In this paper, I try to trace an outline of how emotions gradually came to be conceptualized throughout Greek philosophical and medical literature of the 5th and 4th Centuries B. C. I will, however, begin this story from some essential facts regarding the Homeric model of mind that it is mandatory to recall in light of its pervasive influence on Greek literature, philosophical and not (think at least of tragedy), of the following centuries. It will be interesting to find out to what extent both philosophical reflections on the physiology of emotional processes and Hippocratic writers were indebted, although mostly implicitly, to the Homeric, 'materialistic' approach. We will also see that philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle were indeed keener than the Hippocratics to analysing the relation of body and soul in mental events, as well as to exploring the field of emotions. This was in fact their job, not the doctors', and a tricky job indeed, so much so that even philosophical investigation of the field did not produce a systematic mapping of it, nor an explicit definition of its boundaries with respect to rational thought on the one side and perception on the other
Conceptualizing emotions: from Homer to Aristotle
Maria Michela Sassi
2022-01-01
Abstract
In this paper, I try to trace an outline of how emotions gradually came to be conceptualized throughout Greek philosophical and medical literature of the 5th and 4th Centuries B. C. I will, however, begin this story from some essential facts regarding the Homeric model of mind that it is mandatory to recall in light of its pervasive influence on Greek literature, philosophical and not (think at least of tragedy), of the following centuries. It will be interesting to find out to what extent both philosophical reflections on the physiology of emotional processes and Hippocratic writers were indebted, although mostly implicitly, to the Homeric, 'materialistic' approach. We will also see that philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle were indeed keener than the Hippocratics to analysing the relation of body and soul in mental events, as well as to exploring the field of emotions. This was in fact their job, not the doctors', and a tricky job indeed, so much so that even philosophical investigation of the field did not produce a systematic mapping of it, nor an explicit definition of its boundaries with respect to rational thought on the one side and perception on the otherI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
