Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-05-18T16:50:52.022Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 8 - Perictione, Mother of Metaphysics

A New Philosophical Reading of On Wisdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2023

Katharine R. O'Reilly
Affiliation:
Toronto Metropolitan University
Caterina Pellò
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
Get access

Summary

Whilst most of the Pseudo-Pythagorean writings ascribed to female authors discuss women-related topics and focus on ethical questions, the treatise titled On Wisdom and ascribed to Perictione, the mother of Plato, is unique for at least two reasons: first, it concerns humankind, rather than women specifically, and second, it has an explicit metaphysical and epistemological focus. In the available fragments, Perictione makes two key statements: first, the purpose and function of a human being is the contemplation of the nature of all things. Second, wisdom is the highest-ranked human activity, for it enables us to grasp all kinds of things that are and brings us closer to the divine. The purpose of this chapter is to reconstruct the philosophical arguments of Perictione’s On Wisdom with the aim of highlighting the contributions this treatise makes to the history of metaphysics. The paper shows that the texts ascribed to Pythagorean women go well beyond female ethics, all the way to contemplating “all the things that are.”

Type
Chapter
Information
Ancient Women Philosophers
Recovered Ideas and New Perspectives
, pp. 152 - 169
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×