Self-Causation and Unity in Stoicism
Abstract According to the Stoics, ordinary unified bodies—animals, plants, and inanimate natural bodies—each have a single cause of unity and being: pneuma. Pneuma itself has no distinct cause of unity; on the contrary, it acts as a cause of unity and being for itself. In this paper, I show how pneu...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Brill
2021
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In: |
Phronesis
Year: 2021, Volume: 66, Issue: 2, Pages: 178-213 |
Further subjects: | B
self-causation
B Unity B Causation B Stoic Physics B Stoicism |
Online Access: |
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Summary: | Abstract According to the Stoics, ordinary unified bodies—animals, plants, and inanimate natural bodies—each have a single cause of unity and being: pneuma. Pneuma itself has no distinct cause of unity; on the contrary, it acts as a cause of unity and being for itself. In this paper, I show how pneuma is supposed to be able to unify itself and other bodies in virtue of its characteristic tensile motion ( τονικὴ κίνησις ). Thus, we will see how the Stoics could have hoped to account for corporeal unity by positing another body (pneuma) apparently itself in need of unification. |
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ISSN: | 1568-5284 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Phronesis
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685284-BJA10038 |