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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Ancient Western philosophy to c 500 > General
All volumes of Professor Guthrie’s great history of Greek philosophy have won their due acclaim. The most striking merits of Guthrie’s work are his mastery of a tremendous range of ancient literature and modern scholarship, his fairness and balance of judgement and the lucidity and precision of his English prose. He has achieved clarity and comprehensiveness.
Volume I of a two-volume scholarly edition of the Meditations of
the Emperor Marcus Antoninus by A.S.L. Farquharson. The edition
presents an authoritative text, together with a translation, an
introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.
Volume II of a two-volume scholarly edition of the Meditations of
the Emperor Marcus Antoninus by A.S.L. Farquharson. The edition
presents an authoritative text, together with a translation, an
introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.
This book analyses the diverse ways in which women have been
represented in the Puranic traditions in ancient India - the
virtuous wife, mother, daughter, widow, and prostitute - against
the socio-religious milieu around CE 300-1000. Puranas (lit.
ancient narratives) are brahmanical texts that largely fall under
the category of socio-religious literature which were more
broad-based and inclusive, unlike the Smrtis, which were accessible
mainly to the upper sections of society. In locating, identifying,
and commenting on the multiplicity of the images and depictions of
women's roles in Puranic traditions, the author highlights their
lives and experiences over time, both within and outside the
traditional confines of the domestic sphere. With a focus on five
Mahapuranas that deal extensively with the social matrix Visnu,
Markandeya Matsya, Agni, and Bhagavata Puranas, the book explores
the question of gender and agency in early India and shows how such
identities were recast, invented, shaped, constructed, replicated,
stereotyped, and sometimes reversed through narratives. Further, it
traces social consequences and contemporary relevance of such
representations in marriage, adultery, ritual, devotion, worship,
fasts, and pilgrimage. This volume will be of interest to
researchers and scholars in women and gender studies, ancient
Indian history, religion, sociology, literature, and South Asian
studies, as also the informed general reader.
Aristotle's Meteorology influenced generations of speculation about
the earth sciences - ranging from atmospheric phenomena to
earthquakes. The commentary of John Philoponus (6th century AD) on
the opening three chapters of Meteorology is here translated for
the first time into English by Dr Inna Kupreeva, building on the
work of L.G. Westerink. Philoponus - who today is increasingly
respected as a philosopher in his own right - here engages
critically with Aristotle's views about the building-blocks of our
world, its size and relationship to other heavenly bodies, and
reception of warmth from the sun. This volume will be of interest
to all students of ancient and medieval philosophy, history and
philosophy of science.
The ancient Greek medical thinkers were profoundly influenced by
Ionian natural philosophy. This philosophy caused them to adopt a
radically new attitude towards disease and healing. James Longrigg
shows how their rational attitudes ultimately resulted in levels of
sophistication largely unsurpassed until the Renaissance. He
examines the important relationship between philosophy and medicine
in ancient Greece and beyond, and reveals its significance for
contemporary western practice and theory.
Nietzsche is undoubtedly one of the most original and influential
thinkers in the history of philosophy. With ideas such as the
overman, will to power, the eternal recurrence, and perspectivism,
Nietzsche challenges us to reconceive how it is that we know and
understand the world, and what it means to be a human being.
Further, in his works, he not only grapples with previous great
philosophers and their ideas, but he also calls into question and
redefines what it means to do philosophy. Nietzsche and the
Philosophers for the first time sets out to examine explicitly
Nietzsche's relationship to his most important predecessors. This
anthology includes essays by many of the leading Nietzsche
scholars, including Keith Ansell-Pearson, Daniel Conway, Tracy B.
Strong, Gary Shapiro, Babette Babich, Mark Anderson, and Paul S.
Loeb. These excellent writers discuss Nietzsche's engagement with
such figures as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Socrates, Hume,
Schopenhauer, Emerson, Rousseau, and the Buddha. Anyone interested
in Nietzsche or the history of philosophy generally will find much
of great interest in this volume.
This book examines the origins of ancient Greek science using the
vehicles of blood, blood vessels, and the heart. Careful attention
to biomedical writers in the ancient world, as well as to the
philosophical and literary work of writers prior to the Hippocratic
authors, produce an interesting story of how science progressed and
the critical context in which important methodological questions
were addressed. The end result is an account that arises from
debates that are engaged in and "solved" by different writers.
These stopping points form the foundation for Harvey and for modern
philosophy of biology. Author Michael Boylan sets out the history
of science as well as a critical evaluation based upon principles
in the contemporary canon of the philosophy of science-particularly
those dealing with the philosophy of biology.
Plato and the Creation of the Hebrew Bible for the first time
compares the ancient law collections of the Ancient Near East, the
Greeks and the Pentateuch to determine the legal antecedents for
the biblical laws. Following on from his 2006 work, Berossus and
Genesis, Manetho and Exodus, Gmirkin takes up his theory that the
Pentateuch was written around 270 BCE using Greek sources found at
the Great Library of Alexandria, and applies this to an examination
of the biblical law codes. A striking number of legal parallels are
found between the Pentateuch and Athenian laws, and specifically
with those found in Plato's Laws of ca. 350 BCE. Constitutional
features in biblical law, Athenian law, and Plato's Laws also
contain close correspondences. Several genres of biblical law,
including the Decalogue, are shown to have striking parallels with
Greek legal collections, and the synthesis of narrative and legal
content is shown to be compatible with Greek literature. All this
evidence points to direct influence from Greek writings, especially
Plato's Laws, on the biblical legal tradition. Finally, it is
argued that the creation of the Hebrew Bible took place according
to the program found in Plato's Laws for creating a legally
authorized national ethical literature, reinforcing the importance
of this specific Greek text to the authors of the Torah and Hebrew
Bible in the early Hellenistic Era. This study offers a fascinating
analysis of the background to the Pentateuch, and will be of
interest not only to biblical scholars, but also to students of
Plato, ancient law, and Hellenistic literary traditions.
The Metaphysics of Good and Evil is the first, full-length
contemporary defence, from the perspective of analytic philosophy,
of the Scholastic theory of good and evil - the theory of
Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and most medieval and Thomistic
philosophers. Goodness is analysed as obedience to nature. Evil is
analysed as the privation of goodness. Goodness, surprisingly, is
found in the non-living world, but in the living world it takes on
a special character. The book analyses various kinds of goodness,
showing how they fit into the Scholastic theory. The privation
theory of evil is given its most comprehensive contemporary
defence, including an account of truthmakers for truths of
privation and an analysis of how causation by privation should be
understood. In the end, all evil is deviance - a departure from the
goodness prescribed by a thing's essential nature. Key Features:
Offers a comprehensive defence of a venerable metaphysical theory,
conducted using the concepts and methods of analytic philosophy.
Revives a much neglected approach to the question of good and evil
in their most general nature. Shows how Aristotelian-Thomistic
theory has more than historical relevance to a fundamental
philosophical issue, but can be applied in a way that is both
defensible and yet accessible to the modern philosopher. Provides
what, for the Scholastic philosopher, is arguably the only solid
metaphysical foundation for a separate treatment of the origins of
morality.
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