Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy Books

Book SynopsisThe Discourses of Epictetus are a series of intensely practical informal lectures. Epictetus directs his students to focus attention on their opinions, anxieties, passions and desires, so that they may never fail to get what they desire. True education lies in learning to distinguish what is our own from what does not belong to us, and in learning to correctly assent or dissent to external impressions. The purpose of his teaching was to make people free and happy.The Discourses have been influential since they were written by Epictetus'' pupil Arrian around 108 AD. Epictetus divides philosophy into three fields of training, which include desire, choice, and assent, with especial application to ethics. He also teaches that the shortcomings of our fellow people are to be met with patience and charity, and we should not allow ourselves to grow indignant over them, for they too are a necessary element in the universal system. Epictetus believed that the ideal human will not be angry with the wrong-doer; he will only pity his erring, and thus become the perfect Stoic.This case laminate collector''s edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket. 

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Book SynopsisThe City of God is a book of Christian philosophy presenting human history as a conflict between what Augustine calls the Earthly City and the City of God-a conflict that is destined to end in victory for the latter. The City of God is marked by people who forego earthly pleasure to dedicate themselves to the eternal truths of God, now revealed fully in the Christian faith. The Earthly City, on the other hand, consists of people who have immersed themselves in the cares and pleasures of the present, passing world.The City of God was written in response to allegations that Christianity brought about the decline of Rome. It is considered one of Augustine''s most important works, standing alongside The Confessions, The Enchiridion, On Christian Doctrine, and On the Trinity. As a work of one of the most influential Church Fathers, The City of God is a cornerstone of Western thought, presenting many profound questions of theology, such as the suffering of the righteous, the existence of evil, the conflict between free will and divine omniscience, and the doctrine of original sin.This case laminate collector''s edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket. 

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Book SynopsisAlexander of Aphrodisias was the greatest exponent of Aristotelianism after Aristotle, and his commentary on Metaphysics 1-5 is the most substantial commentary on the Metaphysics to have survived from antiquity. The commentary on book 1 has the further interest that over half of it is devoted to Aristotle's discussion of Plato. Aristotle's battery of objectives to the theory of Ideas is spelled out with fragmentary quotations and paraphrases from four of Aristotle's lost works, and we are given an extended account of Plato's 'unwritten doctrines' according to which the Ideas are numbers, namely the One and Indefinite Dyad. The deliberations for and against the theory of Ideas recorded by Alexander are more detailed than anything in Plato's dialogues and tell us more than any other source how they were conceived in Plato's most developed theory.Table of ContentsIntroduction Textual Emendations Translation Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited General Index

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Book SynopsisAmmonius, who taught most of the leading sixth-century Neoplatonists, introduced the methods of his own teacher, Proclus, from Athens to Alexandria. These are exemplified in his commentaries: for instance, in the set of ten introductory questions prefixed to this commentary, which became standard. The commentary is interesting for the light it sheds on the religious situation in Alexandria. It used to be said that the Alexandrian Neoplatonist school was allowed to remain open after the Athenian school closed because Ammonius has agreed with the Christian authorities to keep quiet about his religious views. On the contrary, as this commentary shows he freely declared his belief in the Neoplatonist deities. The philosophical problems considered by Ammonius offer a unique insight into Aristotle's Categories. They exercise the mind and deepen understanding of the subject matter. Modern readers would do well to put the same questions to themselves.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Book SynopsisThere has recently been considerable renewed interest in Book 7 of the Physics of Aristotle, once regarded as merely an undeveloped forerunner to Book 8. The debate surrounding the importance of the text is not new to modern scholarship: for example, in the fourth century BC Eudemus, the Peripatetic philosopher associate of Aristotle, left it out of his treatment of the Physics. Now, for the first time, Charles Hagen's lucid translation gives the English reader access to Simplicius' commentary on Book 7, an indispensable tool for understanding the text. Its particular interest lies in its explanation of how the chapters of Book 7 fit together and its reference to a more extensive second version of Aristotle's text than the one which survives today.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Book SynopsisIs 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.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Book SynopsisAristotle's Metaphysics 2 consists of two chapters on methodology flanking an important discussion of the impossibility of infinite causal chains. The subject is vital for scientific method and for theological belief in a first cause and in a beginning of the universe. Philoponus later attacked Aristotle on this last point, but Alexander presents Aristotle's view in a most favourable light. In Metaphysics 3, Aristotle sets out what he sees as the central problems of metaphysics. Alexander's commentary was subsequently used by the Neoplatonists, two of whom have left their own commentaries, so that Alexander's Aristotelian interpretation can be compared with its rivals.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Book SynopsisAlexander of Aphrodisias, who flourished c. 200AD, was the leading Peripatetic philosopher of his age. Most of his philosophical energies were spent in commenting upon Aristotle: his commentary on the Prior Analytics remains one of the most thorough and helpful guides to this difficult work; in addition, the commentary preserves invaluable information about various aspects of Stoic logic, and it also presents a picture of categorical syllogistic at a turning point in its historical development. This volume contains a translation of the first third of the commentary - the part dealing with non-modal syllogistic. The translation is preceded by a substantial introduction which discusses Alexander's place in the commentatorial tradition and his use of logical terminology. The book is completed by a translation of the pertinent part of the Prior Analytics, a summary account of categorical syllogistic, and a set of indexes.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is about determinisism. It contains the two most important commentaries on the determinists' sea battle argument, and on other deterministic arguments besides. It includes the earliest full exposition of the Reaper argument for determinism, and a discussion of whether there can be changeless knowledge of the passage of time. It also contains the two fullest expositions of the idea that it is not truth, but only definite truth, that would imply determinism. Ammonius and Boethius both wrote commentaries on Aristotle's On Interpretation and on its ninth chapter, where Aristotle discusses the sea battle. Their comments are crucial, for Ammonius' commentary influenced the Islamic the Islamic Middle Ages, while that of Boethius was of equal importance to medieval Latin-speaking philosophers. It was once argued that Boethius was influenced by Ammonius, but these translations are published together in this volume to enable the reader to see clearly that this was not the case. Ammonius draws on the fourth- and fifth-century Neoplatonists lamblichus, Syrianus, and Proclus. He arranges his argument around three major deterministic arguments and is our main source for one of them, the Reaper argument, which has hitherto received insufficient attention. Boethius, on the other hand, draws on controversies from 300 years earlier between Stoics and Aristotelians as recorded by Alexander of Aphrodisias and Porphyry. This volume is essential reading for all those with an interest in the history of determinism. Ammonius' commentary on the first eight chapters of Aristotle's On Interpretation has appeared in a previously published volume in this series, translated by David Blank.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Book SynopsisBook 2 of the Physics is arguably the best introduction to Aristotle's ideas, as well as being the most interesting and representative book in the whole of his corpus. It defines nature and distinguishes natural science from mathematics. It introduces the seminal idea of four causes, or four modes of explanation. It defines chance, but rejects a theory of chance and natural selection in favour of purpose in nature. Simplicius, writing in the sixth century AD, adds his own considerable contribution to this work. Seeing Aristotle's God as a Creator, he discusses how nature relates to soul, adds Stoic and Neoplatonist causes to Aristotle's list of four, and questions the likeness of cause to effect. He discusses missing a great evil or a great good by a hairsbreadth and considers whether animals act from reason or natural instinct. He also preserves a Posidonian discussion of mathematical astronomy.Table of ContentsIntroduction Textual Emendations Translation Notes Bibliography Appendix: The Commentators English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Works Cited in the Notes Subject Index

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Book SynopsisAristotle's Topics is about dialectic, which can be understood as a debate between two people or the inner debate of one thinker with himself. Its purposes range from philosophical training to discovering the first principles of thought. Its arguments concern the four predicables (definition, property, genus and accident). Aristotle explains how these four fit into his ten categories, and in Book 1 begins to outline strategies for debate, such as the definition of ambiguity. Alexander's commentary on Book 1 discusses how to define Aristotelian syllogistic argument, why it stands up against the rival Stoic theory of interference, and what is the character of inductive interference and of rhetorical argument. He distinguishes inseparable accidents such as the whiteness of snow from defining differentiae such as its being frozen, and considers how these fit into the scheme of categories. He speaks of dialectic as a stochastic discipline in which success is to be judged not by victory but by skill in argument, a view parallel to that sometimes taken in antiquity of medical practice. And he investigates the subject of ambiguity which had also been richly developed since Aristotle by the rival Stoic school.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Book SynopsisThe commentary of Alexander of Aphrodisias on Aristotle's Prior Analytics 1.8-22 is the main ancient commentary, by the 'greatest' commentator, on the chapters of the Prior Analytics in which Aristotle invented modal logic - the logic of propositions about what is necessary or contingent (possible). In this volume, which covers chapters 1.8-13, Alexander of Aphrodisias reaches the chapter in which Aristotle discusses the notion of contingency. Also included in this volume is Alexander's commentary on that part of Prior Analytics 1.17 which explains the conversion of contingent propositions (the rest of 1.17 is included in the second volume of Mueller's translation). Aristotle also invented the syllogism, a style of argument involving two premises and a conclusion. Modal propositions can be deployed in syllogism, and in the chapters included in this volume Aristotle discusses syllogisms consisting of two necessary propositions as well as the more controversial ones containing one necessary and one non-modal premiss. The discussion of syllogisms containing contingent propositions is reserved for Volume 2. In each volume, Ian Mueller provides a comprehensive explanation of Alexander's commentary on modal logic as a whole.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Book SynopsisIn his work On Sense Perception, Aristotle discusses the material conditions of perception, starting with the sense organs and moving to the material basis of colour, flavour and odour. His Pythagorean account of hues as a ratio of dark to light was enthusiastically endorsed by Goethe against Newton as being true to the painter's experience. Aristotle finishes with three problems about continuity. First, in what sense are indefinitely small colour patches or colour variations perceptible? Secondly, which perceptible leap discontinuously like light to fill a whole space, which have to reach one point before another; and do observers of the latter perceive the same thing if they are at different distances? Thirdly, how does the central sense permit genuinely simultaneous, rather than staggered, perception of different objects? Alexander's highly explanatory commentary is most expansive on these problems of continuity. His battery of objections to vision involving travel, which would lead to collisions and interference by winds, inspired a tradition of grading the five senses in respect of degrees of immateriality and of intentionality. He also introduces us to paradoxes of Diodorus Cronus about the relations of the smallest perceptible to the largest perceptible size.Table of ContentsEditor’s Note Preface Introduction Textual Emendations Translation Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Subject Index

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Book SynopsisPorphyry's On Abstinence from Killing Animals is one of the most interesting books from Greek antiquity for both philosophers and historians. In it, Porphyry relates the arguments for eating or sacrificing animals and then goes on to argue that an understanding of humans and gods shows such sacrifice to be inappropriate, that an understanding of animals shows it to be unjust, and that a knowledge of non-Greeks shows it to be unnecessary. There are no Neoplatonist commentaries on Aristotle's Ethics from the period AD 250-600. Thus, although this work is not a commentary on Aristotle, it fills a gap in this series by going to the heart of ethical debates among Neoplatonists around AD 300, and revealing one ascetic Neoplatonist's view of the ideal way of life. It also records rival positions taken on the treatment of animals by Greek philosophers over the previous six hundred years.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Textual Emendations TRANSLATION Notes Bibliography English-Greek Glossary Greek-English Index Index of Passages Cited Subject Index

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Book SynopsisA study of the Stoic philosophers which concentrates on their ethical teaching. It aims to give a clear account of the principal doctrines held by members of the school and sets them in their historical context.

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Book SynopsisThis edition of Plato's "Laches" is part of the "Bristol Classical Press Greek Texts" series.

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Book SynopsisPlato's Socrates, in prison and being urged to flee execution, raises in acute form, and for the first time in European thought, a central question: is it right to disobey the state? Socrates' controversial answer in "Crito" has generated much contemporary literature, but no English commentary of the Greek text for seventy-five years. This new edition aims to provide an up-to-date literary and philosophical analysis suitable for a wide range of readers, including those with post-beginners Greek. It represents an ideal introduction, not only to the social and philosophical world of Classical Greece, but also to the personality of one of its greatest thinkers.

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Book SynopsisThe origins both of modern science and modern philosophy lie in Greek civilization of the 5th and 6th centuries B.C. It was then that a series of thinkers, usually known as "the Presocratic philosophers", created ways of looking at the world that were fundamentally new. In the middle of social and political changes, and exposed to intellectual influences from the Near East as well as to traditional Greek ideas, the first Presocratics, Thales and Anaximander of Miletus, had a vision of a universe governed by absolute and impartial law. In terms of this idea they and their successors tried to account for the observed structure of the physical world. An increasing awareness of the philosophical problems invloved in this attempt led to the striking and enigmatic pronouncements of Heraclitus, and to the struggle to escape from self-contradiction in which Parmenides created the first philosophical arguments and the beginnings of conceptual analysis. By 450 B.C. the thought of these men was having repercussions in wider areas of Greek culture, and was an important factor in the great outburst of intellectual energy in the "sophistic age" - the last half of the 5th century. This book presents a picture of these developments, using, wherever possible, translations of the surviving fragments of the Presocratics as a foundation for the discussion.

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Book SynopsisA general introduction to the Hellenistic philosophy of Cynicism. In the BRISTOL CLASSICAL PAPERBACK series.

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Book SynopsisIt is a commonplace to say that in antiquity philosophy was conceived as a way of life or an art of living, but precisely what such claims amount to has remained unclear. If ancient philosophers did think that philosophy should transform an individual's way of life, then what conception of philosophy stands behind this claim? John Sellars explores this question via a detailed account of ancient Stoic ideas about the nature and function of philosophy. He considers the Socratic background to Stoic thinking about philosophy and Sceptical objections raised by Sextus Empiricus, and offers readings of late Stoic texts by Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Sellars argues that the conception of philosophy as an 'art of living', inaugurated by Socrates and developed by the Stoics, has persisted since antiquity and remains a living alternative to modern attempts to assimilate philosophy to the natural sciences. It also enables us to rethink the relationship between an individual's philosophy and their biography. The book appears here in paperback for the first time with a new preface by the author.Trade Review'Sheds new light on the way philosophy was conceived ... rekindles the crucial question of how we should understand and practise philosophy' - Rhizai. 'Lucid and well-documented ... a useful contribution to the expanding body of new work on Hellenistic-Roman - especially Stoic - practical ethics' - Phronesis.Table of ContentsPreface to the Second Edition Abbreviations Introduction 1 The Topic 2 The Structure PART I: 1 Philosophy and Biography 2 The Socratic Origins of the Art of Living 3 The Stoic Conception of the Art of Living 4 Sceptical Objections PART II: 5 Philosophical Exercises 6 Exercises in the Handbook of Epictetus 7 Exercises in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Conclusion Additional Notes Glossary of Greek Words and Phrases Guide to Ancient Philosophers and Authors Bibliography Index Locorum General Index

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