Sextus Empiricus’ Against the Grammarians: Annotated translation, first section (M 1. 41-96)

Authors

  • Joseane M. Prezotto Universidade Federal do Paraná

Keywords:

Sextus Empiricus, Hellenistic Grammar, Tekhnê, Skepticism

Abstract

Annotated partial (M 1. 41-96) translation of the treatise Against the Grammarians, written by the Pyrrhonian Skeptic philosopher Sextus Empiricus, around the second century C.E. In this section Sextus begins his refutation of Hellenistic Grammar which, in this period, was concerned with philological and literary studies: correction, edition, exegesis and evaluation of the literary canon. He questions the value of this discipline, criticizes its definitions and the claims made by the grammarians, and then sets out which divisions and parts will be considered in the treatise. The notes to the translation are intended to clarify translational choices and to contextualize and widen the Sextian discussion.

References

ATHERTON, C.; BLANK, D. From Plato to Priscian: Philosophy's legacy to grammar. In: ALLEN, Keith. Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics. Oxford: OUP, 2013. p. 283-340.

BARNES, J. Scepticism and Arts. In: HANKINSON, R. J. (Ed.). Method, Metaphysics and Medicine: Studies in the Philosophy of Ancient Medicine, Edmonton: Academic Printing and Publishing, 1988. p. 53-77.

BEKKER, I. (Ed.) Sextus Empiricus. 1842.

BETT, R. (Trad.) Sextus Empiricus: Against the Ethicists. With an introduction and Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

BLANK, D. Varro’s anti-analogist. In: FREDE, Dorothea; INWOOD, Brad. (Eds.) Language and Learning: Philosophy of Language in the Hellenistic Age. Cambridge: CUP, 2005. p. 210-238

___________. (Trad.) Sextus Empiricus: Against the Grammarians (Adversus Mathematicos I). With an introduction and commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.

BLOMQVIST, J. Textkritisches zu Sextus Empiricus. In: Eranos, n. 66, 1968, p. 73-100.

BOLZANI, R. Acadêmicos versus Pirrônicos. In: Sképsis, ano IV, v. 7, 2011. p. 5-55.

BURY, R. G. (Ed. e Trad.) Sextus Empiricus. 4 vol. (Loeb). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1939 – 1949.

BRITO, R.; HUGUENIN, R. (Trads.) Sexto Empírico: Contra os Gramáticos. São Paulo: Editora Unesp, 2015.

CHAPANSKI, G. (Trad.) Uma tradução da Tekhné Grammatiké, de Dionísio Trácio, para o português. Dissertação de Mestrado. Universidade Federal do Paraná, 2003. (190 pgs.)

DALIMIER, C. (Trad.). Contre les grammairiens. In: PELLEGRIN, Pierre. Sextus Empiricus: Contre les professeurs. Introduction, glossaire et index. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2002. p. 67-245.

GIUSTA, M. Review of Mau. In: Riv. di Filologia e d’Istruzione Classica, n. 40, 1962. p. 425-432.

HARVEN, V. de. The coherence of Stoic Ontology. PhD Thesis. University of California, Berkeley: Spring 2012. 97 pgs.

KASTER, R. Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity. Berkeley: UCP, 1997.

LAW, V.; SLUITER, I.. (Eds.) Dionysius Thrax and the Techne grammatike. Münster: Nodus Publikationen, 1995.

MATTHAIOS, S. Eratosthenes of Cyrene: Readings of his ‘Grammar’ definition. In: ________; MONTANARI, F.; RENGAKOS, A. (Eds.) Ancient Scholarship and Grammar: Archetypes, Concepts and Contexts. Trends in classics - supplementary volumes, 8. Berlin; New York: De Gruyter, 2011. p. 55-86.

MAU, J.; MUTSCHMANN, H. (Eds.) Sexti Empirici opera. vol. 3, Leipzig: Teubner, 1961 (2ª edição)

MORROW, G. (Trad.) Proclus: A commentary on the first book of Euclid’s Elements. Princeton: PUP, 1970.

PAGANI, L. Pioneers of Grammar. Hellenistic Scholarship and the Study of Language. In: MONTANARI, F.; PAGANI, L. (Eds.) From Scholars to Scholia: Chapters in the History of Ancient Greek Scholarship. Trends in Classics – Supplementary Volumes 9. Berlin; New York: De Gruyter, 2011. p. 17-64.

Sch. DThr. = HILGARD, A. (Ed.) Scholia in Dionisium Thracis Artem Grammaticam (Sch. DThr). Leipzig: Teubner, 1901 (= Grammatici Graeci I 3).

SEPPÄNEN, M. Defining the art of grammar: Ancient perceptions of ????????? and grammatica. PhD Thesis. University of Turku. 2014 (265 pgs.)

SLUITER, I. A Champion of analogy: Herodian’s On lexical singularity. In: MATTHAIOS, S.; MONTANARI, F.; RENGAKOS, A. (Eds.) Ancient Scholarship and Grammar: Archetypes, Concepts and Contexts. Trends in classics - supplementary volumes, 8. Berlin; New York: De Gruyter, 2011. p. 291-310.

SVF = ARNIN, I. AB. (Ed.) Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (SVF). 2 vols. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1964.

SWIGGERS, P; WOUTERS, A. (Eds.) Grammatical Theory and Philosophy of Language in Antiquity. In: Orbis Supplementa, n. 19, Leuven: Peeters, 2002.

Downloads

Published

2018-04-25

Issue

No. 40 (2018)

Section

Translations

License

The contents of the manuscript have been tacitly or explicitly approved by the responsible authorities where the research was carried out.

Upon acceptation of the manuscript, the author agrees to allow its publication by Hypnos, declining pecuniary gains due from copyright. If the manuscript is published later in other media, the author agrees to always give credits of its first publication in Hypnos.

If the submitted document includes figures, tables, or large sections of text previously published, the author declares himself responsible for having obtained permission of the original copyright owners of these items for both the online and printed publication of this journal. Credits for copyrighted material must be properly attributed in the manuscript.