Open AccessThe Organic Roots of Conatus in Early Greek Thought
Author(s) -
Christopher W. Kirby
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
conatus - journal of philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2653-9373
pISSN - 2459-3842
DOI - 10.12681/cjp.26601
Subject(s) - epistemology , socratic method , dialectic , physis , philosophy , traditionalism , subject (documents) , ancient greek , natural (archaeology) , impulse (physics) , hubris , ontology , sociology , psychology , history , computer science , humanities , linguistics , theology , medicine , radiography , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , library science , radiology
The focus of this paper will be on the earliest Greek treatments of impulse, motivation, and self-animation – a cluster of concepts tied to the hormē-conatus concept. I hope to offer a plausible account of how the earliest recorded views on this subject in mythological, pre-Socratic, and Classical writings might have inspired later philosophical developments by establishing the foundations for an organic, wholly naturalized approach to human inquiry. Three pillars of that approach which I wish to emphasize are: practical intelligence (i.e., a continuity between knowing and doing), natural normativity (i.e., a continuity between human norms and the environment), and an ontology of philosophical dialectic (i.e., a continuity between the growth of human understanding and the growth of physis).