Collected in this volume are some of the most important articles published on the philosophy of the Greeks before Socrates. They cover: The nature of Presocratic thought The sources of our knowledge of the Presocratics The earliest philosophers up to Heraclitus

The articles in this volume deal with the four major philosophical positions of the presocratic period: The arguments of Parmenides and Zeno against earlier or contemporary pluralist theories The three pluralist responses of Empedocles, Anaxagoras and the early Atomists.

Contents:
Chapters:
1. Aristotle: the philosophy of nature
2. Aristotle's logic and metaphysics
3. Aristotle: Aesthetics and philosophy of mind
4. Aristotle: Ethics and politics
5. The Peripatetic school
6. Epicureanism
7. Stoicism
8. The sceptics
9. The exact sciences in Hellenistic times: Texts and issues
10. Hellenistic biological sciences
11. Neo-Platonism
12. Augustine

The articles in this volume deal with the four major philosophical positions of the presocratic period: The arguments of Parmenides and Zeno against earlier or contemporary pluralist theories The three pluralist responses of Empedocles, Anaxagoras and the early Atomists.

This second volume opens with Aristotle's immense influence on philosophy from the beginnings of Christian philosophy in the fifth century AD.

Collected in this volume are some of the most important articles published on the philosophy of the Greeks before Socrates. They cover: The nature of Presocratic thought The sources of our knowledge of the Presocratics The earliest philosophers up to Heraclitus

The essays in this collection represent in scholarly infrastructure to Professor Furley"s major study, The Greek Cosmologists, of which volume 1 was published by the Press in 1987. They tackle the questions in ancient cosmology and the clash between the two opposing systems known as Aristotelianism and Atomism. Some essays are general reflections on the nature of the debate; others explore certain detailed questions; yet all illustrate the author"s incisive approach, which cuts through irrelevancies and goes directly to the heart of an issue.

Furley's study presents a clear picture of the opposing views of the natural world and its contents as seen by philosophers and scientists in classical antiquity. On one side were the materialists whose world was mechanistic, evolutionary, and unbounded, lacking the focus of a natural center. The other side included teleologists, whose world was purposive, non-evolutionary, finite, and centrifocal. This volume takes the reader up to the criticisms of Plato and Aristotle. The second volume will examine Plato and Aristotle's own cosmology and follow the debate to the sixth century. Professor Furley has produced a history of the early views of the physical world whose scope makes this book of major importance.

Furley's study presents a clear picture of the opposing views of the natural world and its contents as seen by philosophers and scientists in classical antiquity. On one side were the materialists whose world was mechanistic, evolutionary, and unbounded, lacking the focus of a natural center. The other side included teleologists, whose world was purposive, non-evolutionary, finite, and centrifocal. This volume takes the reader up to the criticisms of Plato and Aristotle. The second volume will examine Plato and Aristotle's own cosmology and follow the debate to the sixth century. Professor Furley has produced a history of the early views of the physical world whose scope makes this book of major importance.