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Edward Jeremiah, "The Development, Logic, and Legacy of Reflexive Concepts in Greek Philosophy", Journal of the History of Ideas
Vol. 74, No. 4 (October 2013), pp. 507-529. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43290159
«When and for what purposes does reflexive language enter the philosophical lexicon and become a key component of its discourse, and why do philosophers lean so heavily on reflexive concepts? My argument will limit itself to literal reflexive concepts, in other words concepts articulated via the use of reflexive pronouns, and proposes that the formation of reflexive ideas is primarily shaped by two philosophical goals: firstly, the attempt to think totalities, and secondly, the search for foundational principles, whether they be ontological, epistemological, or ethical. Reflexivity appears to be a general structural tendency of foundational principles and totalities. If this is true, then it can be shown that some of the contemporary philosophical systems which claim to either deconstruct or replace the hierarchies of traditional metaphysics do so mostly in a superficial sense. The essential skeleton of ancient thought is conserved, and with it the conceptual magnetism foundational ideas display for reflexivity. This argument highlights a crucial continuity between ancient and modern philosophy, while at the same time locating an important difference. Though reflexivity is important for both as a primary ontological process, ancient philosophy treasures self-identification, but modern philosophy self-differentiation, as the foremost operation of being. Finally, I suggest that the reflexivity of philosophical "beginnings" (archai) reflects the human being as a reflexive subject.»
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