Compact but singularly well thought out material of a theological, logical, poetic as well as philosophical nature.

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The Second Sophistic (c.AD 60-250) was a time of intense competition for honour and status. Like today, this often caused mental as well as physical stress for the elite of the Roman Empire. This book, which transcends the boundaries between literature, social history, and philosophy, studies Plutarch's practical ethics, a group of twenty-odd texts within the Moralia designed to help powerful Greeks and Romans manage their ambitions and society's expectations successfully. Lieve Van Hoof combines a systematic analysis of the general principles underlying Plutarch's practical ethics, including the author's target readership, therapeutical practices, and self-presentation, with five innovative case studies. A picture emerges of philosophy under the Roman Empire not as a set of abstract, theoretical doctrines, but as a kind of symbolic capital engendering power and prestige for author and reader alike.

With a new foreword by Scott Austin 'I hope that these essays may illustrate the thesis that all history is or should be the history of problem situations, and that in following this principle we may further our understanding of the Presocratics and other thinkers of the past. The essays also try to show the greatness of the early Greek philosophers, who gave Europe its philosophy, its science, and its humanism.' - Karl Popper, from the preface The World of Parmenides is a brilliant exploration of the complexity of ancient Greek thought and science by one of the twentieth century's leading philosophers. It reveals the great importance of Presocratic philosophy to Popper's thought as a whole and shows the profound enlightenment he experienced reading not only Parmenides but the wider world of Greek science and philosophy including Xenophanes and Heraclitus. Edited by Arne F. Petersen, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen.

In this treatise Proclus discusses ten problems on providence and fate, foreknowledge of the future, human responsibility, evil and punishment (or seemingly absence of punishment), social and individual responsibility for evil, and the unequal fate of different animals. These problems, he admits, had been discussed a thousand times in and outside philosophical schools. Yet, as he put it: we too have to discuss them, not because we imagine that the philosophers before us have said anything valuable, but because our soul desires 'to speak and hear about these problems and wants to turn to itself and to discuss as it were with itself and is not willing to take arguments about these issues only from authorities outside'. Proclus exhorts his readers: we are to use his treatise as an opportunity to investigate these problems for ourselves 'in the secret recess of our soul' and 'exercise ourselves in the solutions of problems'. In fact, it makes no difference whether what we discuss has been said before by philosophers, so long as we express what corresponds to our own views. This exhortation may be the best presentation of the translation of this wonderful treatise from late antiquity.

Ancient thought, particularly that of Plato and Aristotle, has played an important role in the development of the field of aesthetics, and the ideas of ancient thinkers are still influential and controversial today. Ancient Aesthetics introduces and discusses the central contributions of key ancient philosophers to this field, carefully considering their theories regarding the arts, especially poetry, but also music and visual art, as well as the theory of beauty more generally. With a focus on Plato and Aristotle, the philosophers who have given us their thought about the arts at the greatest length, this volume also discusses Hellenistic aesthetics and Plotinus' theory of beauty, which was to prove very influential in later thought. Ancient Aesthetics is a valuable contribution to its field, and will be of interest to students of philosophy and classics.

With an new foreword by James Warren Long renowned as one of the clearest and best introductions to ancient Greek philosophy for non-specialists, W.K.C Guthrie's The Greek Philosophers offers us a brilliant insight into the hidden foundations of Greek philosophy - foundations that underpin Western thought today. Guthrie explores the great age of Greek Philosophy - from Thales to Aristotle - whilst combining comprehensiveness with brevity. He unpacks the ideas and arguments of Plato and Aristotle in the light of their predecessors rather than their successors and describes the characteristic features of the Greek way of thinking, emphasising what he calls the 'cultural soil' of their ideas. He also highlights the achievements of thinkers such as Pythagoras, who in contemporary accounts of Greek philosophy are frequently overlooked. Combining philosophical insight and historical sensitivity, The Greek Philosophers offers newcomers a brilliant introduction to the greatest thinkers in ancient Greek philosophy and the very origins of Western thought.

This collection of essays surveys a wide range of methods of Platonic interpretation, ranging from the dialogues themselves, to Middle and Neoplatonic interpretations of Plato’s writings, to modern uses of Platonism. As a philosophical movement, Platonism is broadly conceived, covering schools and philosophers beginning with Plato and his immediate followers and extending through contemporary philosophers. The history of Platonism begins, of course, with Plato himself. But his adoption of the dialogue style and his active engagement with students in his Academy, where he certainly used dialectic techniques, led almost immediately to questioning what Plato’s doctrines actually were. His student Aristotle raised questions of interpretations and invoked esoteric teachings not present in the written works. The earliest heads of the Academy struggled with Plato’s texts as well, creating rival interpretations. These early discussions gave rise to later ones, and Platonism became simultaneously a dogmatic philosophy and a source of sometimes-heated debate of what the master intended. From its inception, Platonism was a dynamic philosophy, open to varied interpretations on different fronts while also maintaining a common core of beliefs. Platonism gave rise to methods of interpretation that centered on historical, ethical, political, or metaphysical questions engendered by Plato’s writings. The ancient commentators reflected the teachings of their predecessors, and with only a few schools in the Greco-Roman world, many of their students studying under the same teachers, meant a heightened continuity in the tradition of interpretation. This volume honors the seventy-fifth birthday of John Dillon, the great scholar of Platonism whose scholarship had a pivotal role in defining Platonism as a philosophical movement in contemporary academia.

First secretary to the Aragonese kings of Naples, Giovanni Pontano (1429-1503) was a key figure of the Italian Renaissance. A poet and a philosopher of high repute, Pontano's works offer a reflection on the achievements of fifteenth-century humanism and address major themes of early modern moral and political thought. Taking his defining inspiration from Aristotle, Pontano wrote on topics such as prudence, fortune, magnificence, and the art of pleasant conversation, rewriting Aristotle's Ethics in the guise of a new Latin philosophy, inscribed with the patterns of Renaissance culture. This book shows how Pontano's rewriting of Aristotelian ethics affected not only his philosophical views, but also his political life and his place in the humanist movement. Drawing on Pontano's treatises, dialogues, letters, poems and political writings, Matthias Roick presents us with the first comprehensive study of Pontano's moral and political thought, offering novel insights into the workings of Aristotelian virtue ethics in the early modern period.

Volume VII includes contributions by Richard Patterson, C.J.F. Williams, Richard Bett, Glen Lesses, Theodore Scaltsas, Malcolm Heath, Christopher Rowe, Christian Wildberg, Owen Goldin, Daniel W. Graham, and Ian Mueller.

This Key Concepts pivot considers the fundamental Chinese cultural ideal of harmony (he/ ). Historically originating from Confucianism, the concept of harmony sits at the heart of Chinese traditional culture, which is characteristically morality-based and harmony-conscious due to the central role of pragmatic reason and wisdom nurtured through Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Legalism and other schools of thought. This pivot delineates the rationale of the Chinese philosophy of harmony and its implications for modern social practices worldwide. It notably reexamines the relevance of he beyond the realm of philosophy, and how this concept can impact on modern day human relations, amongst individuals and families as well as on a wider societal scale. It explores how he can affect perspectives on political interaction, international relations and human conflict, as well as the interaction between man and nature. Addressing the inevitable tension between theory and practice, this book argues for the very real relevance of he in 21st century cultural, social, political and economic spheres in China and beyond.

Monte Johnson examines one of the most controversial aspects of Aristiotle's natural philosophy: his teleology. Is teleology about causation or explanation? Does it exclude or obviate mechanism, determinism, or materialism? Is it focused on the good of individual organisms, or is god or man the ultimate end of all processes and entities? Is teleology restricted to living things, or does it apply to the cosmos as a whole? Does it identify objectively existent causes in the world, or is it merely a heuristic for our understanding of other causal processes? Johnson argues that Aristotle's aporetic approach drives a middle course between these traditional oppositions, and avoids the dilemma, frequently urged against teleology, between backwards causation and anthropomorphism. Although these issues have been debated with extraordinary depth by Aristotle scholars, and touched upon by many in the wider philosophical and scientific community as well, there has been no comprehensive historical treatment of the issue. Aristotle is commonly considered the inventor of teleology, although the precise term originated in the eighteenth century. But if teleology means the use of ends and goals in natural science, then Aristotle was rather a critical innovator of teleological explanation. Teleological notions were widespread among his predecessors, but Aristotle rejected their conception of extrinsic causes such as mind or god as the primary causes for natural things. Aristotle's radical alternative was to assert nature itself as an internal principle of change and an end, and his teleological explanations focus on the intrinsic ends of natural substances - those ends that benefit the natural thing itself. Aristotle's use of ends was subsequently conflated with incompatible 'teleological' notions, including proofs for the existence of a providential or designer god, vitalism and animism, opposition to mechanism and non-teleological causation, and anthropocentrism. Johnson addresses these misconceptions through an elaboration of Aristotle's methodological statements, as well as an examination of the explanations actually offered in the scientific works.

"Open Democracy envisions what true government by mass leadership could look like."-Nathan Heller, New Yorker How a new model of democracy that opens up power to ordinary citizens could strengthen inclusiveness, responsiveness, and accountability in modern societies To the ancient Greeks, democracy meant gathering in public and debating laws set by a randomly selected assembly of several hundred citizens. To the Icelandic Vikings, democracy meant meeting every summer in a field to discuss issues until consensus was reached. Our contemporary representative democracies are very different. Modern parliaments are gated and guarded, and it seems as if only certain people-with the right suit, accent, wealth, and connections-are welcome. Diagnosing what is wrong with representative government and aiming to recover some of the lost openness of ancient democracies, Open Democracy presents a new paradigm of democracy in which power is genuinely accessible to ordinary citizens. Helene Landemore favors the ideal of "representing and being represented in turn" over direct-democracy approaches. Supporting a fresh nonelectoral understanding of democratic representation, Landemore recommends centering political institutions around the "open mini-public"-a large, jury-like body of randomly selected citizens gathered to define laws and policies for the polity, in connection with the larger public. She also defends five institutional principles as the foundations of an open democracy: participatory rights, deliberation, the majoritarian principle, democratic representation, and transparency. Open Democracy demonstrates that placing ordinary citizens, rather than elites, at the heart of democratic power is not only the true meaning of a government of, by, and for the people, but also feasible and, today more than ever, urgently needed.

The three ancient philosophical introductions translated in this volume flesh out our picture of what it would have been like to sit in a first-year Philosophy course in ancient Alexandria. Ammonius (AD 445-517/26) set up a new teaching programme in Alexandria with up to six introductions to the philosophy curriculum, which made it far more accessible, and encouraged its spread from Greek to other cultures. This volume's three introductory texts include one by his student Olympiodorus and one each by Olympiodorus' students Elias and David. Elias' Introductions to Philosophy starts with six definitions of Philosophy, to which David adds replies to the sceptical question whether there is such a thing as Philosophy. Olympiodorus' text translated here is an Introduction to Logic, which is just one of the three introductions he wrote himself.

Originally published in 1973. The predominantly historical approach in this book heralds a belief that a better understanding of Aristotle the man, and the salient events of his life, leads to a greater insight into his work as a philosopher. This, the first of two volumes, presents interpretations of Aristotle's life, widely interesting to any Aristotle scholars.

Originally published in 1973. Aristotle's early works probably belong to the formative era of his philosophic thought and as such contribute vitally to the understanding and evaluation of the development of his philosophy. This book shows that the philosophy propagated in these lost works indicates an undeniable Platonism, and thus seems to conflict with the basic doctrines in the traditional treatises collected in the Corpus Aristotelicum. Was the author of the lost early works and the later preserved treatises one and the same person, or were some of these treatises written by members of the Early Peripatus? This, the second of two volumes, discusses in detail certain decisive aspects of Aristotle's early works. Fascinating hypotheses and conjectures put forward here provoke discussion and further investigation in the 'Aristotelian Problem'.

Originally published in 1949. This meticulously researched book presents a comprehensive outline and discussion of Aristotle's mathematics with the author's translations of the greek. To Aristotle, mathematics was one of the three theoretical sciences, the others being theology and the philosophy of nature (physics). Arranged thematically, this book considers his thinking in relation to the other sciences and looks into such specifics as squaring of the circle, syllogism, parallels, incommensurability of the diagonal, angles, universal proof, gnomons, infinity, agelessness of the universe, surface of water, meteorology, metaphysics and mechanics such as levers, rudders, wedges, wheels and inertia. The last few short chapters address 'problems' that Aristotle posed but couldn't answer, related ethics issues and a summary of some short treatises that only briefly touch on mathematics.

Originally published in 1993. This book presents an amended version of R.D. Hick's classic translation of Aristotle's "De Anima" Books 2 and 3, with pertinent extracts from Book 1, together with an introduction and six papers by prominent international Aristotelian scholars. The editor brings together up-to-date discussions of Aristotle's "De Anima", examining central topics such as the nature of perception, perception and thought, thinking and the intellect, the nature of the soul and the relation between body and soul. These papers draw attention to the importance and value of Aristotle's original contributions both to these topics and to philosophical psychology in general. They show the relevance of Aristotle's ancient classical philosophy to contemporary philosophical debate. This book also examines the key issues of Aristotle's thesis and aims to demonstrate its enduring significance. The "De Anima" is placed within a wider Aristotelian framework, and also within a more comprehensive structure, as a contribution to philosophical development and advance.

Evading established accounts of the development of doctrine in the Patristic era, Augustine's Christology has yet to receive the critical scholarly attention it deserves. This study focuses on Augustine's understanding of the humanity of Christ, as it emerged in dialogue with his anti-Pelagian conception of human freedom and Original Sin. By reinterpreting the Pelagian controversy as a Western continuation of the Origenist controversy before it, Dominic Keech argues that Augustine's reading of Origen lay at the heart of his Christological response to Pelagianism. Augustine is therefore situated within the network of fourth and fifth century Western theologians concerned to defend Origen against accusations of Platonic error and dangerous heresy. Opening with a survey of scholarship on Augustine's Christology and anti-Pelagian theology, Keech proceeds by redrawing the narrative of Augustine's engagement with the issues and personalities involved in the Origenist and Pelagian controversies. He highlights the predominant motif of Augustine's anti-Pelagian Christology: the humanity of Christ, 'in the likeness of sinful flesh' (Rom. 8.3), and argues that this is elaborated through a series of receptions from the work of Ambrose and Origen. The theological problems raised by this Christology - in a Christ who is exempt from sin in a way which unbalances his human nature - are explored by examining Augustine's understanding of Apollinarianism, and his equivocal statements on the origin of the human soul. This forms the backdrop for the book's speculative conclusion, that the inconsistencies in Augustine's Christology can be explained by placing it in an Origenian framework, in which the soul of Christ remains sinless in the Incarnation because of its relationship to the eternal Word, after the fall of souls to embodiment.

First published in 1896 (this twenty-third edition in 1957), this book provides a general introduction to Greek literature and thought. Among the subjects dealt with are the Greek view of religion, the state and its relation to the citizen, law, artisans and slaves, manual labour, trade and art.

First published in 1931, this book explores the nature and importance of Plato's dialogues. The book was written for an audience of non-scholarly men and women who want to know something about one of the most remarkable thinkers of the Western world. The chapters were originally delivered as broadcast talks.

First published in 1930, this book presents an imagined account of conversation between Plato and 'A Modern Young Man'. In the first part, political and social institutions are considered and property, forms of government, socialism, the control of population, war and education, are discussed. The second part examines the idea of real Goods including the concepts of truth, art and love. In this work, the author sees Plato reaffirming his belief that real Goods come from some higher world, which it is the destiny of the spirits to pursue.

The first collection of essays devoted to the Arabic philosopher Averroes's brilliant Commentary on Plato's "Republic," which survived the medieval period only in Hebrew and Latin translations. The first collection of essays devoted entirely to the medieval philosopher Averroes's Commentary on Plato's "Republic" includes a variety of contributors from across several disciplines and countries. The anthology aims to establish Averroes as a great philosopher in his own right, with special and unique insight into the world of Islam, as well as a valuable commentator on Plato. A major feature of the book is the first published English translation of Shlomo Pines's 1957 essay, written in Hebrew, on Averroes. The volume explores many aspects of Averroes's philosophy, including its teachings on poetry, philosophy, religion, law, and government. Other sections trace both the inspiration Averroes's work drew from past philosophers and the influence it had on future generations, especially in Jewish and Christian Europe. Scholars of medieval philosophy, ancient philosophy, Jewish studies, and the history of political thought more generally will find important insights in this volume. The anthology is also intended to provide the necessary background for teachers aiming to introduce Averroes's commentary into the classroom. With the Republic regularly appearing near the top of lists of the most frequently taught books in the history of philosophy, this volume shows how the most important medieval commentary on it deserves a place in the curriculum as well.

When philosophy rescued him from an emotional crisis, Jules Evans became fascinated by how ideas invented over two thousand years ago can help us today. He interviewed soldiers, psychologists, gangsters, astronauts, and anarchists and discovered the ways that people are using philosophy now to build better lives. Ancient philosophy has inspired modern communities -- Socratic cafes, Stoic armies, Epicurean communes -- and even whole nations in the quest for the good life.
This book is an invitation to a dream school with a rowdy faculty that includes twelve of the greatest philosophers from the ancient world, sharing their lessons on happiness, resilience, and much more. Lively and inspiring, this is philosophy for the street, for the workplace, for the battlefield, for love, for life.