[Air-l] Re: Company vs. Community

[jeremy hunsinger]

I always have problems finding arguments to support my use of a word 
too, one thing that I do is to mine perseus for references in ancient 
greek and latin www.perseus.tufts.edu  I think it was Heidegger that 
said something similar to "the only languages capable of distinguishing 
to the extent to maintain philosophy are ancient greek and german". 
Since the problem with concepts like "community" is that the concept is 
poorly defined, perhaps it is time to make distinctions of types and use 
the less general words as appropriate. For instance, i thought of this 
in part to respond to danah because I was just doing some work with 
Augustine who used the term Locus Communus to denote a common or shared 
location in a text, and that there are textual communities that surround 
commonplaces in texts.  So, i thought I'd push her 1400's back about 
1000 years to see if that helps, then i thought hey, lets go another 
1500 and see what I can dig up from ancient greek. anway, hope this 
helps to make some distinctions, I did not pull everything from perseus, 
there is still quite a bit left for digging.

i find the following references in the ancient greek and latin corpus 
helpful:
*a political/property/spacial community:
dêmosios*, Dor. da_m-, a, on (os, on Hp. ( v. infr. 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/lexindex?lang=greek&display=&lookup=dhmo/sios>)), 
/belonging to the people/ or /state,/ kteana Xenoph.2.8; tad. Hdt. 5.29 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Hdt.+5.29&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>, 
Aristoph. Wasps 554 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristoph.+Wasps+554&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>; 
d. chrêmata Cratin.171 ; ploutos Thuc. 1.80 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Thuc.+1.80&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>; 
chôra, opp. hiera, idia, Aristot. Pol. 1267b34 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Pol.+1267b34&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>; 
hê d. trapeza IG22.1013 ; ta hiera ta d., opp. idiôtika, SIG1015.9 
(Halic.); agônes, dikai, Aeschin. 1.2 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aeschin.+1.2&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>, 
Aristot. Pol. 1320a12 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Pol.+1320a12&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>; 
d. logos, = Lat. /fiscus/, BGU193.27, OGI1669.21 ; dêmosion einai, 
gignesthai, to be, become /state-property,/ be / confiscated,/ Thuc. 
2.13 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Thuc.+2.13&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>, 
IG22.1100.40 (Hadr. ), Plat. Laws 742b 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Laws+742b&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>, 
etc.; gên d. poiein Lys. 18.14 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Lys.+18.14&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>. 


*b.*/used by the public,/ balaneia, loutron, Plb. 26.1.12, Hdn.1.12.4.

*2.*/common,/ dêmosiôtatos tropos, topos, Arist./ Top./162a35, 
ti=Arist./SE/ 165a5; dêmosios kakiê /epidemic,/Hp./Ep./ 19 
(ti=Hp./Hermes/53.67 ).

a communty of types:

*phu_lê*, hê, (phuô) prop., like phulon 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/lexindex?lang=greek&display=&lookup=fu%3Dlon>, 
/a race, tribe;/ but acc. to Dicaearch.Hist. 9/a union formed in an 
organized community/ (whether polis or ethnos): hence, /tribe,/ i.e.


a social community:

*koinotês*, êtos, hê, /sharing in common, community/, tôn gunaikôn kai 
paidôn kai tês ousias Aristot. Pol. 1274b10 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Pol.+1274b10&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>; 
hê peri ta tekna k. kai tas gunaikas IBID=au= Aristot. Pol. 1266a34 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Pol.+1266a34&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>; 
k. phônês /common/ language, i.e. not peculiar or dialectal, Isoc. 
15.296 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Isoc.+15.296&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>, 
cf. D.H./Th./54, ti= D.H./Pomp./2.

*2.*/common/ or /universal quality/, Plat. Theaet. 208d 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Theaet.+208d&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>, 
Plot.1.3.4; opp. idiotês, Epicur./Ep./1p.17U.; k. tou hippou 
A.D./Pron./26.20: pl., /common features/, Phld./Ir./p.71 W., ti= 
Phld./Mort./34, Plu./Comp.Lyc.Num./ 1; esp.in Medicine, term of the 
'Methodic' school, Gal. 1.80, al., cf. Plu.2.129d (pl.).

*3.*/generality, vagueness/, tôn homologiôn D.H. 2.39, etc.; 
/ambiguity/, onomatos Epicur./ Nat./14.10, cf.Demetr.Lac.Herc. 1014.48, 
Diog.Oen.27.

*II.* in Politics, /absence of privileges/ or /distinctions/ , politeias 
(sc. dêmokratias) hê malista koinotêta dokei proêirêsthai Andoc. 4.13 
<http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Andoc.+4.13&vers=original&lang=greek&display=>. 



There are several other possibly ways to approach this of course, but 
this tool is helpful I think because it helps to show the distinctions 
between concepts that could be made.  There are also other words and 
definitions that may be a more appropriate definition for instance a 
homogeneus group could be a community, but is usually a different 
concept, etc. 



-- 
jeremy hunsinger		http://www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy
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