Article ID: CBB233464732

Lot-casting, Divine Interference and Chance in the Myth of Er (2016)

unapi

The aim of this paper is to throw some additional light on the lot-casting episode of the Republic’s Myth of Er. It is largely a reaction to McPherran’s views presented in his 2010 chapter entitled “Virtue, Luck and Choice at the End of the Republic.” I agree with his statement that the purpose of the lottery is to somehow absolve the gods from the responsibility for each soul’s choice of life and the subsequent happiness and badness attached to it. Unlike McPherran, however, I argue that this strategy is a successful one, and discloses no traces of divine interference, which would endanger its credibility. Nevertheless, although the lot-casting process effectively diverts the responsibility for its outcome from the gods onto tychē, the scope of this strategy is very narrow, and actually limited to the placement of the souls in the choice-queue. By the end of the paper I touch upon the concept of tychē as employed in the Myth, and conclude that it is equivalent with the folk concept of chance.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB233464732/

Similar Citations

Article Andrea Bréard; Constance A. Cook; (2020)
Cracking bones and numbers: solving the enigma of numerical sequences on ancient Chinese artifacts (/isis/citation/CBB870667256/)

Book Dudley, John; (2012)
Aristotle's Concept of Chance: Accidents, Cause, Necessity, and Determinism (/isis/citation/CBB001201754/)

Article Silver, Sean; (2015)
The Prehistory of Serendipity, from Bacon to Walpole (/isis/citation/CBB001551429/)

Book Alessandro Iannucci; Marco Beretta; Francesco Citti; ()
Il culto di Epicuro: testi, iconografia e paesaggio (/isis/citation/CBB820340501/)

Article Daniele Pasquazi; Benedetto Scoppola; (2021)
Aritmetica euclidea e filosofia stoica (/isis/citation/CBB278285265/)

Article Aldo Brancacci; (2013)
Musica e filosofia nel I libro del "De musica" di Aristide Quintiliano (/isis/citation/CBB628791731/)

Article Saul Rosenthal; (2018)
Self-Predication and Productive Metonymy (/isis/citation/CBB070332823/)

Article Viktor Ilievski; (2018)
Theodicy and Moral Responsibility in the Myth of Er (/isis/citation/CBB142199590/)

Chapter James Evans; (2014)
Mechanics and Imagination in Ancient Greek Astronomy: Sphairopoiïa as Image and Tool (/isis/citation/CBB922240116/)

Article Marzia Soardi; (2017)
Genetic Malformations and Anomalies within the Aristotelian Theory of Reproduction (/isis/citation/CBB953614284/)

Article Alex Long; (2021)
Seneca on Human Rights in De Beneficiis 3 (/isis/citation/CBB558913053/)

Book Phillip Sidney Horky; (2019)
Cosmos in the Ancient World (/isis/citation/CBB403481991/)

Book Thumiger Chiara; (2018)
Mental Illness in Ancient Medicine (/isis/citation/CBB513291278/)

Book Couprie, Dirk L.; Hahn, Robert; Naddaf, Gerard; (2003)
Anaximander in Context: New Studies in the Origins of Greek Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB000301535/)

Article Thornton Lockwood; (2018)
Servile Spartans and Free Citizen-soldiers in Aristotle’s Politics 7–8 (/isis/citation/CBB803080395/)

Article Sisko, John E.; (2005)
Anaxagoras and Recursive Refinement (/isis/citation/CBB000670353/)

Article Tiziano Ottobrini; (2014)
Intorno alla meccanica nel "De rerum natura": la psicologia come machina in Lucrezio (/isis/citation/CBB187240439/)

Chapter Younesie, Mostafa; (2009)
Understanding Aristotle's Politics through Form and Matter (/isis/citation/CBB001201154/)

Authors & Contributors
Saul Rosenthal
Ottobrini, Tiziano
Thornton C. Lockwood
Alessandro Iannucci
Francesco Pelosi
Soardi, Marzia
Concepts
Philosophy
Chance
Epicurianism
Science and culture
Philosophy and politics
Ethics
Time Periods
Ancient
4th century
Renaissance
3rd century
Places
Greece
Roman Empire
Hellenistic world
Mediterranean region
China
Rome (Italy)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment