Divination and Human Nature: A Cognitive History of Intuition in Classical Antiquity

300 Pages·2016·2.26 MB·English

by  Peter T. Struck

Divination and Human Nature
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Divination and Human Nature
•
A Cognitive History of Intuition
in Classical Antiquity
Peter T. Struck
Pri n c eton U n i v e r si t y Pre s s
Pri n c eton a n d Ox f o rd
Copyright © 2016 by Princeton University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Struck, Peter T., author.
Title: Divination and human nature : a cognitive history of intuition in classical
antiquity / Peter T. Struck.
Description: Prince ton, NJ : Prince ton University Press, 2016. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2016005144 | ISBN 9780691169392 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Philosophy, Ancient. | Divination—G reece. | Intuition.
Classifi cation: LCC B171 .S85 2016 | DDC 133.3093—d c23
LC reco rd available at http://l ccn. l oc. g ov/ 2 016005144
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Th is book has been composed in Minion Pro
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
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For Roger and Sally
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CONTENTS
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Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. Divination and the History of Surplus Knowledge 1
Chapter 1. Plato on Divination and Nondiscursive Knowing 37
Chapter 2. Aristotle on Foresight through Dreams 91
Chapter 3. Posidonius and Other Stoics on Extra-S ensory Knowledge 171
Chapter 4. Iamblichus on Divine Divination and Human Intuition 215
Conclusion. Reconsidering Penelope 251
Bibliography 263
Index Locorum 277
Subject Index 287

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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This project has benefited enormously over the years from
generosity of many kinds. I thank the National Humanities Center where
the early work began, and the Center for Advanced Studies in the Be-
havioral Sciences at Stanford, which provided an orientation toward the
evidence that informed the whole of the work. A project that began
aimed at semiotics took on a cognitive dimension under the eye-opening
tutelage of colleagues there. Further, I have benefi ted greatly from re-
sponses to presentations at universities I list here in alphabetical order:
the Académie Royale Belgique, Brown, Chicago, University of Cincinnati,
Columbia, Corpus Christi College Oxford, Dartmouth, Fordham, Flor-
ida State, Indiana University, Kent University, Leiden, Harvard, Uni-
versity of North Carolina, Ohio State, the Scuola Normale Superiore,
Smith, Stanford, Toronto, Texas, University of Washington, and Wes-
leyan. Conversations with colleagues on the Journal of the History of
Ideas have been continuously challenging and enlightening and helped
to reshape the framing of the introduction. And fi nally, the inspiring
community of classicists at the University of Pennsylvania was essential
at the many infl ection points of the project. Penn’s Department of Clas-
sical Studies provides continuous evidence of the pleasure of study and
discovery, and the salutary benefi ts of supportive challenge and intel-
lectual rigor. Earlier versions of some parts of the chapters have been
previously published. Parts of the introduction appeared as “A Cogni-
tive Approach to Divination in Antiquity,” in the Journal of the His-
tory of Ideas (January 2016); sections of chapter 1 appeared as “Plato
and Divination,” in Archiv für Religionsgeschichte in 2014. An earlier
version of a part of chapter 4 awaits the publication of Divine Powers in
Late Antiquity, edited by Eirini Viltanioti and Anna Marmodoro, from
Oxford University Press (2016). I thank Laura Agosto for research
x • Acknowledgments
work she did for me on Stoic notions of the seed; Alex Ramos for help
preparing the manuscript; and graduate students Roshan Abraham, Jae
Han, and Daniel Harris- McCoy for their stimulating discussions; but
especially Natalie Dohrmann and Adam Struck, who continue to be the
prime movers.