He then moves on to provide some preliminary information about Posidonius himself. Human beings, in turn, are embedded in the fabric of the world, and share with the Logos of the whole. Struck begins the chapter by reminding us of some core concepts of Stoic metaphysics, beginning with the idea that the soul is a unitary thing (not made of parts, like Plato thought), and that the cosmos is a living organism animated by the Logos, its rational principle.
Divination is also rarely commented on in Stoic circles, because it is automatically relegated to the category of superstition, something the Stoics were wrong about and that we just don’t need to be concerned with nowadays. Posidonius is a fascinating figure in his own right, and he is often not written about because all we have by him are fragments and indirect sources (as opposed to, say the wealth of stuff by Seneca).
HOW TO READ PEOPLE THE ART OF DEDUCTION FULL
While the full book is worth reading for anyone interested in ancient Greco-Roman culture, as well as in the early development of science, there is a whole chapter on Posidonius, one of the major figures of the so-called Middle Stoa, the period during which Stoicism transitioned from its original home in Athens to Rome. Struck: Divination and Human Nature, A Cognitive History of Intuition in Classical Antiquity.
Recently I’ve been asked to write a review of a fascinating book by Peter T.
0 kommentar(er)
