Workshop in Ancient Philosophy (Thursday - Week 5, TT19)

Completeness (autoteleia) is a central notion in Stoic semantics. It is a property of certain lekta, most notably propositions and those which form the content of our impressions. This paper aims to shed light on the notion of completeness, understanding both what constitutes completeness and what significance it has in the Stoic system. I show that completeness is achieved by means of a nominative case joined to a predicate. I argue that because nominative cases bear a special relationship to the world, completeness brings with it aboutness. Complete lekta are necessarily about the world, and thus empirically anchored, making them particularly well suited to playing the important roles  they do in Stoic logic and epistemology.

^{If you would like to join the speaker for dinner after the seminar, please email the chair by Tuesday before the workshop.}

_{Workshop in Ancient Philosophy Convenors: Ursula Coope, Karen Margrethe Nielsen, and Luca Castagnoli}