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Question

Can anyone tell if this sentence makes sense as written:

The fomer through poetic means, and the latter through a genealogical approach that traces the rise of Socratic reason to posthumous Presocratic philosophy.

The phrase of concern is: "posthumous Presocratic philosophy"

I want to refer to the now dead, or "posthumous" era of "Presocratic philosophy".

I am tight on a word count, in fact I am over, and so I need to be as ruthless cutting words where I can as my tutors are about deducting marks for exceeding wordcounts.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

posthumous refers to persons, not inanimate things or ideas.
genealogical refers to people, families or animals.

There is not enough context with your post to determine its sensibility.

Clive · Answer

"posthumous Presocratic philosophy"

I assume the reference is to the death of Socrates.

These adjectives seem to me contradictory. What does the phrase mean?

Naphelge · Answer

posthumous refers to persons, not inanimate things or ideas.

Well my Concise OED entry for "posthumous" reads: "adj. adjective: occurring, awarded, or appearing after the death of the originator."

I am unsure if you consider the entity "Presocratic philosophy," that from which the origination of philosophy emanated forth, inanimate or not, considering it refers to a collective of animate thinkers.

genealogical refers to people, families or animals.

Again, from my COED: "the study of lines of descent." As in, "Nietzsche employed a genealogical study to trace the origins of tragedy back to Ancient Greece."

So let me rephrase the statement to make it less ambiguous (I guess):

One subject through poetic means, and another subject through a genealogical approach, will trace the rise of Socratic reason to posthumous Presocratic philosophy.

But re-considering the statement I don't think "posthumous" is really going to work like I need, even though it is the word that best conveys the point I would like to make. Hrmmm, more thumbing I guess to seek out alternatives.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

naphelgePresocratic philosophy

To me, that means any school of philosophy or philosophical thought which existed before Socrates. It infers that it was Greek. It does not mean to me that it was replaced by the philosophy of Socrates, nor does it mean that it died out.

"the rise of Socratic reason to presocratic philosophy" is self-contradictory, since "to X" indicates that "X" is an end point, yet presocratic means something earlier than Socratic.

And to co-join poetry and genealogy makes no logical sense. Philosophy or argumentation is not usually written in blank verse.

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