Contents:
Chapters:
1. The Polis and its culture
2. The Ionians
3. Heraclitus
4. Pythagoreans and Eleatics
5. Empedocles
6. Anaxagoras and the atomists
7. The Sophists
8. Greek arithmetic, geometry and harmonics: Thales to Plato
9. Socrates and the beginnings of moral philosophy
10. Plato: metaphysics and epistemology
11. Plato: ethics and politics
12. Plato: aesthetics and psychology

This edition of volume 1 in the series Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities concerns Hellenistic ethics. Its particular focus is the compendium of Stoic and Peripatetic ethics attributed to Arius Didymus, court philosopher to the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus. Arius was admired in antiquity for his Consolatio addressed to Livia, Augustus' wife, on the death of her son Drusus. He was also known for having advised Augustus to spare the inhabitants of Alexandria when that city fell to the army of Augustus. Arius was, then, an important advisor to a powerful emperor; he held the position that Plato dreamed of and Kant recommended. He advised the ruler of the Mediterranean world and practiced an ethics based on his knowledge of Hellenistic philosophy. That knowledge is discussed in On Stoic and Peripatetic Ethics.

Prior to the publication of On Stoic and Peripatetic Ethics, Arius was best known in the English-speaking world for fragments concerning physical philosophy. There were some works in German and Italian but discussion in English was meager and largely inconsequential. Within the English-speaking world, there is now a significant and growing body of scholarly literature on Arius' compendium. Far from supplanting the present volume, this body of literature underlines the importance of the volume and builds on issues raised in it.

Can the intellect or the intellectual faculty be its own object of thought, or can it not think or apprehend itself? This book explores the ancient treatments of the question of self-intellection - an important theme in ancient epistemology and of considerable interest to later philosophical thought. The manner in which the ancients dealt with the intellect apprehending itself, took them into both the metaphysical and epistemological domains with reflections on questions of thinking, identity and causality. Ian Crystal traces the origins from which the concept of self-intellection springs, by examining Plato's account of the epistemic subject and the emergence of self-intellection through the Aristotelian account, before the final part of the book explores the problem of how the intellect apprehends itself, and its resolution including Plotinus' reformulation and the dilemma raised by Sextus Empiricus. Crystal concludes that Plotinus recasts the metaphysical structures of Plato and Aristotle in such a way that he casts the concept of self-intellection in an entirely new light and offers a solution to the problem.

This reading of Aristotle's Politics builds on the insight that the history of political philosophy is a series of configurations of nature and reason. Aristotle's conceptualization of nature is unique because it is not opposed to or subordinated to reason. Adriel M. Trott uses Aristotle's definition of nature as an internal source of movement to argue that he viewed community as something that arises from the activity that forms it rather than being a form imposed on individuals. Using these definitions, Trott develops readings of Aristotle's four arguments for the naturalness of the polis, interprets deliberation and the constitution in Politics as the form and final causes of the polis, and reconsiders Aristotle's treatment of slaves and women. Trott then argues that Aristotle is relevant for contemporary efforts to improve and encourage genuine democratic practices.

Recovering the Ancient View of Founding questions the consensus view of contemporary scholars who view Cicero as an eclectic and unoriginal political thinker. For them, De Legibus is perhaps the most striking example of this eclecticism. They say that Cicero claims a universal ground for laws that would restore the political privileges of his own aristocratic class. Yet Timothy Caspar shows that Cicero offers a unified, coherent, and original teaching about politics whose aim is justice for the entire republic, not just a part of it. Contrary to the prevailing view, Cicero does not embrace but rejects Stoicism and any philosophy that culminates in a community of the wise as a standard for politics. Instead, nature serves as the foundation of Cicero's laws, and he elucidates a political standard grounded in nature and applicable to all citizens. Thus, the law codes of De Legibus are not only in harmony with but required by Cicero's natural law principles. Caspar's Recovering the Ancient View of Founding is a reinterpretation of a key work of ancient Roman political philosophy and belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in philosophy, politics, or ancient Rome.

This fascinating examination of the development of virtue ethics in the early stages of western civilization deals with a wide range of philosophers and schools of philosophy -- from Socrates and the Stoics to Plato, Aristotle, and the Epicureans, among others. This introduction examines those human attributes that we have come to know as the "stuff" of virtue: desire, happiness, the "good," character, the role of pride, prudence, and wisdom, and links them to more current or modern conceptions and controversies.

The tension between viewing ethics and morality as fundamentally religious or as fundamentally rational still runs deep in our culture. A second tension centers on whether we view morality primarily in terms of our obligations or primarily in terms of our desires for what is good. The Greek term "arete," which we generally translate as "virtue," can also be translated as "excellence." "Arete" embraced both intellectual and moral excellence as well as human creations and achievements. Useful, certainly, for classrooms, "Virtue Ethics" is also for anyone interested in the fundamental question Socrates posed, "What kind of life is worth living?"

The 15,000 pages of the ancient Greek commentators on Aristotle, written mainly between 200 and 600 AD, constitute the largest corpus of extant Greek philosophical writings not translated into English or other European languages. This series of translations with introductions, copious notes and indexes fills an important gap in the history of European thought.

The philosophers of the Roman world were asking questions whose answers had practical effects on people's lives in antiquity, and which still influence our thinking to this day. In spite of being neglected in the modern era, this important age of philosophical thought is now undergoing a revival of interest.
Mark Morford's lively survey makes these recent scholarly developments accessible to a wide audience, examining the writings and ideas of both famous and lesser known figures - from Cato the Censor in 155 BCE to Marcus Aurelius in 180 CE. Based around extensive and fully translated quotations from the philosophical texts of the era, full consideration is given throughout to historical, political and cultural context.

A chronological guide to influential Greek and Roman writers, Fifty Key Classical Authors is an invaluable introduction to the literature, philosophy and history of the ancient world. Including essays on Sappho, Polybius and Lucan, as well as on major figures such as Homer, Plato, Catullus and Cicero, this book is a vital tool for all students of classical civilization.

In this comprehensive anthology, twenty-seven outstanding scholars from North America and Europe address every major aspect of Thomas Aquinas' understanding of morality and comment on his remarkable legacy. While there has been a revival of interest in recent years in the ethics of St. Thomas, no single work has yet fully examined the basic moral arguments and content of Aquinas' major moral work, the Second Part of "The Summa Theologiae". This work fills that lacuna. The first chapters of "The Ethics of Aquinas" introduce readers to the sources, methods, and major themes of Aquinas' ethics. The second part of this book provides an extended discussion of ideas in the Second Part of "The Summa Theologiae", in which contributors present cogent interpretations of the structure, major arguments, and themes of each of the treatises. The third and final part examines aspects of Thomistic ethics in the twentieth century and beyond. These essays reflect a diverse group of scholars representing a variety of intellectual perspectives. Contributors span numerous fields of study, including intellectual history, medieval studies, moral philosophy, religious ethics, and moral theology. This remarkable variety underscores how interpretations of Thomas' ethics continue to develop and evolve - and stimulate fervent discussion within the academy and the church. This volume is aimed at scholars, students, clergy, and all those who continue to find Aquinas a rich source of moral insight.

Title first published in 2003. In commemoration of the philosophical interests of Stanley Victor Keeling, the annual lectures in his memory highlight the interest and importance of ancient philosophy for contemporary study of the subject. This volume brings together the Keeling lectures from leading international figures in ancient and modern philosophy, presented between 1992 and 2002. Including contributions from Bernard Williams and Martha Nussbaum, lectures range across topics such as 'Intrinsic Goodness', Necessity, Fate and Determinism and Quality of Life, extending from Plato through Aristotle to the Stoics. Edited and with a preface by R. W. Sharples.

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.

Since Friedrich Schleiermacher s work in the 1800s, scholars interested in the literary dimension of Plato s writings have sought to reconcile the dialogue form with the expository imperative of philosophical argument. It is now common for mainstream classicists and philosophers to attribute vital importance to literary form in Plato, which they often explain in terms of rhetorical devices serving didactic goals. This study brings the disciplines of literary and classical studies into methodological debate, questioning modern views of Plato s dialogue form.

In the first part of this book, David Schur argues that the literary features of Plato s dialogues when treated as "literary cannot be limited to a single argumentative agenda. In the second part, he demonstrates the validity of this point by considering a rhetorical pattern of self-reflection that is prominent in the Republic." He emphasizes that Plato s book consistently undermines the goal-driven conversation that it portrays. Offering a thought-provoking blend of methodological investigation and methodical close reading, Schur suggests that the Republic" qualifies the authority of its conclusions by displaying a strong countercurrent of ongoing movement."

This book offers a rich and highly original treatment of Plato's views in the areas of epistemology, ontology, and ethics. Moravcsik rightly encourages us to be open to the idea that the study of Plato is valuable not only for historical reasons, but also based on what it can offer to us in our continuing reflections on pivotal topics such as the nature of human flourishing. Moravcsik's book is essential reading not only for those working in Greek philosophy, but also for anyone who is interested in exploring key approaches to enduring philosophical and human concerns. Susan B. Levin, Smith College.

"Plato and Platonism" reviews the nature and limits of Platonic interpretation. The book begins with a discussion of Plato's conception of what a genuine rational discipline (a 'techne') should be. The author shows how the recollection theory of understanding, the Forms as ultimate explanatory factors, and Plato's ethics of the right human ideal, all grow out of conditions that are essential to the genuine 'technai'.

Moravcsik goes on to demonstrate how questions about the explanatory power of the Theory of Forms, mainly emerging not from naturalistic or empiricist qualms but from deep reflections on Eleatic doctrines, led to elaboration and modifications in Plato's ontology. The author reveals that the clearest echoes of the basic Platonic explanatory pattern linking elements of reality may be seen in some of the work on the foundations of mathematics and the related concern with the Eleatic challenge, rather than the 'realism' of general analytic philosophy. The author also shows how different Plato's basic ethical questions are from those preoccupying modern philosophy, and whatPlatonistic ethics might look like today.

Students, academics and researchers will find that Moravcsik's careful and rigorous analysis offers an understanding of what Platonism in our times would have been like. The book leads us to an appreciation of genuine Platonism, rarely discussed today.

This book, first published in 1978, is a radical approach to the philosophical distinction between Being and beings, in which the life of Socrates is used as the metaphor for the theoretical life, in contrast to the continuous historical interest in that life as an object for biographical reconstruction and description. Professor Blum's main concern is to develop a story that coordinates stages of the theoretical life to practices which exemplify man's ideal relationship with language.

Janet Coleman's two volume history of European political theorizing, from the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance is the introduction which many have been waiting for. It treats some of the most influential writers who have been considered by educated Europeans down the centuries to have helped to construct their identity, their shared "languages of politics" about the principles and practices of good government, and the history of European philosophy. It seeks to uncover and reconstruct the emergence of the "state" and the various European political theories which justified it.

This volume continues the story by focusing on medieval and Renaissance thinkers and includes extensive discussion of the practices that underpinned medieval political theories and which continued to play crucial roles in the eventual development of early-modern political institutions and debates. Throughout the author draws on recent scholarly commentaries written by specialists in philosophy, contemporary political theory, and on medieval and Renaissance history and theology. She shows that the medieval and Renaissance theorists' arguments can be seen as logical and coherent if we can grasp the questions they thought it important to answer. Janet Coleman strikes a balance between trying to understand the philosophical cogency of medieval and Renaissance arguments on the one hand, and on the other, elucidating why historically-situated medieval and Renaissance thinkers, respectively, thought the ways they did about politics; and why we often think otherwise.

The volume will meet the needs of students of philosophy, history and politics, proving to be an indispensable secondary source which aims tosituate, explain, and provoke thought about the major works of political theory likely to be encountered by students of this period and beyond.

A chronological guide to influential Greek and Roman writers, Fifty Key Classical Authors is an invaluable introduction to the literature, philosophy and history of the ancient world. Including essays on Sappho, Polybius and Lucan, as well as on major figures such as Homer, Plato, Catullus and Cicero, this book is a vital tool for all students of classical civilization.

Contents:
Preface Introduction: The Argument of the Cratylus 1. From Convention to Nature 1.1 Conventionalism 1.2 Subjectivism 1.3. The Significance of Conventionalism 1.4. Against Conventionalism 1.5 The First Stage of Naturalism: Names as Tools 2. The Second Stage of Naturalism: Function and Genre in the Etymologies 2.1 Rational Reconstruction 2.2 The Inspiration of Episode 2.3 The Agonistic Display 2.4 The Etymologies as Agon 2.5 Polato and Parmendis on the Deceptiveness of Language 3. The Third Stage of Naturalism: Mimetic Correctness 3.1 Beyond Etymology 3.2 Mimesis and the Elements of Language 3.3 Draft and the Foundations of Correctness 4. Natureal Correctness Re-examined 4.1 The dianome Argument 4.2 On the Correctness of Images 4.3 The Two Cratyluses 4.4 The Sklerotes Argument 4.5 The Names of the Numbers 4.6 Conclusions About Correctness 5. The Name of Things 5.1 Against the Study of Names 5.2 Language, Knowledge and Flux 6. The Cratylus and After: Names and Logoi 6.1 The Seventh Letter and the Weakness of Language 6.2. Logos and Knowledge 7. The Cratylus and After: false Statement 7.1 False Statement in the Cratylus 7.2 The Sophist on Syntax 7.3 The Sophist on False Statement Bibliography Index

This volume brings together papers by participants in the fourth annual USC/Rutgers conference in Aristotle, held at USC in December of 1992 on Aristotle's theory of matter. Five papers take up different applications of Aristotle's fundamental hylomorphic hypothesis: the account of human soul as form to the human body as matter; the unity of the substantial form and proximate matter in the individual substance; and the account of mixture at a lower level of matter. A final paper attempts to bring Aristotle's account of compound material substances in Metaphysics Zeta under the rubric of Aristotelian science.

The distinguished contributors are James Bogen, Robert Bolton, Alan Code, Kit Fine, Frank Lewis, and Michael Wedin.

Dicaearchus of Messana (fl. c. 320 b.c.) was a peripatetic philosopher. Like Theophrastus of Eresus, he was a pupil of Aristotle. Dicaearchus's life is not well documented. There is no biography by Diogenes Laertius, and what the Suda offers is meager. However, it can be ascertained that a close friendship existed between Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus as both are mentioned as personal students of Aristotle. Dicaearchus lived for a time in the Peleponnesus, and in his pursuit of geographical studies and measuring mountains, he is said to have enjoyed the patronage of kings. Dicaearchus's interests were in certain respects narrower than Aristotle's. There is no evidence that Dicaearchus worked in logic, physics, or metaphysics. To the contrary, his work "On the Soul" recalls the Aristotelian treatise of the same title, but Dicaearchus's work was not an esoteric treatise. Instead, it was a dialogue in two parts. His interest in good and bad lifestyles also found expression in works such as "On the Sacrifice at Ilium," and "On the Destruction of Human Beings," in which he presented man himself as the greatest threat to mankind. In "On Lives," a work of at least two books, he considered philosophers and others noted for their wisdom, with his main thesis being the superiority of the active life over that of quiet contemplation. Cicero speaks of controversy between Dicaearchus and Theophrastus the former championing the active life and the latter that of contemplation. "Circuit of the Earth" was a work of descriptive geography in which Dicaearchus said that the earth has the shape of a globe. This interest in earth's sphericity led him to make maps and discuss other phenomena like the cause of ebb- and flood-tides and the source of the Nile River. The largest number of texts in the collection deal with cultural history, most of which stem or appear to stem from his "Life of Greece," while the smallest section deals with politics. This tenth volume in the series Rutgers Studies in Classical Humanities includes a facing translation of the Greek and Latin texts, making the material accessible to readers who lack the ancient languages, and the accompanying essays introduce important issues beyond the scope of the text. " "Dicaerchus of Messana"] is a beautifully produced book...highly recommended, not only as a very full and useful treatment, meeting the highest standards, of one of Aristotle's more important pupils, but also as a model of methodology in the attempt to reconstruct from few remains something of an achievement which has been largely lost." -Dominic O'Meara, "The Classical Bulletin" William W. Fortenbaugh is professor of classics at Rutgers University. In addition to the other books in this series and his many articles, he has written "Aristotle on Emotion" and "Quellen zur Ethik Theophrasts." Eckart Sch3trumpf is professor of classics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His interests include ancient literary criticism, rhetoric and political theory. His extensive commentary on Aristotle's "Politics" now extends to three volumes. A fourth and final volume is forthcoming.

Plato's Utopia Recast is an illuminating reappraisal of Plato's later works, which reveals radical changes in his ethical and political theory. Christopher Bobonich examines later dialogues, with a special emphasis upon the Laws, and argues that in these late works Plato both rethinks and revises the basic ethical and political positions that he held in his better known earlier works, such as the Republic. This book will change our understanding of Plato. His controversial moral and political theory, so influential in Western thought, will henceforth be seen in a new light.

Plotinus, the most profound philosopher of the third century C.E., has been influential on Byzantine and Western Christianity, and Islam. In the West, Augustine brought Plotinian philosophy into Christianity, ensuring the interest of a long line of Christian thinkers. As Margaret Miles shows, Plotinus's philosophy holds both perennial attraction and offers specific contributions to particular issues at the beginning of the twenty first century.

Miles offers a fresh interpretation which situates Plotinus's philosophical ideas in the context of society and culture in which those ideas developed. Using extant evidence (the "Enneads," Porphyry's "Life"), she reconstructs an intense third-century conversation, n namely the relationship of body and soul. Mile's portrayal of Plotinus will encourage readers from a range of disciplines to question their construction of body, "self," and identity.

In this book Paul Carrick charts the ancient Greek and Roman foundations of Western medical ethics. Surveying 1500 years of pre-Christian medical moral history, Carrick applies insights from ancient medical ethics to developments in contemporary medicine such as advance directives, gene therapy, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, and surrogate motherhood. He discusses such timeless issues as the social status of the physician; attitudes toward dying and death; and the relationship of medicine to philosophy, religion, and popular morality. Opinions of a wide range of ancient thinkers are consulted, including physicians, poets, philosophers, and patients. He also explores the puzzling question of Hippocrates' identity, analyzing not only the Hippocratic Oath but also the Father of Medicine's lesser-known works.

Complete with chapter discussion questions, illustrations, a map, and appendices of ethical codes, "Medical Ethics in the Ancient World" will be useful in courses on the medical humanities, ancient philosophy, bioethics, comparative cultures, and the history of medicine. Accessible to both professionals and to those with little background in medical philosophy or ancient science, Carrick's book demonstrates that in the ancient world, as in our own postmodern age, physicians, philosophers, and patients embraced a diverse array of perspectives on the most fundamental questions of life and death.

"The Platonic Theology" is a visionary work and the philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. A student of the Neoplatonic schools of Plotinus and Proclus, he was committed to reconciling Platonism with Christianity, in the hope that such a reconciliation would initiate a spiritual revival and return of the golden age. His Platonic evangelizing was eminently successful and widely influential, and his "Platonic Theology," translated into English for the first time in this edition, is one of the keys to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.This is the fourth of a projected six volumes.

This collection of essays focuses on the reception of Plato and Greek political thought in the work of some major (pre)Victorian classical scholars and expands on a remarkable range of hotly debated issues on the interpretation of Greek antiquity. The central figure in this volume is the radical philosopher, utilitarian, and Platonist George Grote, whose works on the history of Greece and Plato moved away from traditional models of classical interpretation. His works and their background are critically explored in light of his philosophical commitment and political radicalism. Article IV brings to light a forgotten manuscript by Grote, "On the Character of Socrates," produced in the 1820s. Grote sought to counter the current literature on ancient Greece and its predominant motifs, which is here examined in its own right along with an independent study on Bishop Connop Thirlwall's influential History of Greece. The second half of this volume is devoted to analyzing important aspects of the revival of Platonic studies in the ideological and discursive context of early and middle Victorian times. This collection of essays presents comprehensive and illuminating contextual analyses of nineteenth-century works on classical reception, providing simultaneously a rich bibliographic guide to further research.