The trilogy Forms of Representation in the Aristotelian Tradition investigates how Aristotle and his ancient and medieval successors understood the relation between the external world and the human mind. It gives an equal footing to the three most influential linguistic traditions - Greek, Latin, and Arabic - and offers insightful interpretations of historical theories of perception, dreaming, and thinking. This first volume focuses on sense perception and discusses philosophical questions concerning the external senses, their classification, and their functioning, from Aristotle to Brentano.

This volume offers a new translation of Plutarch's three treatises on animals-On the Cleverness of Animals, Whether Beasts Are Rational, and On Eating Meat-accompanied by introductions and explanatory commentaries. The accompanying commentaries are designed not only to elucidate the meaning of the Greek text, but to call attention to Plutarch's striking anticipations of arguments central to current philosophical and ethological discourse in defense of the position that non-human animals have intellectual and emotional dimensions that make them worthy of inclusion in the moral universe of human beings. Plutarch's Three Treatises on Animals will be of interest to students of ancient philosophy and natural science, and to all readers who wish to explore the history of thought on human-non-human animal relations, in which the animal treatises of Plutarch hold a pivotal position.

edited by Mary Ellen Waithe Series: HISTORY OF WOMEN PHILOSOPHERS volume: 1 This first volume in a set of four chronicles the contributions women have made to that most abstract of intellectual disciplines, philosophy. Translations of the aphorisms of Theano, the feminist ethical writings of Theano II, Phintys and Perictione, the socio-political theory of Aesara of Lucania and the Sophias of Perictione II demonstrate that women have been philosophers since circa 600 B.C. A chapter on Aspasia, author of the Epitaphia reported by Socrates in Plato's Menexenus, describes her role as a rhetorician. This volume challenges the view that Diotima was not a philosopher but was Plato's only fictitious character. The discussion of Hypatia's Commentaries on Diophantus and on Ptolemy belies the Suda's claim that all of her writings have perished. Chapters on Makrina's Christian philosophy and on Julia Domna's philosophic circle testify to ancient women's philosophical enterprises. A chapter describing the philosophic schools headed by Arete of Cyrene and by Asclepigenia, as well as the philosophic activities of Cleobuline of Rhodes, Hipparchia, Axiothea and Lasthenia completes the survey of ancient women's philosophical legacy. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht April 1987 256 pp. Hardbound Dfl.169.00 BrP.67.50 April 1987 256 pp. Paperback Dfl.56.00 BrP.22.50

This book contains fifteen essays all seeking to regain the original meaning of philosophy as the love of wisdom. Mythos and Logos are two essential aspects of a quest that began with the ancient Greeks. As concepts fundamental to human experience, Mythos and Logos continue to guide the search for truth in the twenty-first century.

Timeless wisdom on generosity and gratitude from the great Stoic philosopher Seneca To give and receive well may be the most human thing you can do-but it is also the closest you can come to divinity. So argues the great Roman Stoic thinker Seneca (c. 4 BCE-65 CE) in his longest and most searching moral treatise, "On Benefits" (De Beneficiis). James Romm's splendid new translation of essential selections from this work conveys the heart of Seneca's argument that generosity and gratitude are among the most important of all virtues. For Seneca, the impulse to give to others lies at the very foundation of society; without it, we are helpless creatures, worse than wild beasts. But generosity did not arise randomly or by chance. Seneca sees it as part of our desire to emulate the gods, whose creation of the earth and heavens stands as the greatest gift of all. Seneca's soaring prose captures his wonder at that gift, and expresses a profound sense of gratitude that will inspire today's readers. Complete with an enlightening introduction and the original Latin on facing pages, How to Give is a timeless guide to the profound significance of true generosity.

Hierocles of Alexandria was a Neoplatonic philosopher of the fifth century AD. Hermann S. Schibli surveys his life, writings, and pagan and Christian surroundings, and succinctly examines the major points of his philosophy, both contemplative and practical. He includes the first modern English translations, with helpful notes, of Hierocles' Commentary on the Golden Verses of the Pythagoreans and of the remnants of his treatise On Providence.

Simplicius and Priscian were two of the seven Neoplatonists who left Athens when the Christian Emperor Justinian closed the pagan school there in AD 529. Their commentaries on works on sense perception, one by Aristotle and one by his successor Theophrastus, are translated here in one volume. Both commentaries give a highly Neoplatonized reading to their Aristotelian subjects and give an insight into late Neoplatonist psychology.

This pioneering translation of Plato's Phaedrus, with detailed summary and full philological and exegetical notes taking into consideration all commentaries since Hermias, followed by a painstaking dialogical analysis of the text that shows what we must think at every moment in order to understand the thinking that brings the Greek text to life. In Kenneth Quandt's treatment, Plato's seminal work is allowed to create its own horizon and a new and profoundly unified interpretation emerges: Socrates's conversation with Phaedrus reaches a vision of eros that explains the paradoxes of human nature, explodes the zero-sum game of master and slave, exposes the crabbed fetishism of the written word, and releases the mind to a life of contemplation fixed in a cloudless noon.

Symposium is Plato's masterwork on the subject of love. Socrates arrives late to the party of an aristocratic friend, where it is proposed that each guest shall give a speech on the subject of love. The speeches are by turn comic, absurd and unexpectedly profound. Yet it is Socrates' speech that stands out. In it he tells of his instruction by the priestess Diotima in the mysteries of love. In properly directed love Socrates finds a discipline that draws the soul upward towards a vision of absolute beauty. Towards the end, he is interrupted by the drunk Alcibiades, who gives an unforgettable description of Socrates. This description is also, implicitly, a defence of philosophy. The consequences of pursuing philosophy are to be found, Plato suggests, in the indomitable independence and ethical qualities of a man like Socrates. The most literary and charming of Plato's works, the Symposium gives us a rare glimpse of the social life of ancient Athens, as well as insight into the character of Plato's beloved teacher.

Voula Tsouna presents a comprehensive study of the ethics of the Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, who taught Virgil, influenced Horace, and was praised by Cicero. His works have only recently become available to modern readers, through the decipherment of a papyrus carbonized by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Tsouna examines Philodemus' theoretical principles in ethics, his contributions to moral psychology, his method, his conception of therapy, and his therapeutic techniques. Part I begins with an outline of the fundamental principles of Philodemus' ethics in connection with the canonical views of the Epicurean school, and highlights his own original contributions. In addition to examining central features of Philodemus' hedonism, Tsouna analyses central concepts in his moral psychology, notably: his conception of vices, which she compares with that of the virtues; his account of harmful or unacceptable emotions or passions; and his theory of corresponding acceptable emotions or "bites." She then turns to an investigation of Philodemus' conception of philosophy as medicine and of the philosopher as a kind of doctor for the soul. By surveying his methods of treatment, Tsouna determines the place that they occupy in the therapeutics of the Hellenistic era. Part II uses the theoretical framework provided in Part I to analyse Philodemus' main ethical writings. The works considered focus on certain vices and harmful emotions, including flattery, arrogance, greed, anger, and fear of death, as well as traits related to the administration of property and wealth.

Contents:
Chapter 1: Aristotle's Metaphysics Chapter 2: Metaphysics as the science of the Ultimate explanations of all things Chapter 3: Metaphysics as the science of being Qua being, Primary being and Non-Primary being Chapter 4: The Principle of Non-contradiction Chapter 5: The search for primary being Chaper 6: The first cause of change, God Chapter 7: The criticism of Plato's theory of forms

Aristotle and Augustine both hold that our beliefs in freedom and voluntary action are interdependent, and that voluntary actions can only be done for the sake of good. Hence Aristotle holds that no-one acts voluntarily in pursuit of evil: such actions would be inexplicable. Augustine, agreeing that such actions are inexplicable, still insists that they occur. This is the true place in Augustine's view of his 'theory of will' - and the real point of contrast between Aristotle and Augustine.

"The Letter before the Spirit" contains original articles based on the papers given at the Huygens ING (The Hague, 2009) on the importance of text editions for the study of the transmission of Aristotle s works in the Semitico-Latin translations and their commentary tradition in the medieval world. Authors underline this importance in general overviews and theoretical outlines and present their own work on various text editions, ranging from Syriac and Arabic to Hebrew and (Graeco) Latin, and from Aristotle, Avicenna and Averroes to Plotinus, Michael Scot, William of Moerbeke, Judah ha-Kohen, Barhebraeus and Albertus Magnus. Editors are further encouraged to cross boundaries between disciplines and study the translation tradition of Aristotle s works in its entirety.

PYTHAGORAS (fl. 500 B.C.E.), the first man to call himself a philosopher, was both a brilliant mathematician and spiritual teacher. This anthology is the largest collection of Pythagorean writings ever to appear in the English language. It contains the four ancient biographies of Pythagoras and over twenty-five Pythagorean and Neopythagorean writings from the classical and Hellenistic periods. The Pythagorean ethical and political tractates are especially interesting, for they are based on the premise that the universal principles of Harmony, Proportion, and Justice govern the physical cosmos, and these writings show how individuals and societies alike attain their peak of excellence when informed by these same principles. Indexed, illustrated, with appendices and an extensive bibliography, this work also contains an introductory essay by David Fideler.

Confronting the scientific revolution's dismissal of Aristotle's physics and epistemology, Nathan R. Colaner revives this foundational philosopher's work to expose within it the underpinnings of modern philosophers' most common intuitions about knowledge. After Aristotle's picture of reality had been judged obsolete by the physics of the scientific revolution, modern Western epistemologists fumbled along with doctrines that had little to do with everyday life. These included Descartes' notion of the evil genius, Hume's claim that we can't know anything that we are not presently observing, and Kant's rescue of knowledge in the context of idealism. In Aristotle on Knowledge of Nature and Modern Skepticism, Colaner articulates a notion of knowledge that is characteristically Aristotelian without being dependent on his metaphysics. Simultaneously, Colaner places Aristotle in dialogue with modern thinkers to create a bridge between classical and modern philosophy and reinstate Aristotle's prominence in the discipline of epistemology.

Is there such a thing as three-dimensional space? Is space inert or dynamic? Is the division of time into past, present and future real? Does the whole of time exist all at once? Does it progress smoothly or by discontinuous leaps? Simplicius surveys ideas about place and time from the preceding thousand years of Greek Philosophy and reveals the extraordinary ingenuity of the late Neoplatonist theories, which he regards as marking a substantial advance on all previous ideas.

As an essential companion to Plato's Apology and Crito this book provides valuable historical and cultural context for our understanding of the trial of Socrates. The complexity and significance of the trial is illuminated through discussion of such important elements as the nature of Athenian democracy, the polis ideal, Greek shame culture, Athenian religion, civil disobedience, and Socrates' rejection of politics.
Colaiaco's approach is unique because he does justice both to Socrates and to Athens by demonstrating their individual strengths and weaknesses - and ultimately, their tragic incompatibility. Another highlight is that he provides a comprehensive picture of this conflict - essentially Socrates' radical challenge to traditional Athenian values - within the necessary historical and cultural context so that readers are better able to grasp the complexity and significance inherent to this trial.

Aristotle's Idea of the Soul considers the nature of the soul within Aristotle's psychology and natural philosophy. A survey is provided of the contemporary interpretations of Aristotle's idea of the soul, which are prominent in the Aristotelian scholarship within the analytic tradition. These interpretations are divided into two positions: `attributivism', which considers the soul to be a property; and `substantialism', which considers it to be a thing. Taxonomies are developed for attributivism and substantialism, and the cases for each of them are considered. It is concluded that neither position may be maintained without compromise, since Aristotle ascribes to the soul features that belong exclusively to a thing and exclusively to a property. Aristotle treats the soul as a `property-thing', as a cross between a thing and a property. It is argued that Aristotle comes by this idea of the soul because his hylomorphism casts the soul as a property and his causal doctrine presents it as a causal agent and thereby as a thing.

"This translation is an important research tool for all philosophers interested in Aquinas's philosophy of mind and epistemology. . . .Every library of both undergraduate and graduate philosophy programs needs this work, and all of us interested in the history of medieval philosophy of mind should have this new translation on our desks. Highly recommended."-Anthony J. Lisska, The Medieval Review

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.