Philosophy

1. Greece and Rome. The term “asceticism,” the Western meaning of which was shaped by Christianity, derives from Gk  ἄσκησις / áskēsis , a noun denoting activity;  ἄσκεῖν / askeîn  originally meant “to craft/to decorate.” In the 5th century  bce , the primary meaning became “to train/to exercise.” The exercise was mostly physical (gymnastics, military training). The soul/body dualism (Body and soul) that shaped philosophical anthropology since the Socratic revolution led to the appearance of the care of the soul next to the care of the body (Xenophon  Mem.  1.2, 19). This hierarchical dichotomy did not bring about a depreciation of the body as an aesthetic object. Neither Plato nor Aristotle were interested in asceticism. The Cynics have often been wrongly associated with asceticism. While they did use certain elements that we assign to asceticism, they started out from different premises and pursued different intentions. True ...

Sanskrit  satya  (Ved.  satyá , Avest.  haithiia ) most probably goes back to the weak form of  sám  (together) with the adjectival suffix  -tyá  (see Wright, 1988); the derivation from sát , the present participle of the verb  as  “to be” (which has influenced medieval and modern usage), with the suffix  -ya  (e.g. Mayerhofer, 1976, 1996) is not convincing, since this suffix is never added to participle stems. Thus the word  satyá  is originally an adjective meaning, not “existent, real,” but “in accord, conformable, consistent (with),” denoting a relationship between two items, for example, a word, concept, or statement, and the corresponding fact or entity in (physical or metaphysical) reality. That  satyá  is basically to be distinguished from  sát  “real, existing” (in the ontological sense) is shown by the regular antonym  ánṛta (false, untruthful), versus  ásat  (nonexisting)...

(Indian Materialism and Skepticism; also known as Cārvāka) The history of materialism in South Asia may be conveniently divided into two periods: preclassical and classical. In the preclassical period, a number of materialists, ethical agnostics, and skeptics appear in various sources, notably King Pāyāsi/Paesi in the Buddhist and Jaina canons, the six heretic teachers (esp. Ajita Keśakambalin) in the  Śrāmaṇyaphalasūtra , and Jabāli in the  Rāmāyaṇa  . In this period, materialism was not yet a philosophical system, and the various materialists did not form a philosophical tradition. As for the terms lokāyata / lokāyatika, cārvāka, bārhaspatya , and  nāstika , most commonly used to designate materialism and materialists in the classical period, they are not yet connected to any philosophical doctrine. Various theories have been put forward about the original meaning of the term  lokāyata  (Rhys Davids, Tucci, Ruben, Jayatilleke, among others). In my opini...