Originally published in 2005. There has been much discussion in scholarly literature of the applicability of the concept of 'science' as understood in contemporary English to ancient Greek thought, and of the influence of philosophy and the individual sciences on each other in antiquity. This book focuses on how the ancients themselves saw the issue of the relation between philosophy and the individual sciences. Contributions, from a distinguished international panel of scholars, cover the whole of antiquity from the beginnings of both philosophy and science to the later Roman Empire.

Originally published in 2005. There has been much discussion in scholarly literature of the applicability of the concept of 'science' as understood in contemporary English to ancient Greek thought, and of the influence of philosophy and the individual sciences on each other in antiquity. This book focuses on how the ancients themselves saw the issue of the relation between philosophy and the individual sciences. Contributions, from a distinguished international panel of scholars, cover the whole of antiquity from the beginnings of both philosophy and science to the later Roman Empire.

Contents:
Preface Abbreviations 1. Hellenistic Philosophy: Aims, Context, Personalities, Sources 2. How do we know anything? 3. What is reality? 4. What are we? 5. How can I be happy? 6. What about other people? 7. Epilogue Suggestions for further reading Index

Contents:
Preface Abbreviations 1. Hellenistic Philosophy: Aims, Context, Personalities, Sources 2. How do we know anything? 3. What is reality? 4. What are we? 5. How can I be happy? 6. What about other people? 7. Epilogue Suggestions for further reading Index

The Supplement transmitted as the second book of On the Soul by Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. c. 200 AD) is a collection of short texts on a wide range of topics from psychology, including the general hylomorphic account of soul and its faculties, and the theory of vision; questions in ethics (natural instincts, the unity of the virtues, the naturalness of justice and the insufficiency of virtue for happiness); and issues relating to responsibility, chance and fate. One of the texts in the collection, On Intellect, had a major influence on medieval Arabic and Western thought, greater than that of Alexander's On the Soul itself. The treatises may all be by Alexander himself; certainly the majority of them are closely connected with his other works. Many of them, however, consist of collections of arguments on particular issues, collections which probably incorporate material from earlier in the history of the Peripatetic school. This translation is from a new edition of the Greek text based on a collation of all known manuscripts and comparison with medieval Arabic and Latin translations.

This volume completes the translation in this series of Quaestiones attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias, the leading ancient commentator on Aristotle. The Quaestiones are concerned with physics and metaphysics, psychology and divine providence. They exemplify the process whereby Aristotle's thought came to be organised into 'Aristotelianism' and show how interpretations were influenced by doctrines of Hellenistic philosophy. Some, translated into Arabic and thence into Latin, played a part in the transmission of ancient Greek philosophy to the medieval world. Those interested in Aristotle's psychological views will find this half of Quaestiones particularly valuable. Ten of the problems discussed explicitly involve issues raised in On the Soul, including the unity of apperception and the transition from first to second actuality in the act of contemplation. A further dozen concern problems in physical theory, including infinity, necessity and potentiality. Quaestio 2.21 concerns divine providence and helps supplement our knowledge of Alexander's position based on surviving Arabic fragments of his On Providence.

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics has been a central text in moral philosophy since the fourth century BC. The Ethical Problems attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias - the leading ancient commentator on Aristotle - not only shows us how Aristotle's work was discussed in Alexander's own day (c. 200 AD) but offers interpretations and insights that are valuable in their own right. Topics discussed include pleasure and distress, moral virtue, the criteria for judging actions voluntary, the development of moral understanding, and the place in ethics of utility, political community and a sense of shame.

The Quaestiones attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias, the leading ancient commentator on Aristotle, are concerned with physics and metaphysics, psychology and divine providence. They exemplify the process by which Aristotle's thought came to be organised into 'Aristotelianism', and show how interpretations were influenced by the doctrines of Hellenistic philosophy. Some of them, translated into Arabic and thence into Latin, played a part in the transmission of ancient Greek philosophy to the medieval world; and they are still of use today in the interpretation of Aristotle's views on such matters as the problem of universals and the relation between form and matter. The Quaestiones have been studied more and more in recent years; but the present volume and its successor offer the first translation of the whole collection into English or any other modern language.

This book provides a collection of sources, many of them fragmentary and previously scattered and hard to access, for the development of Peripatetic philosophy in the later Hellenistic period and the early Roman Empire. It also supplies the background against which the first commentator on Aristotle from whom extensive material survives, Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. c. AD 200), developed his interpretations which continue to be influential even today. Many of the passages are here translated into English for the first time, including the whole of the summary of Peripatetic ethics attributed to 'Arius Didymus'.

This book provides a collection of sources, many of them fragmentary and previously scattered and hard to access, for the development of Peripatetic philosophy in the later Hellenistic period and the early Roman Empire. It also supplies the background against which the first commentator on Aristotle from whom extensive material survives, Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. c. AD 200), developed his interpretations which continue to be influential even today. Many of the passages are here translated into English for the first time, including the whole of the summary of Peripatetic ethics attributed to 'Arius Didymus'.

This book includes the complete text of Alexander of Aphrodisias on Fate, a translation and detailed commentary.