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Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Ancient Western philosophy to c 500
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Recent archaeological discoveries, coupled with long-lost but now
available epigraphical evidence, and a more expansive view of
literary sources, provide new and dramatic evidence of the
emergence of rhetoric in ancient Greece. Many of these artifacts,
gathered through onsite fieldwork in Greece, are analyzed in this
revised and expanded edition of GREEK RHETORIC BEFORE ARISTOTLE.
This new evidence, along with recent developments in research
methods and analysis, reveal clearly that long before Aristotle's
Rhetoric, long before rhetoric was even stabilized into formal
systems of study in Classical Athens, nascent, pre-disciplinary
"rhetorics" were emerging throughout Greece. These newly acquired
resources and research procedures demonstrate that oral and
literate rhetoric emerged not only because of intellectual
developments and the refinement of technologies that facilitated
communication but also because of social, political and cultural
forces that nurtured rhetoric's growth and popularity throughout
the Hellenic world. GREEK RHETORIC BEFORE ARISTOTLE offers insights
into the mentalities forming and driving expression, revealing, in
turn, a great deal more about the relationship of thought and
expression in Antiquity. A more expansive understanding of these
pre-disciplinary manifestations of rhetoric, in all of their varied
forms, enriches the history and the nature of classical rhetoric as
a formalized discipline. - RICHARD LEO ENOS is Professor and holder
of the Lillian Radford Chair of Rhetoric and Composition at Texas
Christian University. His research concentration is in classical
rhetoric with an emphasis in the relationship between oral and
written discourse. He is past president of the American Society for
the History of Rhetoric (1980-1981) and the Rhetoric Society of
America (1990-1991). He received the RSA George E. Yoos Award
Distinguished Service and was inducted as an RSA Fellow in 2006. He
is the founding editor of ADVANCES IN THE HISTORY OF RHETORIC and
the editor (with David E. Beard) of ADVANCES IN THE HISTORY OF
RHETORIC: THE FIRST SIX YEARS (2007, Parlor Press). He is also the
author of ROMAN RHETORIC: REVOLUTION AND THE GREEK INFLUENCE,
Revised and Expanded Edition (2008, Parlor Press). - LAUER SERIES
IN RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION, edited by Catherine Hobbs, Patricia
Sullivan, Thomas Rickert, and Jennifer Bay.
The final volume to be published in the acclaimed Routledge History of Philosophy series provides an authoritative and comprehensive survey and analysis of the key areas of late Greek and early Christian Philosophy. eBook available with sample pages: 0203028457
The works of Aristotle are central to the western philosophical
tradition, and scholarship on Aristotle, especially in English, has
burgeoned enormously since the 1950s. This text collects together
articles on Aristotle's philosophy otherwise scattered over many
philosophical, classical and historical scientific journals. The
set thus provides a resource for those approaching the literature
for the first time and for those already studying Aristotle in a
professional capacity. Aristotle has been so influential and
remains so in so many distinct areas that it is often the case
that, say, a reader is acquainted with the literature on
metaphysics or ethics but knows nothing about the literature on
psychology or the philosophy of biology. This set guides the
researcher, teacher, or student through the issues of major concern
in contemporary Aristotelian scholarship in the English-speaking
world. The articles are arranged as follows: Volume I covers logic
and metaphysics; Volume II covers physics, cosmology, biology;
Volume III covers psychology and ethics; and Volume IV covers
politics, rhetoric and aesthetics.
This book is available either individually, or as part of the
specially-priced Arguments of the Philosphers Collection.
This book is available either individually, or as part of the
specially-priced Arguments of the Philosphers Collection.
The philosophy of Plato, universally acknowledged as the most
important thinker of the Ancient World, is a major focus of
contemporary attention - not only among philosophers, but also
classicists and literary and political theorists. This set selects
the best and most influential examples of Platonic scholarship
published in English over the last fifty years, and adds
translations of outstanding works published in other languages. It
represents radically different scholarly approaches, and
illuminates the key issues in the most hotly debated topics,
including Plato's theory of the Forms and Platonic Erotics. It is
especially concerned with the interpretations and major debates of
philosophers of the Anglo-American schools over the last three
decades.
The Socratic method of questioning and refutation (elenchus)
predominates the early Platonic dialogues. But things change in the
middle dialogues, as Socrates goes beyond merely asking questions
and begins to provide answers to his questions. And the method
virtually disappears in the late dialogues. The standard
explanation of this phenomenon is that the early dialogues were
intended to commemorate Socrates and the elenchus, while in the
middle and late dialogues Plato went beyond Socrates to present his
own mature philosophical thought. In this book, Matthews revises
this explanation by uncovering the shortcomings that Plato came to
find in the Socratic method and the reasons why Plato lost interest
in it.
This four volume set is a collection of some of the most
significant scholarship published on the philosophy of Socrates in
the last half century. The contributors include many of the most
prominent scholars in this field. As the growth in Socratic studies
in the past three decades is due in large part to the influential
work of Gregory Vlastos, articles by him figure prominently in the
collection, and works by other authors are generally related to his
work (as sources of it, responses to it, or further developments of
it). The volumes deal with different areas of Socratic thought. The
first volume begins with the question whether and to what degree we
can discern a distinctive philosophy of Socrates in the ancient
sources. The second volume deals with the trial of Socrates and the
philosophical issues that arise from it. The third volume considers
the philosophical methodology of Socrates and the fourth his moral
philosophy. This collection shares some material with earlier
collections on the philosophy of Socrates, but it is more extensive
and up-to-date. Unlike other collections, which may offer the
reader only a single article on a given topic, this collection
offers a conversation in-depth. The reader can thus get a sense of
the dimensions of the scholarly debate on these central issues in
the philosophy of Socrates. No collection can be complete, but this
aims at a representative portrait of Socratic studies in the last
fifty years.
Virtue ethics is perhaps the most important development within late
twentieth-century moral philosophy. Rosalind Hursthouse, who has
made notable contributions to this development, now presents a full
exposition and defence of her neo-Aristotelian version of virtue
ethics. She shows how virtue ethics can provide guidance for
action, illuminate moral dilemmas, and bring out the moral
significance of the emotions. Deliberately avoiding a combative
stance, she finds less disagreement between Kantian and
neo-Aristotelian approaches than is usual, and she offers the first
account from a virtue ethics perspective of acting 'from a sense of
duty'. She considers the question which character traits are
virtues, and explores how answers to this question can be justified
by appeal to facts about human nature. Written in a clear, engaging
style which makes it accessible to non-specialists, On Virtue
Ethics will appeal to anyone with an interest in moral philosophy.
Most philosophy has rejected the theater, denouncing it as a place
of illusion or moral decay; the theater in turn has rejected
philosophy, insisting that drama deals in actions, not ideas.
Challenging both views, The Drama of Ideas shows that theater and
philosophy have been crucially intertwined from the start.
Plato is the presiding genius of this alternative history. The
Drama of Ideas presents Plato not only as a theorist of drama, but
also as a dramatist himself, one who developed a dialogue-based
dramaturgy that differs markedly from the standard, Aristotelian
view of theater. Puchner discovers scores of dramatic adaptations
of Platonic dialogues, the most immediate proof of Plato's hitherto
unrecognized influence on theater history. Drawing on these
adaptations, Puchner shows that Plato was central to modern drama
as well, with figures such as Wilde, Shaw, Pirandello, Brecht, and
Stoppard using Plato to create a new drama of ideas. Puchner then
considers complementary developments in philosophy, offering a
theatrical history of philosophy that includes Kierkegaard,
Nietzsche, Burke, Sartre, Camus, and Deleuze. These philosophers
proceed with constant reference to theater, using theatrical terms,
concepts, and even dramatic techniques in their writings.
The Drama of Ideas mobilizes this double history of philosophical
theater and theatrical philosophy to subject current habits of
thought to critical scrutiny. In dialogue with contemporary
thinkers such as Martha Nussbaum, Iris Murdoch, and Alain Badiou,
Puchner formulates the contours of a "dramatic Platonism." This new
Platonism does not seek to return to an idealist theory of forms,
but it does point beyond the reigning philosophies of the body, of
materialism and of cultural relativism.
The series, founded in 1970, publishes works which either combine
studies in the history of philosophy with a systematic approach or
bring together systematic studies with reconstructions from the
history of philosophy. Monographs are published in English as well
as in German. The founding editors are Erhard Scheibe (editor until
1991), Gunther Patzig (until 1999) and Wolfgang Wieland (until
2003). From 1990 to 2007, the series had been co-edited by Jurgen
Mittelstrass.
In this third Volume of Logological Investigations, Sandywell
continues his sociological reconstruction of the origins of
reflexive thought and discourse with special reference to
pre-Socratic philosophy and science and their socio-political
context.
He begins by criticizing traditional histories of philosophy which
abstract speculative thought from its sociocultural and historical
contexts, and proposes instead an explicitly contextual and
reflexive approach to ancient Greek society and culture.
Each chapter is devoted to a seminal figure or "school" of
reflection in early Greek philosophy. Special emphasis is placed
upon the verbal and rhetorical innovations of protophilosophy in
the sixth and fifth centuries BC. These chapters are also exemplary
displays of the distinctive Logological method of culture analysis
and through them Sandywell shows that by returning to the earliest
problematics of reflexivity in pre-modern culture we may gain an
insight into some of the central currents of modern and postmodern
self-reflection.
Ancient Greek Philosophy: From the Presocratics to the Hellenistic
Philosophers presents a comprehensive introduction to the
philosophers and philosophical traditions that developed in ancient
Greece from 585 BC to 529 AD. * Provides coverage of the
Presocratics through the Hellenistic philosophers * Moves beyond
traditional textbooks that conclude with Aristotle * A uniquely
balanced organization of exposition, choice excerpts and
commentary, informed by classroom feedback * Contextual commentary
traces the development of lines of thought through the period,
ideal for students new to the discipline * Can be used in
conjunction with the online resources found at
http://tomblackson.com/Ancient/toc.html
Geoffrey Lloyd engages in a wide-ranging exploration of what we can
learn from the study of ancient civilisations that is relevant to
fundamental problems, both intellectual and moral, that we still
face today. How far is it possible to arrive at an understanding of
alien systems of belief? Is it possible to talk meaningfully of
'science' and of its various constituent disciplines, 'astronomy',
'geography', 'anatomy', and so on, in the ancient world? Are logic
and its laws universal? Is there one ontology - a single world - to
which all attempts at understanding must be considered to be
directed? When we encounter apparently very different views of
reality, how far can that be put down to a difference in
conceptions of what needs explaining, or of what counts as an
explanation, or to different preferred modes of reasoning or styles
of inquiry? Do the notions of truth and belief represent reliable
cross-cultural universals? In another area, what can ancient
history teach us about today's social and political problems? Are
the discourses of human nature and of human rights universally
applicable? What political institutions do we need to help secure
equity and justice within nation states and between them? Lloyd
sets out to answer all these questions, and to convince us that the
science and culture of ancient Greece and China provide precious
resources to advance modern debates.
Offering a bold new vision on the history of modern logic, Lukas M.
Verburgt and Matteo Cosci focus on the lasting impact of
Aristotle's syllogism between the 1820s and 1930s. For over two
millennia, deductive logic was the syllogism and syllogism was the
yardstick of sound human reasoning. During the 19th century, this
hegemony fell apart and logicians, including Boole, Frege and
Peirce, took deductive logic far beyond its Aristotelian borders.
However, contrary to common wisdom, reflections on syllogism were
also instrumental to the creation of new logical developments, such
as first-order logic and early set theory. This volume presents the
period under discussion as one of both tradition and innovation,
both continuity and discontinuity. Modern logic broke away from the
syllogistic tradition, but without Aristotle's syllogism, modern
logic would not have been born. A vital follow up to The Aftermath
of Syllogism, this book traces the longue duree history of
syllogism from Richard Whately's revival of formal logic in the
1820s through the work of David Hilbert and the Goettingen school
up to the 1930s. Bringing together a group of major international
experts, it sheds crucial new light on the emergence of modern
logic and the roots of analytic philosophy in the 19th and early
20th centuries.
Aristotle's treatise De Interpretatione is one of his central
works; it continues to be the focus of much attention and debate.
C. W. A. Whitaker presents the first systematic study of this work,
and offers a radical new view of its aims, its structure, and its
place in Aristotle's system, basing this view upon a detailed
chapter-by-chapter analysis. By treating the work systematically,
rather than concentrating on certain selected passages, Dr Whitaker
is able to show that, contrary to traditional opinion, it forms an
organized and coherent whole. He argues that the De Interpretatione
is intended to provide the underpinning for dialectic, the system
of argument by question and answer set out in Aristotle's Topics ;
and he rejects the traditional view that the De Interpretatione
concerns the assertion and is oriented towards the formal logic of
the Prior Analytics. In doing so, he sheds valuable new light on
some of Aristotle's most famous texts.
Philoponus' On Aristotle Categories 1-5 discusses the nature of
universals, preserving the views of Philoponus' teacher Ammonius,
as well as presenting a Neoplatonist interpretation of Aristotle's
Categories. Philoponus treats universals as concepts in the human
mind produced by abstracting a form or nature from the material
individual in which it has its being. The work is important for its
own philosophical discussion and for the insight it sheds on its
sources. For considerable portions, On Aristotle Categories 1-5
resembles the wording of an earlier commentary which declares
itself to be an anonymous record taken from the seminars of
Ammonius. Unlike much of Philoponus' later writing, this commentary
does not disagree with either Aristotle or Ammonius, and suggests
the possibility that Philoponus either had access to this earlier
record or wrote it himself. This edition explores these questions
of provenance, alongside the context, meaning and implications of
Philoponus' work. The English translation is accompanied by an
introduction, comprehensive commentary notes, bibliography,
glossary of translated terms and a subject index. The latest volume
in the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series, the edition makes
this philosophical work accessible to a modern readership.
Philoponus was a Christian writing in Greek in 6th century CE
Alexandria, where some students of philosophy were bilingual in
Syriac as well as Greek. In this Greek treatise translated from the
surviving Syriac version, Philoponus discusses the logic of parts
and wholes, and he illustrates the spread of the pagan and
Christian philosophy of 6th century CE Greeks to other cultures, in
this case to Syria. Philoponus, an expert on Aristotle's
philosophy, had turned to theology and was applying his knowledge
of Aristotle to disputes over the human and divine nature of
Christ. Were there two natures and were they parts of a whole, as
the Emperor Justinian proposed, or was there only one nature, as
Philoponus claimed with the rebel minority, both human and divine?
If there were two natures, were they parts like the ingredients in
a chemical mixture? Philoponus attacks the idea. Such ingredients
are not parts, because they each inter-penetrate the whole mixture.
Moreover, he abandons his ingenious earlier attempts to support
Aristotle's view of mixture by identifying ways in which such
ingredients might be thought of as potentially preserved in a
chemical mixture. Instead, Philoponus says that the ingredients are
destroyed, unlike the human and divine in Christ. This English
translation of Philoponus' treatise is the latest volume in the
Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series and makes this
philosophical work accessible to a modern readership. The
translation in each volume is accompanied by an introduction,
comprehensive commentary notes, bibliography, glossary of
translated terms and a subject index.
Protagoras is a lively and often humorous look at virtue,
knowledge, and the best means of acquiring them. Ostensibly a
debate between Socrates and a sophist opponent over the education
of a young man, the dialogue also concerns the nature of the
contest itself. As told in retrospect by a somewhat frustrated
Socrates, he is asked by Hippocrates to broker an introduction to
Protagoras, a famous sophist with whom the young man wants to
study. Socrates then begins a public debate with Protagoras in
order to see what the sophist has to teach. The two men examine the
nature of virtue - whether it can be taught, and whether all
virtues are connected - but end up in conflict over their styles of
discourse. Plato contrasts the crowd-pleasing oratory of Protagoras
with the difficult and unglamorous questioning used by Socrates.
The multiple layers of conflict and discussion make Protagorus one
of Plato's most dramatically satisfying works, and an excellent
starting point for those new to his philosophy.
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