Causal Structuralist Ontologies in Antiquity: Powers as the basic building block of the worlds of the ancients

Obiettivo

The project aims to bring about a paradigm shift in our understanding of how the ancients conceived of the universe and its contents over a period of 9 centuries, 600 BC to 300 AD. The driving research hypothesis is that the sole elementary building blocks of nearly all ancient ontologies are powers, from which all there is in the universe is built. Powers are relational properties which are directed towards an end (e.g. the power to heat); thus a world of powers is structured in a web of causal relations. What is revolutionary about such a world is that there is only structure in it; hence, causal structuralist ontologies underlie object-metaphysics or process-metaphysics, and worlds of being and becoming, supplying structures from which objects and processes are derived. Yet such ontologies have never been investigated about ancient thought.
The project’s topic is new: ancient causal structuralism; the speciality is novel too, requiring targeted training of a team of post-doc researchers which will be provided by the applicant and collaborators. The innovativeness of the methodology consists in training ancient philosophy researchers to discern and identify formal aspects of ontologies at the very roots of human rationality – discerning how the ancients built everything out of power structures.
The paradigm shift will generate new knowledge and understanding about the ancient accounts of the world; provide a heuristic vantage point for redrafting the map of the intellectual influences between ancient thinkers; stimulate fruitful debate; and inspire new insights into ancient thought that are literally unthinkable at present. Cognate disciplines that will be affected by the paradigm shift are such as: history of physics; of mathematics; of theology; ancient anthropology.

Meccanismo di finanziamento

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Istituzione ospitante

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Contributo UE

€ 1 228 581,00

Indirizzo

WELLINGTON SQUARE UNIVERSITY OFFICES
OX1 2JD Oxford
Regno Unito

Regione

South East (England) Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Oxfordshire

Tipo di attività

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Ricercatore principale

Anna Marmodoro (Dr.)

Contatto amministrativo

Gill Wells (Ms.)

Collegamenti

Contatta l’organizzazione Sito web

Costo totale

Nessun dato

Beneficiari (1)