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[German Version] (Gk “practical good sense”) was already important for the dramatists of antiquity, especially for Sophocles; in Plato’s dialogues it is one of the four cardinal virtues. The fact that, in Plato, phronesis can be replaced by sophía (cf. Rep. IV 10, 433b7–c2) shows that, unlike Aristotle at a later date, Plato has not yet distinguished between practical and theoretical capacity for thought. Aristotle gives the term phronesis the status of a philosophical term. Alongside the three other dianoetic virtues of skill ( téchnē), science ( epistḗmē), and philosophical wis…

[German Version] a school of Greek philosophy (I) in the 5th and 4th centuries bce…

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[German Version] is a term used by Plato (μέθεξις/ méthexis), first, to explain the relation of ideas to appearances (Phenomenon) that participate in ideas, and secondly, to explain the relation that ideas may have to one another, where one may participate in another. In applying the term in the second sense, the term “fellowship” (κοινωνία/ koinōnía) is also used ( Soph. 254b8–c5). The concept of participation implies that the one participating has a lower rank of being than the one in which it participates ( Symposion 211b1–5), but the term “fellowship” does not imply any such…

[German Version] The concept of appearance presupposes a distinction between appearance (Phenomenon) and that which appears. Depending on how this distinction is interpreted – i.e. whether that which appears is visible in the phenomenon, or not –, the appearance is either revelatory or deceptive. These two concepts of “appearance” have left their mark on the history of philosophy. In Plato, appearance is already marked by a measure of ambiguity. In the Dialogues of his middle period, especially in the parable of the cave in the Republic, he ascribes a lesser ontological rank to …

[German Version] “Becoming” ( Werden) is the antithetical concept to “being” ( Sein). The distinction between these concepts has been attributed to the different philosophical approaches of Heraclitus (“Becoming”) and Parmenides (“Being”). Although this categorization finds strong support in the descriptions of the philosophy of the Heracliteans and of Parmenides in Plato's Theaetetus (179d–181b), it is in fact questionable, since this distinction is already heralded in the two sections of P…

[German Version] the power or ability to do something. Plato distinguished between a “capacity to effect something” (δύναμις τού ποιείν/ dýnamis toú poieín) and a “capacity to suffer something” (δύναμις τού πάσχειν/ dýnamis toú páschein; Soph. 247e–248e). Aristotle ¶ adopted this distinction between two types of capacity and expanded upon it by adding the distinction between “capacity” or “possibility” (δύναμις) and “reality” (ἐνέργεια/ enérgeia; act and potency). As an active or passive “principle of change or movement” ( Metaph. V 12, 1019b19–20), a capacity mani…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Ethics I. Philosophy The expression e nds and means has its origin in the connection between the praxis and poiesis of action and production. …

[German Version] Praxis and Poiesis, Gk πρᾶξις/ποίησις ( práxis/ poíēsis), “acting/producing.” Plato already mentioned the difference between praxis and poiesis ( Charmides 162e7–164c5), defining the latter as “whatever is the cause of the transition of something from non-being into being” ( Symposium 205b7–c1; Soph. 265b8–10). Aristotle was the first to advance specific terminology: as activities, poiesis and praxis stand in contrast to passive “suffering” (…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion I. Philosophy Essence, from Lat. essentia, “being, essence,” is an abstract noun formed in imitation of Gk ousia, “being, essence,” ¶ that which is characteristic of something, that which makes it what it is. In Plato's writings, the essence of a matter is und…

[German Version] I. Natural Science and Psychology Perception refers in general to the gathering of information in the central nervous system from the surrounding environment or from within the body itself. The primary function of perception consists in the gathering of vital information from our environment; this information is needed in particular for the steering of motor activity.…

[German Version] I. The Term The term structuralism…