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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Ancient Western philosophy to c 500
Reissuing works originally published between 1938 and 1993, this
set offers a range of scholarship covering Aristotle's logic,
virtues and mathematics as well as a consideration of De Anima and
of his work on physics, specifically light. The first two books are
in themselves a pair, which investigate the philosopher's life and
his lost works and development of his thought.
i. Introductory remarks 1 Plato, but not Socrates, concluded that
the Forms are substances. Whether the Forms are substances is not
an issue that Socrates had in mind. He did not deny it, but neither
did he affirm it. If Socrates were asked a series of questions
designed to determine whether he believed that the Forms are
substances, he would admit that he had no opinion about this
philosophical issue. Unlike Plato, Socrates was not a
metaphysician. The same, of course, would not have always been true
of Plato. Unlike Socrates, he was a metaphysician. At some point in
his career, and at least by the time of the Phaedo and the
Republic, Plato did what Socrates never thought to do. Plato
considered the question and concluded that the Forms are
substances. Although this development occurred more than two
thousand years ago, time has not eclipsed its importance. It is one
of the most seminal events in the history of the philosophy. With
his defense of Socrates's method of intellectual inquiry, and the
development of his Theory of Forms, Plato caused a now familiar
cluster of metaphysical and epistemological issues to become
central to philosophy.
The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote down his thoughts between
170 and 180. He was a late Stoic Philosopher and this one of the
few examples of this type of literature that exists today. The book
is written as personal notes to himself and his thesis is that one
can obtain inner calm irrespective of outer adversity. The text
considers good and evil, solidarity, adversity and inner freedom.
It is a book that offers wisdom, comfort and inspiration. As well
as the thought, this edition contains a biographical sketch and
summary of the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, a number of
illustrations and both an index and index of terms.
Ever since Vlastos' "Theology and Philosophy in Early Greek
Thought," scholars have known that a consideration of ancient
philosophy without attention to its theological, cosmological and
soteriological dimensions remains onesided. Yet, philosophers
continue to discuss thinkers such as Parmenides and Plato without
knowledge of their debt to the archaic religious traditions.
Perhaps our own religious prejudices allow us to see only a "polis
religion" in Greek religion, while our modern philosophical
openness and emphasis on reason induce us to rehabilitate ancient
philosophy by what we consider the highest standard of knowledge:
proper argumentation. Yet, it is possible to see ancient philosophy
as operating according to a different system of meaning, a
different "logic." Such a different sense of logic operates in myth
and other narratives, where the argument is neither completely
illogical nor rational in the positivist sense. The articles in
this volume undertake a critical engagement with this unspoken
legacy of Greek religion. The aim of the volume as a whole is to
show how, beyond the formalities and fallacies of arguments,
something more profound is at stake in ancient philosophy: the
salvation of the philosopher-initiate.
Intellectuals in Politics in the Greek World, first published in
1984, was the first comprehensive study of this recurrent theme in
political sociology with specific reference to antiquity, and led
to significant revaluation of the role of intellectuals in everyday
political life. The term 'intellectual' is carefully defined, and
figures as diverse as Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle; Isocrates,
Heracleides of Ponteius and Clearchus of Soli are discussed. The
author examines the difference between the success of an
intellectual politician, like Solon, and the failure of those such
as Plato who attempted to mould society to abstract ideals. It is
concluded that, ultimately, most philosophers were conspicuously
unsuccessful when they intervened in politics: citizens regarded
them as propagandists for their rulers, while rulers treated them
as intellectual ornaments. The result was that many thinkers
retreated to inter-scholastic disputation where the political
objects of discussion increasingly became far removed from
contemporary reality.
First published in 1964, this is a short collection of both
literary and philosophical essays. Whilst two essays consider Greek
literature written at the point at which the Athenian empire was
breaking apart, another group explore the background from which
Christianity arose, considering Paganism and the religious
philosophy at the time of Christ. These, in particular, display
Gilbert Murray's 'profound belief in ethics and disbelief in all
revelational religions' as well as his conviction that the roots of
our society lie within Greek civilization. Finally, there is an
interesting discussion of Order and the motives of those who seek
to overthrow it.
It is the first expression of the concept of a Utopia, a perfect
society. It is the first thoughtful examination of the concept of
an inner life. It is the classic discussion of concepts of justice.
It is a profoundly reflective work on the nature of philosophy
itself. It is 2,300 years old, and one of the greatest books
humanity has ever produced. Written around 360 B.C., The Republicby
the Greek philosopher and mathematician PLATO (c. 428 B.C.c. 347
B.C.)is the foundational work of Western thought, with notable
influences on thinkers and writers as diverse as Shakespeare, Saint
Augustine, and Bertrand Russell. It is impossible to overstate its
importance, and its wisdom is so intense, wide-ranging, and often
seemingly contradictory that it continues to generate heated
debate, even controversy, to this day. Essential reading for anyone
who wishes to consider him- or herself educated, this is the
unabridged Republic presented in the highly readable 1894
translation by Benjamin Jowett.
Plato is the best known and most widely studied of all the ancient
Greek philosophers. Malcolm Schofield, a leading scholar of ancient
philosophy, offers a lucid and accessible guide to Plato's
political thought, enormously influential and much discussed in the
modern world as well as the
ancient. Schofield discusses Plato's ideas on education, democracy
and its shortcomings, the role of knowledge in government, utopia
and the idea of community, money and its grip on the psyche, and
ideological uses of religion.
Late Antique Epistemology explores the techniques used by late
antique philosophers to discuss truth. Non-rational ways to
discover truth, or to reform the soul, have usually been thought
inferior to the philosophically approved techniques of rational
argument, suitable for the less philosophically inclined, for
children, savages or the uneducated. Religious rituals, oracles,
erotic passion, madness may all have served to waken courage or
remind us of realities obscured by everyday concerns. What is
unusual in the late antique classical philosophers is that these
techniques were reckoned as reliable as reasoned argument, or
better still. Late twentieth century commentators have offered
psychological explanations of this turn, but only recently had it
been accepted that there might also have been philosophical
explanations, and that the later antique philosophers were not
necessarily deluded.
In this book, Eric Havelock presents a challenging account of
the development of the idea of justice in early Greece, and
particularly of the way justice changed as Greek oral tradition
gradually gave way to the written word in a literate society.
He begins by examining the educational functions of poets in
preliterate Greece, showing how they conserved and transmitted the
traditions of society, a thesis adumbrated in his earlier book
Preface to Plato. Homer, he demonstrates, has much to say about
justice, but since that idea is nowhere in the epics directly
stated or expressed, it must be deduced from the speech and actions
of the characters. Havelock's careful reading of the "Iliad" and
the "Odyssey" is original and revealing; it sheds light both on
Homeric notions of justice and on the Archaic Greek society
depicted in the poems.
As Havelock continues his inquiry from Hesiod to Aeschylus, his
findings become more complex. The oral Greek world shades into a
literate one. Words lose some kinds of meanings, gain others, and
steadily become more suited to the conceptualization that Plato
strove for and achieved. This evolution of language itself,
Havelock shows, was one of the principal accomplishments of the
Greek world.
Lucidly written and forcefully argued, this book is a major
contribution to our knowledge of ancient Greece--its politics,
philosophy, and literature, from Homer to Plato.
J. Angelo Corlett's new book, Interpreting Plato Socratically
continues the critical discussion of the Platonic Question where
Corlett's book, Interpreting Plato's Dialogues concluded. New
arguments in favor of the Mouthpiece Interpretation of Plato's
works are considered and shown to be fallacious, as are new
objections to some competing approaches to Plato's works. The
Platonic Question is the problem of how to approach and interpret
Plato's writings most of which are dialogues. How, if at all, can
Plato's beliefs, doctrines, theories and such be extracted from
dialogues where there is no direct indication from Plato that his
own views are even to be found therein? Most philosophers of Plato
attempt to decipher from Plato's texts seemingly all manner of
ideas expressed by Socrates which they then attribute to Plato.
They seek to ascribe to Plato particular views about justice, art,
love, virtue, knowledge, and the like because, they believe,
Socrates is Plato's mouthpiece through the dialogues. But is such
an approach justified? What are the arguments in favor of such an
approach? Is there a viable alternative approach to Plato's
dialogues? In this rigorous account of the dominant approach to
Plato's dialogues, there is no room left for reasonable doubt about
the problematic reasons given for the notion that Plato's dialogues
reveal either Plato's or Socrates' beliefs, doctrines or theories
about substantive philosophical matters. Corlett's approach to
Plato's dialogues is applied to a variety of passages throughout
Plato's works on a wide range of topics concerning justice.
In-depth discussions of themes such as legal obligation, punishment
and compensatory justice are clarified and with some surprising
results. Plato's works serve as a rich source of philosophical
thinking about such matters. A central question in today's Platonic
studies is whether Socrates, or any other protagonist in the
dialogues, presents views that the author wanted to assert or
defend. Professor Corlett offers a detailed defense of his view
that the role of Socrates is to raise questions rather than to
provide the author's answers to them. This defense is timely as
intellectual historians consider the part played by Academic
scholars centuries after Plato in systematizing Platonism. J. J.
Mulhern, University of Pennsylvania
Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was probably born a
slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia (present day Pamukkale, Turkey), and
lived in Rome until his exile to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece,
where he lived most of his life and died. His teachings were noted
down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses.
Philosophy, he taught, is a way of life and not just a theoretical
discipline. To Epictetus, all external events are determined by
fate, and are thus beyond our control, but we can accept whatever
happens calmly and dispassionately. Individuals, however, are
responsible for their own actions which they can examine and
control through rigorous self-discipline. Suffering arises from
trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what
is within our power. As part of the universal city that is the
universe, human beings have a duty of care to all fellow humans.
The person who followed these precepts would achieve happiness.
A landmark defense of democracy that has been hailed as one of the
most important books of the twentieth century One of the most
important books of the twentieth century, The Open Society and Its
Enemies is an uncompromising defense of liberal democracy and a
powerful attack on the intellectual origins of totalitarianism. An
immediate sensation when it was first published, Karl Popper's
monumental achievement has attained legendary status on both the
Left and Right. Tracing the roots of an authoritarian tradition
represented by Plato, Marx, and Hegel, Popper argues that the
spirit of free, critical inquiry that governs scientific
investigation should also apply to politics. In a new foreword,
George Soros, who was a student of Popper, describes the
"revelation" of first reading the book and how it helped inspire
his philanthropic Open Society Foundations.
Blends expert insights on ancient Greek thought and modern
psychoanalysis; focuses on expanding analytic theory and clinical
practice; contains rich clinical material
The Republic is Plato's best-known work. It's also considered to be
one of the most historically influential works on philosophy and
political theory.
In one volume, this book brings together a new English translation
of Plato's Meno, a selection of illuminating articles on themes in
the dialogue published between 1965 and 1985 and an introduction
setting the Meno in its historical context and opening up the key
philosophical issues which the various articles discuss.
A glossary is provided which briefly introduces some of the key
terms and indicates how they are translated. The Meno is an
excellent introduction to Plato and philosophy.
During the last half century there has been revolutionary progress
in logic and in logic-related areas such as linguistics. HistoricaI
knowledge of the origins of these subjects has also increased
significantly. Thus, it would seem that the problem of determining
the extent to which ancient logical and linguistic theories admit
of accurate interpretation in modern terms is now ripe for
investigation. The purpose of the symposium was to gather
logicians, philosophers, linguists, mathematicians and philologists
to present research results bearing on the above problem with
emphasis on logic. Presentations and discussions at the symposium
focused themselves into five areas: ancient semantics, modern
research in ancient logic, Aristotle's logic, Stoic logic, and
directions for future research in ancient logic and logic-related
areas. Seven of the papers which appear below were originally
presented at the symposium. In every case, discussion at the
symposium led to revisions, in some cases to extensive revisions.
The editor suggested still further revisions, but in every case the
author was the finaljudge of the work that appears under his name.
An annual publication which publishes original articles, some of
substantial length, on a wide range of topics in ancient
philosophy, and review articles of major books.
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