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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Ancient Western philosophy to c 500 > General
Early Greek Thought calls into question a longstanding mythology -
operative in both the Analytic and Continental traditions - that
the 'Pre-Socratics had the grandiose audacity to break with all
traditional forms of knowledge' (Badiou). Each of the variants of
this mythology is dismantled in an attempt to not only retrieve an
'indigenous' interpretation of early Greek thought, but also to
expose the mythological character of our own contemporary
meta-narratives regarding the 'origins' of 'Western', 'Occidental'
philosophy. Using an original hermeneutical approach, James Luchte
excavates the context ofemergence of early Greek thought through an
exploration of the mytho-poetic horizons of the archaic world, in
relation to which, as Plato testifies, the Greeks were merely
'children'. Luchte discloses 'philosophy in the tragic age' as a
creative response to a 'contestation' of mytho-poetic narratives
and 'ways of being'. The tragic character of early Greek thought is
unfolded through a cultivation of a conversation between its basic
thinkers, one which would remain incomprehensible, with Bataille,
in the 'absence of myth' and the exile of poetry.
Christianity is commonly held to have introduced an entirely new
and better morality into the ancient world, a new morality that was
decidedly universal, in contrast to the ethics of the philosophical
schools which were only concerned with the intellectual few. Runar
M. Thorsteinsson presents a challenge to this view by comparing
Christian morality in first-century Rome with contemporary Stoic
ethics in the city.
Thorsteinsson introduces and discusses the moral teaching of Roman
Stoicism; of Seneca, Musonius Rufus, and Epictetus. He then
presents the moral teaching of Roman Christianity as it is
represented in Paul's Letter to the Romans, the First Letter of
Peter, and the First Letter of Clement. Having established the
bases for his comparison, he examines the similarities and
differences between Roman Stoicism and Roman Christianity in terms
of morality.
Five broad themes are used for the comparison, questions of
Christian and Stoic views about: a particular morality or way of
life as proper worship of the deity; certain individuals (like
Jesus and Socrates) as paradigms for the proper way of life; the
importance of mutual love and care; non-retaliation and 'love of
enemies'; and the social dimension of ethics. This approach reveals
a fundamental similarity between the moral teachings of Roman
Christianity and Roman Stoicism. The most basic difference is found
in the ethical scope of the two: While the latter teaches
unqualified universal humanity, the former seems to condition the
ethical scope in terms of religious adherence.
In this authoritative discussion of the philosophy of Plato and
Aristotle, A. W. Price considers four related areas: eudaimonia, or
living and acting well, as the ultimate end of action; virtues of
character in relation to the emotions, and to one another;
practical reasoning, especially from an end to ways or means; and
acrasia, or action that is contrary to the agent's own judgement of
what is best. The focal concept is that of eudaimonia, which both
Plato and Aristotle view as an abstract goal that is valuable
enough to motivate action. Virtue has a double role to play in
making its achievement possible, both in proposing subordinate ends
apt to the context, and in protecting the agent against temptations
to discard them too easily. For both purposes, Price suggests that
virtues need to form a unity--but one that can be conceived in
various ways. Among the tasks of deliberation is to work out how,
and whether, to pursue some putative end in context. Aristotle
returns to early Plato in finding it problematic that one should
consciously sacrifice acting well to some incidental attraction;
Plato later finds this possible by postulating schism within the
soul. Price maintains that it is their emphasis upon the centrality
of action within human life that makes the reflections of these
ancient philosophers perennially relevant.
This book offers an original account of one of Aristotle's central
doctrines, his theory of material substance. Gad Freudenthal argues
that Aristotle's concept of heat is a crucial but hitherto ignored
part of this account. Aristotle's 'canonical', four-element theory
of matter fails to explain the coming-to-be of material substances
(the way matter becomes organised) and their persistence (why
substances do not disintegrate into their components). Interpreters
have highlighted Aristotle's claim that soul is the active cause of
the coming-to-be and persistence of living beings. Dr Freudenthal
draws on dispersed remarks in Aristotle's writings, to argue that
Aristotle in parallel also draws on a comprehensive 'naturalistic'
theory, which accounts for material persistence through the
concepts of heat, specifically vital heat, and connate pneuma. This
theory, which bears also on the higher soul-functions, is central
in Aristotle's understanding of the relationship between matter and
form, body and soul. Dr Freudenthal aims not only to recover this
theory and to highlight its explanatory roles, but also to make
suggestions concerning its origin in Presocratic thought and in
Aristotle's own early theology. He further offers a brief review of
how later ages came to grips with the difficulties inherent in the
received version of Aristotle's matter theory. This book is an
important contribution to the proper understanding of a central
Aristotelian doctrine, which straddles 'chemistry', biology, the
theory of soul, and metaphysics.
Seneca's Natural Questions is an eight-book disquisition on the
nature of meteorological phenomena, ranging inter alia from
rainbows to earthquakes, from comets to the winds, from the causes
of snow and hail to the reasons why the Nile floods in summer. Much
of this material had been treated in the earlier Greco-Roman
meteorological tradition, but what notoriously sets Seneca's
writing apart is his insertion of extended moralizing sections
within his technical discourse. How, if at all, are these outbursts
against the luxury and vice that are apparently rampant in Seneca's
first-century CE Rome to be reconciled with his main meteorological
agenda? In grappling with this familiar question, The Cosmic
Viewpoint argues that Seneca is no blinkered or arid meteorological
investigator, but a creative explorer into nature's workings who
offers a highly idiosyncratic blend of physico-moral investigation
across his eight books. At one level, his inquiry into nature
impinges on human conduct and morality in its implicit propagation
of the familiar Stoic ideal of living in accordance with nature:
the moral deviants whom Seneca condemns in the course of the work
offer egregious examples of living contrary to nature's balanced
way. At a deeper level, however, The Cosmic Viewpoint stresses the
literary qualities and complexities that are essential to Seneca's
literary art of science: his technical enquiries initiate a form of
engagement with nature which distances the reader from the ordinary
involvements and fragmentations of everyday life, instead centering
our existence in the cosmic whole. From a figurative standpoint,
Seneca's meteorological theme raises our gaze from a terrestrial
level of existence to a more intuitive plane where literal vision
gives way to 'higher' conjecture and intuition: in striving to
understand meteorological phenomena, we progress in an elevating
direction - a conceptual climb that renders the Natural Questions
no mere store of technical learning, but a work that actively
promotes a change of perspective in its readership.
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is an annual publication which
includes original articles, which may be of substantial length, on
a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles
of major books. Contributors to this volume; Paul A. Vander Waerdt,
Christopher Rowe, Rachel Rue, Paula Gottlieb, Robert Bolton, and
John M. Cooper.
Plotinus (205-269 AD) is considered the founder of Neoplatonism,
the dominant philosophical movement of late antiquity, and a rich
seam of current scholarly interest. Whilst Plotinus' influence on
the subsequent philosophical tradition was enormous, his ideas can
also be seen as the culmination of some implicit trends in the
Greek tradition from Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics.
Emilsson's in-depth study focuses on Plotinus' notion of Intellect,
which comes second in his hierarchical model of reality, after the
One, unknowable first cause of everything. As opposed to ordinary
human discursive thinking, Intellect's thought is all-at-once,
timeless, truthful and a direct intuition into 'things themselves';
it is presumably not even propositional. Emilsson discusses and
explains this strong notion of non-discursive thought and explores
Plotinus' insistence that this must be the primary form of thought.
Plotinus' doctrine of Intellect raises a host of questions that
Emilsson addresses. First, Intellect's thought is described as an
attempt to grasp the One and at the same time as self-thought. How
are these two claims related? How are they compatible? What lies in
Plotinus' insistence that Intellect's thought is a thought of
itself? Second, Plotinus gives two minimum requirements of thought:
that it must involve a distinction between thinker and object of
thought, and that the object itself must be varied. How are these
two pluralist claims related? Third, what is the relation between
Intellect as a thinker and Intellect as an object of thought?
Plotinus' position here seems to amount to a form of idealism, and
this is explored.
Plato is the best known, and continues to be the most widely
studied, of all the ancient Greek philosophers. The updated and
original essays in the second edition of the Oxford Handbook of
Plato provide in-depth discussions of a variety of topics and
dialogues, all serving several functions at once: they survey the
current academic landscape; express and develop the authors' own
views; and situate those views within a range of alternatives. The
result is a useful state-of-the-art reference to the man many
consider the most important philosophical thinker in history. This
second edition of the Oxford Handbook of Plato differs in two main
ways from the first edition. First, six leading scholars of ancient
philosophy have contributed entirely new chapters: Hugh Benson on
the Apology, Crito, and Euthyphro; James Warren on the Protagoras
and Gorgias; Lindsay Judson on the Meno; Luca Castagnoli on the
Phaedo; Susan Sauve Meyer on the Laws; and David Sedley on Plato's
theology. This new edition therefore covers both dialogues and
topics in more depth than the first edition did. Secondly, most of
the original chapters have been revised and updated, some in small,
others in large, ways.
This is the first of a two-volume edition of Alexander of
Aphrodisias' commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics. The new
edition, which includes a philosophical and philological
introduction, as well as notes on textcritical issues, is based on
a critical evaluation of the entire manuscript tradition of the
commentary. It also takes into account its indirect tradition and
the Latin translation of Juan Gines Sepulveda.
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is a volume of original
articles on all aspects of ancient philosophy. The articles may be
of substantial length, and include critical notices of major books.
From 2000, OSAP is being published not once but twice yearly, to
keep up with the abundance of good material submitted; and it is
being made available in paperback as well as hardback, in response
to demand from scholars wishing to purchase it. This volume, the
first of 2000, features contributors from Britain, America, Europe,
and Japan contributing pieces on Socrates, Plato, Aristotle,
Epicureanism, Pyrrhonism, and the recently discovered papyrus text
of Empedocles.
Roslyn Weiss contends that, contrary to prevailing notions, Plato's Crito does not show an allegiance between Socrates and the state that condemned him. Weiss argues that Socrates considers the laws of the state to be more concerned with creating deference than justice, and asserts that, by submitting to his judgement, Socrates acts from a personal sense of justice rather than a set of imposed rules.
Throughout the history of philosophy, skepticism has posed one of
the central challenges of epistemology. Opponents of
skepticism--including externalists, contextualists,
foundationalists, and coherentists--have focussed largely on one
particular variety of skepticism, often called Cartesian or
Academic skepticism, which makes the radical claim that nobody can
know anything. However, this version of skepticism is something of
a straw man, since virtually no philosopher endorses this radical
skeptical claim. The only skeptical view that has been truly
held--by Sextus, Montaigne, Hume, Wittgenstein, and, most recently,
Robert Fogelin--has been Pyrrohnian skepticism. Pyrrhonian skeptics
do not assert Cartesian skepticism, but neither do they deny it.
The Pyrrhonian skeptics' doubts run so deep that they suspend
belief even about Cartesian skepticism and its denial. Nonetheless,
some Pyrrhonians argue that they can still hold "common beliefs of
everyday life" and can even claim to know some truths in an
everyday way.
This edited volume presents previously unpublished articles on this
subject by a strikingly impressive group of philosophers, who
engage with both historical and contemporary versions of Pyrrhonian
skepticism. Among them are Gisela Striker, Janet Broughton, Don
Garrett, Ken Winkler, Hans Sluga, Ernest Sosa, Michael Williams,
Barry Stroud, Robert Fogelin, and Roy Sorensen. This volume is
thematically unified and will interest a broad spectrum of scholars
in epistemology and the history of philosophy.
This book argues against the common view that there are no
essential differences between Plato and the Neoplatonist
philosopher, Plotinus, on the issues of mysticism, epistemology,
and ethics. Beginning by examining the ways in which Plato and
Plotinus claim that it is possible to have an ultimate experience
that answers the most significant philosophical questions, David J.
Yount provides an extended analysis of why we should interpret both
philosophers as mystics. The book then moves on to demonstrate that
both philosophers share a belief in non-discursive knowledge and
the methods to attain it, including dialectic and recollection, and
shows that they do not essentially differ on any significant views
on ethics. Making extensive use of primary and secondary sources,
Plato and Plotinus on Mysticism, Epistemology and Ethics shows the
similarities between the thought of these two philosophers on a
variety of philosophical questions, such as meditation, divination,
wisdom, knowledge, truth, happiness and love.
A new approach to understanding the relationship between
Aristotle's political philosophy and the natural law tradition.
"Aristotle and Natural Law" offers an important new examination of
Aristotle's political thought and its relationship to the natural
law tradition. The book challenges recent alternative
interpretations of Aristotle and argues that Aristotle's ethics is
most usefully seen as a particular type of natural law theory. Tony
Burns shows that the type of natural law theory to which Aristotle
subscribes is an unusual one because it does not allow for the
possibility that individuals might appeal to natural law in order
to critically evaluate existing laws and institutions. Rather its
function is to provide legitimacy for existing laws and conventions
by providing them with a philosophical justification from the
standpoint of Aristotle's metaphysics. Burns claims that this way
of thinking about natural law can be traced in the writings of a
number of thinkers in the history of philosophy, from Aquinas
through to Hegel, but argues that because this tradition begins
with Aristotle it is appropriate to describe it as 'the
Aristotelian natural law tradition'. "Continuum Studies in Ancient
Philosophy" presents cutting edge scholarship in the history of
ancient philosophy. The wholly original arguments, perspectives and
research findings in titles in this series make it an important and
stimulating resource for students and academics from across the
fields of Philosophy and Classical Studies.
The question The Republic sets out to define is "What is justice?"
Given the difficulty of this task, Socrates and his interlocutors
are led into a discussion of justice in the city, which Socrates
suggests may help them see justice in the person, but on a grander
(and therefore easier to discuss) scale ("suppose that a
short-sighted person had been asked by some one to read small
letters from a distance; and it occurred to some one else that they
might be found in another place which was larger and in which the
letters were larger," 368, trans. Jowett). Some critics (such as
Julia Annas) have adhered to this premise that the dialogue's
entire political construct exists to serve as an analogy for the
individual soul, in which there are also various potentially
competing or conflicting "members" that might be integrated and
orchestrated under a just and productive "government."
This is a radically new interpretation of Plato's Meno. Roslyn Weiss takes and defends the position that the Meno is a self-conscious analysis and assessment of the worth not of inquiry itself, but of moral inquiry. Her coherent reading of the Meno identifies serious problems for orthodox interpretations and will appeal to anyone interested in ancient philosophy and the classics.
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is an annual publication which
includes original articles, which may be of substantial length, on
a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles
of major books. This volume presents the published version of the
Nellie Wallace Lectures in Ancient Philosophy, delivered at the
University of Oxford by Professor Gisela Striker. Together, these
lectures make up a connected account of Stoic ethics. The other
contributors to this volume are: Thomas C. Brickhouse, G. R. F.
Ferrari, Montgomery Furth, Charles Kahn, John Malcolm, Nicholas D.
Smith, and Paul A. Vander Waerdt.
Aristotle's Topics is a handbook for dialectic, which can be
understood as a philosophical debate between a questioner and a
respondent. In book 2, Aristotle mainly develops strategies for
making deductions about 'accidents', which are properties that
might or might not belong to a subject (for instance, Socrates has
five fingers, but might have had six), and about properties that
simply belong to a subject without further specification. In the
present commentary, here translated into English for the first
time, Alexander develops a careful study of Aristotle's text. He
preserves objections and replies from other philosophers whose work
is now lost, such as the Stoics. He also offers an invaluable
picture of the tradition of Aristotelian logic down to his time,
including innovative attempts to unify Aristotle's guidance for
dialectic with his general theory of deductive argument (the
syllogism), found in the Analytics. The work will be of interest
not only for its perspective on ancient logic, rhetoric, and
debate, but also for its continuing influence on argument in the
Middle Ages and later.
Human life is susceptible of changing suddenly, of shifting
inadvertently, of appearing differently, of varying unpredictably,
of being altered deliberately, of advancing fortuitously, of
commencing or ending accidentally, of a certain malleability. In
theory, any human being is potentially capacitated to conceive
of-and convey-the chance, view, or fact that matters may be
otherwise, or not at all; with respect to other lifeforms, this
might be said animal's distinctive characteristic. This state of
play is both an everyday phenomenon, and an indispensable
prerequisite for exceptional innovations in culture and science:
contingency is the condition of possibility for any of the arts-be
they dominantly concerned with thinking, crafting, or enacting.
While their scope and method may differ, the (f)act of reckoning
with-and taking advantage of-contingency renders rhetoricians and
philosophers associates after all. In this regard, Aristotle and
Blumenberg will be exemplary, hence provide the framework. Between
these diachronic bridgeheads, close readings applying the nexus of
rhetoric and contingency to a selection of (Early) Modern texts and
authors are intercalated-among them La Celestina, Machiavelli,
Shakespeare, Wilde, Fontane.
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