (...) Incarnated souls cannot work without the corresponding activity of the body, even if this does not rule out the possibility for the soul to exist in a discarnate state. (shrink)

A partire dall’analisi di alcuni passi del Timeo, il testo propone lo studio delle cause e dei tipi di infermità che affliggono la salute umana al fine di mostrare che la maniera in cui il filosofo concepisce le malattie è una chiave per approfondire l’antropologia e l’etica dell’ultimo Platone. Presupposto della ricerca è la visione olistica che caratterizza il Timeo, in cui la condizione umana influenza il livello socio-politico e il livello cosmico, i quali, a loro volta, condizionano e sono (...) condizionati dalla presenza dell’uomo. Per finalizzare lo studio abbiamo circoscritto l’analisi ai passi 69c-90c del Timeo. Starting with the analysis of some Timaeus passages, the text proposes the study of the causes and of the types of infirmity that afflict human health in order to demonstrate that the way the philosopher conceives illnesses is a key to get a deeper knowledge of the anthropology and ethics of the last Plato. Premise of the research is the holistic vision that characterizes the Timaeus, in which the human condition affects the socio political level and the cosmic level which, in their turn, affect and are affected by the human presence. To finalize the study, we analyzed the pages 69c-90c of the Timaeus. A partire dall’analisi di alcuni passi del Timeo, il testo propone lo studio delle cause e dei tipi di infermità che affliggono la salute umana al fine di mostrare che la maniera in cui il filosofo concepisce le malattie è una chiave per approfondire l’antropologia e l’etica dell’ultimo Platone. Presupposto della ricerca è la visione olistica che caratterizza il Timeo, in cui la condizione umana influenza il livello socio-politico e il livello cosmico, i quali, a loro volta, condizionano e sono condizionati dalla presenza dell’uomo. Per finalizzare lo studio abbiamo circoscritto l’analisi ai passi 69c-90c del Timeo. (shrink)

Plato’s Timaeus contains an argument that vice is involuntary. Here I present an interpretation of that argument and, upon doing so, relate the underlying conception of voluntariness to that found in Aristotle’s Eudemian Ethics. I argue that in the Timaeus, for something to be voluntary it must be caused by the agent’s intellect in a certain way. This idea, in turn, relies on an identification of the agent with her intellect: the reason that what is voluntary must be caused by (...) the agent’s intellect is that what is voluntary is what the agent herself is responsible for. The conception of the voluntary in the Eudemian Ethics differs less radically than one might think. There too Aristotle wishes to respect the idea that there is an important connection between what is voluntary and what is caused by our rational capacities, but he differs in how he fills out the relevant rational capacities. (shrink)