Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy Books

Book SynopsisThis book is an account of Aristotle’s Metaphysics. The work is considered as a whole and each of its parts or books is taken up in the order that it has in the traditional text. The book is based on an examination of all of the manuscript readings reported in the three most recent editions of the work (those of Christ, Ross, and Jaeger), and it attempts in this way and others to come as close as possible to what would have been the original text. The Metaphysics is of course a much-studied work. What distinguishes this new effort to understand it is the working assumption that Aristotle presents in it his most comprehensive reflection on science: its character and aims, its foundations or presuppositions, and the obstacles or objections that constitute a challenge to its possibility. The book is thus intended to be of interest and use to at least two classes of readers: to those who have already reflected themselves on the nature of science and who have perhaps become dissatisfied with more recent attempts to establish it on a firm basis or to explain the basis on which it rests; and to beginning students who are willing to undertake a difficult task and who can be brought to see that science and philosophy were originally equivalent terms and that the effort to distinguish or separate them may have been deeply misguided. In other words, the book is meant to afford a glimpse into what philosophy originally meant.

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Book SynopsisOne of a pair of books selected from Stanley Rosen’s career as a philosopher, scholar, and teacher over the last half of a century. They represent both the vast range of his learning in the most important philosophers of the tradition and the daring and penetration of his exploration of the fundamental philosophical questions. Yet the essays are written with an accessibility that is an expression of Rosen’s thesis that our ordinary experience and speech provides the only stable ground for understanding and evaluating extraordinary thought and experiences. Rosen proposes that only a qualified Platonism in which the preservation of the link between the good and the rational on the everyday level was preserved on the philosophical level, can do justice to our experience of ourselves. The notions of form and intuition play a central role in his proposal to preserve the spontaneity of the soul and the heterogeneity of its objects. The essays were originally written for a variety of purposes: there are panoramic reviews of his philosophical intentions, intricate analyses of fundamental problems, challenging interpretations of classical texts, reviews of other authors, and informal commentaries on the state of philosophy in our time. Taken together these essays provide a key to the some of the most decisive questions in philosophy and a valuable explication of some the central themes of Rosen’s work. The essays were selected from articles, chapters, and unpublished lectures that were composed over the last five decades. They are distributed into two volumes by their focus upon ancient and modern themes, a convenient division that is not meant to imply a doctrinal chasm. On the contrary, it is one of Rosen’s arguments that those who wish to preserve ancient wisdom are best served by the demonstration of the both parties address the same essential human nature, however much the practical and theoretical demands differ from epoch to epoch.Table of Contents1. Chicago Days 2. Straussian Hermeneutics 3. Thales: The Beginning of Philosophy 4. Parmenides D3: Commentary on A. A. Long, “Parmenides on Thinking Being” 5. Socrates and Alcibiades 6. Philosophy and Poetry in Plato 7. Dynamis, Energeia and the Megarians 8. Review Essay: Chasing the Chimaera 9. Is Metaphysics Possible? 10. Socrates’ Dream 11. Return to the Origin: Reflections on Plato and Contemporary Philosophy 12. The Production of Ideas 13. Leo Strauss and the Quarrel Between the Ancient and the Moderns 14. An Introduction to the Philebus 15. Techne and the Origins of Modernity 16. Platonic Hermeneutics: On the Interpretation of A Platonic Dialogue

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Book SynopsisOne of a pair of books selected from Stanley Rosen’s career as a philosopher, scholar, and teacher over the last half of a century. They represent both the vast range of his learning in the most important philosophers of the tradition and the daring and penetration of his exploration of the fundamental philosophical questions. Yet the essays are written with an accessibility that is an expression of Rosen’s thesis that our ordinary experience and speech provides the only stable ground for understanding and evaluating extraordinary thought and experiences. Rosen proposes that only a qualified Platonism in which the preservation of the link between the good and the rational on the everyday level was preserved on the philosophical level, can do justice to our experience of ourselves. The notions of form and intuition play a central role in his proposal to preserve the spontaneity of the soul and the heterogeneity of its objects. The essays were originally written for a variety of purposes: there are panoramic reviews of his philosophical intentions, intricate analyses of fundamental problems, challenging interpretations of classical texts, reviews of other authors, and informal commentaries on the state of philosophy in our time. Taken together these essays provide a key to the some of the most decisive questions in philosophy and a valuable explication of some the central themes of Rosen’s work. The essays were selected from articles, chapters, and unpublished lectures that were composed over the last five decades. They are distributed into two volumes by their focus upon ancient and modern themes, a convenient division that is not meant to imply a doctrinal chasm. On the contrary, it is one of Rosen’s arguments that those who wish to preserve ancient wisdom are best served by the demonstration of the both parties address the same essential human nature, however much the practical and theoretical demands differ from epoch to epoch.Table of Contents1. Are We Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On? Against Reductionism 2. Kant’s Doctrine of Perception 3. Kant on Happiness 4. Is There a Transition from Consciousness to Self-Consciousness? 5. Review of Alexandre Kojève, Essai d’une histoire raisonnée de la philosophie paienne, Tome 1: Les Présocratiques 6. Negation and Dialectic 7. Is Thinking Spontaneous? 8. Contributions to “Contributions” 9. Freedom and Reason 10. Review of Steven Smith, Spinoza, Liberalism, and the Question of Jewish Identity 11. Paradigms of Philosophizing and the Future of Philosophy 12. Back to the Beginning: Comment on Catherine Zuckert, Postmodern Platos 13. The Absence of Structure 14. Review of Carl Page, Philosophical Historicism and the Betrayal of First Philosophy 15. Philosophy in an Age of Postmodernism 16. Being Unreasonable: Review of Richard Wolin, The Seduction of Unreason. The Intellectual Romance with Fascism From Nietzsche to Postmodernism 17. Postmodernism and the Possibility of Critical Thinking 18. Mind and Body in Nietzsche 19. Thoughts on the Universal Homogeneous State 20. The Identity of, and Difference between, Analytical and Continental Philosophy 21. Hegel and Historicism 22. Memory and Human Time 23. Human Temporality in Plato, Husserl, and Heidegger 24. Freedom and Spontaneity 25. Remarks on Amartya Sen

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Book SynopsisJames Rhodes’ Plato is a playwright. And a mystic. In his famous “Seventh Letter” Plato had stated that the essence of his thought couldn’t be put into writing and hence he hadn’t done so. This is the self-interpretation of a mystic, Rhodes concludes. But then, two eminent questions arise: Why, then, did Plato write at all? And, how have his writings—his dialogues—to be understood, that is to be read? Plato intended, Rhodes argues, to direct the souls of those who entered into his dialogues toward the Good, the sun of truth. As “truth” cannot be taught but only experienced (the mystic dimension), Plato makes the readers of his dialogues enter into the dramas—or “plays” (according to Rhodes)—that are formed by the dialogues in the mode of a most sophisticated philosophic artistry. You encounter one aporia after another, doubts heaped upon doubts, hypotheses searchingly tested. It’s a purifying experience to which you are submitted in following the play, and the hope is, as Rhodes formulates. “that our souls will bring forth beautiful things by the end of the process.” As befits a political philosopher, James Rhodes focuses his study on the question of political leadership. That is to say: true political leadership. The highly original response he provides is very practical. And at the same deeply congenial to the “mystical” art of Plato, the playwright. This book will be a landmark in the field of studies on Plato.

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Book SynopsisSocrates and the Gods is the first book-length treatment of the Apology and its two supporting dialogues: the Euthyphro and Crito. These works are closely read and analyzed in a way that both takes into account their historic-cultural context (Homer, Greek tragedy, and the Peloponnesian War) and recognizes how Socrates refuses to be determined by material or mimetic necessity. The carefully argued interpretations arrived at are not distorted or skewed by a priori assumptions held by most political or analytic philosophers; it is not assumed that Socrates is either a cynical atheist who despised and deceived the rabble or an unsophisticated crank with little to offer a post-humanist Philosopher of Mind. Socrates’ distinctive take on the gods is essential to understanding the meaning of Socrates’ life, death, and self-proclaimed divine mission. The Euthyphro shows how Socrates overturns Homeric religion in a way that subtly but definitively establishes the philosophical basis of Christian Revelation. Determined to allow the Apology of Socrates to speak for itself, Plato uses the persona of Euthyphro, who almost certainly did not exist, to represent Meletus and the problem of religious literalism in a godless age. Socrates’ reinterpretation of Homer is shown to overcome the pervasive Oedipal antagonisms of the Iliad and bequeath posterity a healthier view of the respective roles played by divine and human elements in the Cosmos. Only the Euthyphro prepares the reader to approach Plato’s Apology with an adequate understanding of the issues, philosophical and politico-theological, at stake. Decisively refuting the currently fashionable dogma of Socrates’ atheism, Socrates’ mission consists in confounding false or reified claims to divine knowledge that are used to deny the ability of the human person to practice virtue. Socrates simultaneously affirms revelation and denies the capacity of prophets to serve as exegetes of their own winged utterances. The Apology will be shown to recover the better part of Homer’s legacy: the resilient soul of Odysseus, Socrates’ preferred alter ego, and to firmly establish the soul’s essential capacities to practice moral virtue and engage in exegetical interaction with inspired texts. The Crito is a dramatic treatment of the problem of Socrates’ intellectual and spiritual legacy. Socrates is anxious to show Crito that the pursuit of philosophy does not end with his death but rather must be seen as a capacity present in every human soul. Socrates’ existential proof to Crito, his last human judge, of the soul’s power to judge and be ruled by criteria of good and evil rather than pleasure and pain or honor and shame – must be seen to co-exist with his firm belief that the gods will not allow a good man to be harmed, as opposed to be killed, by those worse than he. Subtly echoing Aeschylus’ Eumenides, the Crito founds a tradition of mutually entwined revelation and interpretation that is recognizable and retrievable in our day. Recovery of our Socratic origins is crucial to the West’s survival.

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Book SynopsisIn the summer of 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley pulled himself away from a flurry of other projects to devote himself to translating Plato's Symposium. Besides being one of the very great lyric poets of Romanticism, Shelley was an accomplished Hellenist, and had a natural sympathy for Plato's way of seeing the world. The result of his labor was a translation of Plato's principal work on love that is, in both clarity and felicity of expression, unmatched by any contemporary translation. Much of what the dialogue offers to today's reader - namely, its invitation to see erotic experience as the privileged locus of our contact with the sacred and the divine - is lost in translation by failures of tone more than by inaccuracies or simple infelicities. The elevation and sophistication of Shelley's prose makes his translation a much better English vehicle for Plato's writing than the rather chatty and colloquial translations current today. Plato's speeches on love need an English idiom in which myth is at home, and in which humour rises to urbanity rather than descending to mere wit and joke. With Shelley, we get a translation of a great literary masterpiece by a writer who is himself a literary master, and his mastery is of exactly the type required by Plato's text. This translation came at the height of Shelley's powers, mirroring in language and conception some of his finest works, and so is itself a precious document in the history of Romanticism, for which the re-appropriation of Plato is second in importance only to the massive influence of Shakespeare. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, her husband's literary executor, upon publication of (a somewhat expurgated version of) the dialogue, boasted that "Shelley resembled Plato; both taking more delight in the abstract and the ideal than in the special and the tangible. This did not result from imitation; for it was not till Shelley resided in Italy that he made Plato his study. He then translated his Symposium and Ion; and the English language boasts of no more brilliant composition than Plato's Praise of Love translated by Shelley." If this goes too far, it goes at least in the right direction. David K. O'Connor, in his introduction and footnotes, provides the historical and philosophic framework to appreciate best the importance of the dialogue and translation.Table of Contentsintroduction, notes, Stephanus numbers, index

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Book SynopsisIn On Aristotle, Alan Ryan examines Plato’s most famous student and sharpest critic. Aristotle was the first thinker to posit that a society should be ruled by laws and not men. His strongly empirical cast of mind was brought to bear on a stunning range of subjects and the resulting system dominated European thought from the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries. Aristotle’s meticulous thinking on the nature of human affairs, ethics, politics, citizenship and virtue in a civil society remains as vital today as it was in his own time. Including key sections from Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, Aristotle’s only surviving works, with a new introduction by Alan Ryan and a chronology of the philosopher’s life and works, On Aristotle contextualises Aristotle’s views of government and the political community within the Ancient World.Trade Review"A compact and accessible introduction to Aristotle, whose thought, together with that of his teacher Plato, constitutes the bedrock of much of Western civilization... Ryan's erudite and engaging introduction is followed by substantial extracts from Aristotle's political works, making this text ideal for classroom use."

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Book SynopsisThe first collection of essays devoted to the Arabic philosopher Averroes's brilliant Commentary on Plato's "Republic," which survived the medieval period only in Hebrew and Latin translations. The first collection of essays devoted entirely to the medieval philosopher Averroes's Commentary on Plato's "Republic" includes a variety of contributors from across several disciplines and countries. The anthology aims to establish Averroes as a great philosopher in his own right, with special and unique insight into the world of Islam, as well as a valuable commentator on Plato. A major feature of the book is the first published English translation of Shlomo Pines's 1957 essay, written in Hebrew, on Averroes. The volume explores many aspects of Averroes's philosophy, including its teachings on poetry, philosophy, religion, law, and government. Other sections trace both the inspiration Averroes's work drew from past philosophers and the influence it had on future generations, especially in Jewish and Christian Europe. Scholars of medieval philosophy, ancient philosophy, Jewish studies, and the history of political thought more generally will find important insights in this volume. The anthology is also intended to provide the necessary background for teachers aiming to introduce Averroes's commentary into the classroom. With the Republic regularly appearing near the top of lists of the most frequently taught books in the history of philosophy, this volume shows how the most important medieval commentary on it deserves a place in the curriculum as well.Table of ContentsIntroduction Alexander Orwin Section 1: Averroes and His Teachers Imposing Alfarabi on Plato: Averroes's Novel Placement of the Platonic City Alexander Orwin Ibn Bajja: An Independent Reader of the Republic Josep Puig Montada Section 2: Poetry, Philosophy, and Logic Expelling Dialectics from the Ideal State: Making the World Safe for Philosophy in Averroes's Commentary on Plato's "Republic" Yehuda Halper Music, Poetry, and Politics in Averroes's Commentary on Plato's "Republic" Douglas Kries Section 3: Law, Religion, and Philosophy Averroes on Family and Property in the Commentary on Plato's "Republic" Catarina Belo Notes on Averroes's Political Teaching Shlomo Pines (trans. Alexander Orwin) The Shari?a of the Republic: Islamic Law and Philosophy in Averroes Commentary on Plato's "Republic" Rasoul Namazi An Indecisive Truth: Divine Law and Philosophy in the Decisive Treatise and Commentary on Plato's "Republic" Karen Taliaferro Section 4: Wisdom, Government, and the Character of the Political Community Averroes between Jihad and McWorld Michael Kochin The Essential Qualities of the Ruler in Averroes's Commentary on Plato's "Republic" Rosalie Helena de Souza Pereira Natural Perfection or Divine Fiat Joshua Parens Philosopher Kings and Counsellors: How Should Philosophers Participate in Politics? Alexander Orwin Section 5: Averroes's Reception in Europe Three Readings of Averroes's Commentary on Plato's "Republic" in Medieval Jewish Thought Alexander Green The Two Hebrew-into-Latin Translations of Averroes's Commentary on Plato's "Republic": Method, Motivation, and Context Michael Engel Bibliography Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisProviding a challenging new interpretation of the Second Alcibiades from the Platonic corpus, this treatment sees the dialogue not only as a work of philosophic ethics, but also as one steeped in ancient literature, particularly Euripidean tragedy.

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Book SynopsisPlotinus (204-70) is the founder of Neoplatonism and its most significant thinker. He shaped late antique philosophy and significantly influenced the entire metaphysical tradition of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and German Idealism. In this volume, Jens Halfwassen presents Plotinus' life and work, as well as the most important aspects of his historical influence. Issues of key importance for the Neoplatonists—such as the interaction between Being and Thought, the ascent of the soul, and the interpretation of Plato's theory of principles—are explained in detail in the course of outlining the Neoplatonic metaphysical system. The introduction outlines Halfwassen's significant contribution to the study of Plotinus, paying particular attention to the differences between the current German and Anglophone approaches to the Platonic tradition.The introduction contextualizes Jens Halfwassen's research within the German tradition, and outlines differences and points of contact between the study of Platonism and Neoplatonism in the German- and English-speaking worlds. While the first part (Plotinus and Neoplatonism) is a translation of the standard German introduction to Neoplatonism, the four research articles in the appendix discuss some of the more advanced metaphysical questions addressed by Plotinus. (As an introduction, this volume presupposes little prior knowledge of Neoplatonism but takes the reader to a more advanced level than competing volumes.)

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Book SynopsisWhat exactly distinguishes the good life? Is it pleasure? Is it virtue? Is it wisdom? Or is it something else? Each of the ancient philosophers of Greece and Rome had an answer, because for them it was the most important question. "Stargazers" takes us into their lives, depicting their efforts to understand the nature of ultimate reality and to live a life in accord with that understanding. Thus transported, we discover also the source of many of our own ideas concerning the cosmos, God, humankind, and the flourishing life. "Stargazers" is an invitation to return to the beginning, extended cordially to all, but most especially to those who have yet to encounter Plato's "dear delight," philosophy. The quest begins and ends in wonder, and, along the way, reveals its power to transform both our perception of the world and our way of living in it.Trade ReviewI was profoundly impressed by this work. Stargazers will prove to be a wonderful source of inspiration for the youth of today and tomorrow. Eiichi Shimomisse, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, California State University Although the book will be of interest to those readers who especially want to learn more about the origins and tenets of philosophy, it will delight readers of any stripe for its lyrical verve and the author's obvious passion for his subject. History, as Herodotus practised it, is not always what happened so much as what would have been appropriate or poetically just; hence, if we subscribe to this ancient "cautionary tale" approach to biography, we can relish Paul Bjarnason's anecdotalizing about the ancient philosophers, regardless of whether such things as Thales' tumbling into an irrigation canal actually happened. Such humorous stories humanize Bjarnason's subjects, making them seem both timeless and contemporary. Philip V. Allingham, Adjunct Professor, Dept. of English, Lakehead University Reading this is an enjoyable experience. It will appeal to many people: the general public and students beginning their study of philosophy, among others. The interweaving of paraphrase, quotations, commentary and imaginative recreation gives the book a vitality that will, I believe, attract the reader to keep on reading. Dane R. Gordon, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, College of Liberal Arts RIT Provided a view which I could not have gained from reading the dry texts alone, and deepened my appreciation of their philosophical contribution. "Stargazers" will be appreciated by anyone who has enjoyed reading Mary Renault's 'The Last of the Wine'. Dr Geoffrey Klempner, Director of Studies, International Society for Philosophers I very much enjoyed reading this book. It is both an entertaining and enlightening introduction to the larger than life characters who helped bring philosophy out of myth in their quest for the good life and how to achieve it. Useful to those both new to, and versed in, the subject, Stargazers reminds us that philosophy, as a tradition that began with a concern for human happiness, is as relevant now as it was then. Andrew Sewell, International Baccalaureate philosophy teacher, Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific

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Book SynopsisBrings the actual situation in the dialogue - Athens and its intellectuals engaged in spirited debate - alive. Equally alive is the discussions of ideas, which are brought to bear on contemporary experience and made to prove the perennial validity of Socratic wisdom, and its power to excite the mind. The main thesis - that in poetry and in love man is "beside himself," that is, divinely inspired - is discussed with reference to modern poets, novelists, and modern psychology.Trade Review"Pieper's... book... is in every way beautiful: in format, in translation, in subject (Plato's Phaedrus), in its philisophical grace." - Christian Century; "Esscntial in philosophy sections of larger public, academic and special libraries." - Library Journal"

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Book SynopsisThis, the sequel to the same author's much-acclaimed 'Xanthippic Dialogues,' is a multi-faceted commentary on the post-modern condition, which takes the form of part-Hellenistic, part-Arabian fairy tale. Archeanassa of Colophon, subject of a poem attributed by Diogenes Laertius to Plato, has returned to her birthplace in search of the lost manuscripts of another ex-lover, the poet Antimachus. There, she encounters Perictione, Plato's niece, who loves alone in the ruined and brutalized city amid memories and dreams. Perictione tells the strange story of Merope of Sardis, the Nietzshean philosopher who both made and destroyed her life. Little by little Archeanassa comes to recognize that Perictiones story is also her own story, and that the mystery of Colophon is the mystery of modernity itself. Through dialogues, stories and fantasies, the narrative explores the aesthetic way of life, and the possibilities of meaning in an age of inverted commas.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first full-length study of the 'Symposium' to be published in English, and one of the first English works on Plato to take its bearings by the dramatic form of the Platonic dialogue, a thesis that was regarded as heterodox at the time but which today is widely accepted by scholars of the most diverse standpoint. Rosen was also one the first to study in detail the philisophical significance of the phenomenon of concrete human sexuality, as it is presented by Plato in the diverse characters of the main speakers in the dialogue. His analysis of the theoretical significance of pederasty in the dialogue was highly contreversial at the time, but is today accepted as central to Plato's dramatic phenomenology of human existence. Rosen discusses a variety of topics that had previously been neglected in the secondary literature, including the problem of hybristic nature of the philosopher, the poetical dimension of Plato's conception of philosophy, and the theoretical implication of the difference between Platonic writing and Socratic conversation.Trade Review"Rosen treats the 'Symposium' very much form the literary point of view. He has... perceptive observations to make on the dramatic elements in Plato's style, on his use of irony, and on his characterizations." - Times Literary Supplement "Recent years have seen a small but steady flow of major studies in the Platonic dialogues, marked by a marriage of scholarly thoroughness with genuine humanistic warmth. This volume is one such... A wealth of linguistic and cultural lore pertaining to ancient Greece... This book must be in every college library." - Choice "Rosen's book is strikingly different from most English writing on Plato. The volume is beautifully produced and contains an extensive and useful biography." - H. J. Easterling, Classical Review "This exciting book... contains much to reflect upon. The author possesses a good knowledge of ancient texts but does not hesitate to provide very instructive references to modern philosophy... One may say of this book what the author says of the Platonic dialogue as compared to a poem or a set of axioms: no description is equivilent to its content or its implications." - Remi Brague, Revue Philisophique de Louvain "Highly intelligant and... stimulating book." - Trevor J. Saunders, Journal of Hellenic Studies"Table of ContentsPreface, introduction, notes, bibliography, index

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Book Synopsis"New Essays on Plato" assembles nine original papers on the language and thought of the Athenian philosopher. The collection encompasses issues from the Apology to the Laws and includes discussions of topics in ethics, political theory, psychology, epistemology, ontology, physics and ancient literary criticism. The contributions by an international team of scholars deliberately represent a spectrum of diverse traditions and approaches and offer new solutions to a selection of specific problems. Themes include the Happiness and Nature of the Philosopher-Kings, Law and Justice, the Tripartition of the Soul, Appearance and Belief, Image Recognition, the Reality of Change and Changelessness, Time and Eternity, and Aristotle on Plato.

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Book SynopsisInvestigating the terms such as 'Form' or 'idea', 'essence' or 'being', 'participation', 'presence' and 'community', this book aims to determine the precise historical and philosophical contexts on which Plato drew in the formulation of his thoughts.

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Book SynopsisPlato's "Timaeus" contains a powerful and influential myth, of the construction of the universe by a divine craftsman. A god imposed reason on necessity, to bring order from a primeval 'receptacle' of disordered matter. There results the 'child' that is the cosmos - a copy of an externally-existing perfect model. Here eight new essays, from an international cast of scholars, explore aspects of this challenging work: the principles of the mythical narrative, how the world soul and human body are formed, implications for illness - mental and physical - and the importance of music and harmonious proportion. Later developments are also treated: Aristotles' theory of generation, the commentary of Proclus and elements of modern evolutionary theory.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Outline of Topics in Plato's Timaeus xvi 1. Myth, Science and Reason in the Timaeus - M.R. Wright 2. How to Build a World Soul: A Practical Guide - Sergio Zedda 3. How to Build a Human Body: An Idealist's Guide - Scott Burgess 4. The Body's Fault? Plato's Timaeus on Psychic Illness - Christopher Gill 5. Timaeus on Music and the Liver - Andrew Barker 6. Aristotle's Understanding of Plato's Receptacle - Lesley Dean-Jones 7. Proclus on Demiurgy and Procession in the Timaeus - Jan Opsomer 8. Zoogony and Evolution in Plato's Timaeus, the Presocratics, Lucretius and Darwin - Gordon Campbell Bibliography of Main Editions Index Locorum General Index

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Book SynopsisThe plays of Seneca the Younger, minister and philosopher under Nero, are today increasingly studied, appreciated - and performed. Here, in a collection of papers from an international cast, scholars explore both established questions, such as the playwright's subtleties of characterisation, his relation to contemporary Roman spectacle and art - and the problems arising in translating him to modern text or stage.Table of ContentsIntroduction Seneca on the Ancient Stage 1. Playing Seneca? - John G. Fitch 2. Production of Seneca's Trojan Women, Ancient and Modern - Elaine Fantham 3. Location! Location! Location! Choral Absence and Theatrical Space in the Troades - C.W. Marshall 4. Nothing Within Which Passeth Show: Character and Color in Senecan Tragedy - Brian S. Hook Contemporary Roman Social Influences on Seneca 5. A New Look at Seneca's Phaedra - Hanna M. Roisman 6. The Spectacle of Death in Seneca's Troades - Jo-Ann Shelton 7. Grotesque Vision: Seneca's Tragedies and Neronian Art - Eric R. Varner 8. Semper Ego Auditor Tantum?: Performance and Physical Setting of Seneca's Plays - George W.M. Harrison Modern Translation and Staging 9. Seneca and Chaucer: Translating Both Poetry and Sense - Frederick Ahl 10. Seneca's Trojan Women: Identity and Survival in the Aftermath of War - Gyllian Raby 11. Putting Andromacha on Stage: A Performer's Perspective - Katharina Volk 12. Going for Baroque: Seneca and the English - Sander M. Goldberg Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisPlutarch's writings, for a long time treated in a fragmentary way as a source for earlier periods and authors, are now studied in their own right. The thirteen original essays in this volume range over Plutarch's relations with his contemporaries and his engagement in philosophical debate, his views on social issues such as education and gender, his modes of expression and his construction of argument. Also treated here are Plutarch's understanding and use of his antecedents, literary and historical, and the sophisticated techniques with which he conveyed his own historical vision. It is a theme of the present book that the writings of Plutarch should be seen as the product of a single, extraordinarily capacious, intelligence.

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Book SynopsisInterpreting Plato’s Dialogues introduces readers to some key problems in understanding Plato’s writings, and explores in-depth and critically the various ways of approaching Plato. The problem of how to interpret Plato’s dialogues dates back to Plato’s Academy, and Plato’s interpreters ought not to forego this important discussion. For how one approaches texts will inevitably influence how one interprets their contents. This is especially true of Plato’s writings, as they are, with few exceptions, dialogues. For the sake of historical accuracy, then, it is crucial that the most plausible interpretation of Plato’s works is articulated and well defended. And this is precisely what this book provides: an articulation and critical evaluation of the various ways to approach Plato’s dialogues, along with the articulation and defense of a plausible new way to interpret Plato.This new way of approaching Plato neither sees Plato’s words as doctrines according to which the dialogues are to be interpreted, nor does it reduce Plato’s dialogues to dramatic literature. Rather, it seeks to interpret the aim of Plato’s writings as being influenced primarily by Plato’s respect for his teacher, Socrates, and the manner in which Socrates engaged others in philosophical discourse. It places the focus of philosophical investigation of Plato’s dialogues on the content of the dialogues themselves, and on the Socratic way of doing philosophy.This book contains a comprehensive bibliography of philosophical sources on the interpretation of Plato’s corpus of writings, as well as some important works in the field of classical studies and philology. Interpreting Plato’s Dialogues provides both an analytical, scholarly, and thorough treatment of what is perhaps the most long-standing problem in Plato studies. The book serves quite well as a companion text to Plato’s dialogues and is of special interest to philosophers, classicists, and philologists.Trade ReviewEveryone reading or teaching Plato should doubtless read this book, both for what it does and for what it does not do. One important thing the book does not do is place scholarly interpretation of Plato in the social context of academic philosophy and philosophical training in the U.S. and Britain"". - The Review of Metaphysics

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Book SynopsisThe adventure of philosophy began in Greece, where it was gradually developed by the ancient thinkers as a special kind of knowledge by which to explain the totality of things. In fact, the Greek language has always used the word onta, ""beings,"" to refer to things. At the end of the sixth century BCE, Parmenides wrote a poem to affirm his fundamental thesis upon which all philosophical systems should be based: that there are beings.In By Being, It Is, Néstor-Luis Cordero explores the richness of this Parmenidean thesis, which became the cornerstone of philosophy. Cordero's textual analysis of the poem's fragments reveals that Parmenides' intention was highly didactic. His poem applied, for the first time, an explicative method that deduced consequences from a true axiom: by being, it is. To ignore this reality meant to be a victim of opinions.This volume explains how without this conceptual base, all later ontology would have been impossible. This book offers a clear and concise introduction to the Parmenidean doctrine and helps the reader appreciate the imperative value of Parmenides's claim that ""by being, it is.Trade ReviewBy Being, It Is, a work which shares with Curd and Hermann the view that Parmenides’ interest is primarily in method; though Cordero takes a more metaphysical line on what the method is for, arguing not only that Parmenides’ poem was not cosmological, but that it makes no sense even to talk of cosmology in a Parmenidean context. The sum of Parmenides’ contention is that ‘that which is being is’ – a thesis explored in the first route described by the goddess. (The second route, identified with the path taken later on by mortals when they mix being with not-being, explores the absurdity of negating this thesis.) . . . the argument itself its powerful, and Cordero’s work invaluable for its reassessment of the textual tradition for Parmenides, which has led him to challenge crucial readings whose speculative roots most of us have forgotten, or else ignore"". - Cambridge Journals

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Book SynopsisThe problem of the one and the many is central to ancient Greek philosophy, but surprisingly little attention has been paid to Aristotle’s treatment of it in the Metaphysics. This omission is all the more surprising because the Metaphysics is one of our principal sources for thinking that the problem is central and for the views of other ancient philosophers on it.The Central Books of the Metaphysics are widely recognized as the most difficult portion of a most difficult work. Halper uses the problem of the one and the many as a lens through which to examine the Central Books. What he sees is an extraordinary degree of doctrinal cogency and argumentative coherence in a work that almost everyone else supposes to be some sort of patchwork. Rather than trying to elucidate Aristotle’s doctrines—most of which have little explicitly to do with the problem, Halper holds that the problem of the one and the many, in various formulations, is the key problematic from which Aristotle begins and with which he constructs his arguments.Thus, exploring the problem of the one and the many turns out to be a way to reconstruct Aristotle’s arguments in the Metaphysics. Armed with the arguments, Halper is able to see Aristotle’s characteristic doctrines as conclusions. These latter are, for the most part, supported by showing that they resolve otherwise insoluble problems. Moreover, having Aristotle’s arguments enables Halper to delimit those doctrines and to resolve the apparent contradiction in Aristotle’s account of primary ousia, the classic problem of the Central Books. Although there is no way to make the Metaphysics easy, this very thorough treatment of the text succeeds in making it surprisingly intelligible.Halper's One and Many in Aristotle's Metaphysics: The Central Books was originally published in 1989 by Ohio State University Press. The reprint of this work includes a new Introduction by the author.Further, The Central Books is part of a Trilogy whose two other as of yet unpublished works Alpha—Delta and Iota—Nu will be released by Parmenides Publishing in 2008 and in 2014 respectively.Trade ReviewAs the body of the text consists in a close textual reading of books 6–9 of the Metaphysics, not every reader was able to persevere to the end, and the new introduction greatly facilitates an understanding of the author’s claims and an appreciation of his method. . . No student of these texts should miss this commentary"". - Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisThis translation is the result of a collaboration between Arnold Hermann and Dr. Sylvana Chrysakopoulou. Heeding the challenge of balancing intelligibility with faithfulness—while maintaining sufficient consistency to allow the discernment of technical terms—great pains have been taken to secure both accuracy and accessibility. In his Foreword, Douglas Hedley gives an insightful account of the way the Parmenides was received by different cultures and philosophical schools throughout the centuries to the present day.Hermann’s Introduction, aimed at first time readers and professional interpreters alike, offers an overview of the most noted philosophical problems addressed in the dialogue, and of its historical background. In view of the fact that certain individual issues have been exhaustively explored by generations of scholars, Hermann chooses to focus also on subjects that have at times been passed over, or trivialized: the debt the dialogue may owe to the works of earlier thinkers, or whether it constitutes a response to certain critics of the Theory of Forms; as for the Theory itself, whether it is bolstered or superseded by the dialogue’s conclusions, or whether there is such a thing as a “simple,” unparticipated Form, and if there is, why it cannot be the subject of an account; also, the issue of the “interweaving of Forms,” (the Sophist) is discussed, in light of its possible relevance to the Second Part of the Parmenides. Finally, Hermann provides an overview with a listing and summaries of the individual conclusions to each of the eight central arguments of the dialgoue’s Second Part (plus Coda).Trade ReviewIn his 70-page introduction, Arnold Hermann himself is somewhat more restrained. He sees the First Part of the dialogue as targeting ‘naive misreadings’ (15) of the Theory of Forms, and the Second Part as ‘a successful attempt to illuminate the difficulties raised by the First’ (17). For instance (to take an easy example), a form is ‘itself by itself’, and such simplicity or straightforwardness is explored in Argument I of the Second Part. Or again, since Forms have to interweave, they can be seen as complex, such as the ‘One Being’ of Argument II. These are not original lines of thought, but the introduction well conveys the author's enthusiasm for a dialogue that strikes many as rather dry. Throughout, Hermann corroborates his views by drawing connections with the thought of the Parmenides and Zeno, and other Platonic passages"". - Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisEdward Halper’s three volume One and Many in Aristotle’s 'Metaphysics' contends that Aristotle argues for his central metaphysical doctrines by showing that they alone resolve various versions of what is known as “the problem of the one and the many.” The present volume, Alpha–Delta, argues that these books constitute the first stage of Aristotle’s inquiry, his case for the existence of metaphysics. Halper shows that the possibility of metaphysics turns on its having a subject matter with a sufficient degree of unity to be known by one science. Although books Alpha–Delta address the problem that occupied Aristotle’s predecessors, they also prepare the way for—and are consistent with—the second stage, the inquiry into principles in the central books. Along the way Halper argues for unique interpretations of “being qua being,” the source of the aporiai, the method of “saving the phenomena,” “said in many ways,” the principle of non-contradiction, and the significance of book Delta.Trade ReviewThis book deserves to become a kind of reference point interpretation for contemporary Scholarship precisely because it is a comprehensive reading that reasserts the integrity of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Halper attends meticulously but not tediously to Aristotle's text, and he defends a plausible reading that remains philosophically rich while preserving Aristotle from confusion and contradiction"". - Review of Metaphysics

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Book SynopsisThe much-anticipated anthology on Plato’s Timaeus—Plato’s singular dialogue on the creation of the universe, the nature of the physical world, and the place of persons in the cosmos—examining all dimensions of one of the most important books in Western Civilization: its philosophy, cosmology, science, and ethics, its literary aspects and reception. Contributions come from leading scholars in their respective fields, including Sir Anthony Leggett, 2003 Nobel Laureate for Physics. Parts of or earlier versions of these papers were first presented at the Timaeus Conference, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in September of 2007.To this day, Plato’s Timaeus grounds the form of ethical and political thinking called Natural Law—the view that there are norms in nature that provide the patterns for our actions and ground the objectivity of human values. Beyond the intellectual content of the dialogue’s core, its literary frame is also the source of the myth of Atlantis, giving the West the concept of the “lost world.”From Platonic space to Presocratic vortices, from Philosopher-Kings to Craftsman-Gods and from modern physics to the myth of Atlantis, One Book, The Whole Universe presents in one volume the most up-to-date and penetrating scholarship on Plato’s Timaeus by some of the greatest minds alive today.Trade ReviewOne Book, The Whole Universe is remarkably thorough in the treatment of its chosen text (a thesis that can be confirmed by the index locorum) and contains precisely the sort of articles that one would want and expect in a scholarly collection on the Timaeus. There is scarcely a Timaean topic of traditional interest to scholars that is not mentioned or even given a detailed explanation"". - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

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Book SynopsisIn October of 2007, the Universidad Nacional de San Martín (Argentina) hosted an International Symposium on the philosophy of Parmenides to celebrate the creation of the University’s new Center for the Study of Ancient Philosophy. The event—co-organized by the HYELE Institute for Comparative Studies (Switzerland) and Parmenides Publishing—brought together scholars from around the world to present their latest work and participate in discussion. These Proceedings present the collected papers that were given—all fully translated into English—and edited by Néstor-Luis Cordero.During the two years leading up to the International Symposium, no fewer than seven books on Parmenides were published. This revival and resurgence of interest in Parmenides and the critical reviews of traditional interpretations of his poem made this the perfect time for a global conference dedicated to the renowned figure known as the true father of philosophy.The Symposium on Parmenides united the world's foremost Parmenidean scholars, with many participants having written one, if not several books on Parmenides. The proceedings volume therefore represents the most cutting-edge and in-depth scholarship on Parmenides available today, and will be a great and timely enrichment to the field of Presocratic Philosophy.Trade ReviewOne of the chief merits of this collection is its very strong emphasis on seminal issues of interpretation related to Parmenides’s poem. Throughout the volume, readers will find a significant engagement with Parmenides proper. JHP; Each of the sixteen principal speakers at the 2007 Symposium “Parmenides, Venerable and Awesome” organized by Néstor- Luis Cordero at the University of Buenos Aires “shared the distinction of having published at least one, if not several books on Parmenides” (xiii) and these papers—translated into English at the behest of Parmenides Publishing, a co-host of the conference (xi)—were originally delivered in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. Some sense of the almost surreal intersection of Jorge Borges’ trans-historical imagination, the baffling richness of Parmenides’ own thought, and the polyglot cosmopolitanism of the Symposium itself can be had by reading “Parmenides and His Precursors: A Borgesian Reading of Cordero’s Parmenides” by Lucas Soares, one of eight supplemental papers by younger Argentinian scholars included in this handsome volume"". - Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of ContentsExistence & Essence in Parmenides; From Being to the World & Vice Versa; Parmenides-Scholar of Nature; Parmenides Lost in Translation; The Astronomical Section in Parmenides' Poem; Parmenidean "Physics" is not Part of what Parmenides calls; Thought & Body in Parmenides; Mortals (Ppo-ro[) According to Parmenides; Parricide or Heir? Plato's Uncertain Relationship to Parmenides; Parmenides, Early Greek Astronomy, & Modern Scientific Realism; Parmenides & the Forms; What is Parmenides' Being?; Ta Semata: On a Genealogy of the Idea of Ontological Categories; The Role of "Thought" in the Argument of Parmenides' Poem; Parmenides: Logic & Ontology; Parmenidean Dualisms; Persuasion & Deception in Gorgias' Encomium to Helen; Thought as Perception: Aristotle's Criticism of Parmenides in Metaphysics IV, 5; The Father & the Sophist: Platonic Parricide in the Statesman; "Thinking That I Did Something...": Apollodorus & Diotima's Teaching; Megaric Philosophy Between Socrates' Influence & Parmenides' Ghost; Plato's Sophist on Negation & Not-Being; Parmenides & His Precursors: A Borgesian Reading of Cordero's Parmenides; Aristotle on the Semantic Unity of the Parmenidean Being; Index Locorum; General Index; Index of Greek Terms Discussed.

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Book SynopsisHow was the universe created, and what is our place within it? These are the questions at the heart of Plotinus’ Against the Gnostics. For the Gnostics, the universe came into being as a result of the soul’s fall from intelligible reality—it is the evil outcome of a botched creation. Plotinus challenges this, and insists that the soul’s creation of the world is the necessary consequence of its contemplation of the ideal forms. While the Gnostics claim to despise the visible universe, Plotinus argues that such contempt displays their ignorance of the higher realities of which the cosmos is a beautiful image.Against the Gnostics is a polemical text. It aims to show the superiority of Plotinus’ philosophy over that of his Gnostic rivals, and poses unique challenges: Plotinus nowhere identifies his opponents by name, he does not set out their doctrines in any great detail, and his arguments are frequently elliptical. The detailed commentary provides a guide through these difficulties, making Plotinus’ meandering train of thought in this important treatise accessible to the reader.

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Book SynopsisEnnead VI.8 gives us access to the living mind of a long dead sage as he tries to answer some of the most fundamental questions we in the modern world continue to ask: are we really free when most of the time we are overwhelmed by compulsions, addictions, and necessities, and how can we know that we are free? Can we trace this freedom through our own agency to the gods, to the Soul, Intellect, and the Good? How do we know that the world is meaningful and not simply the result of chance or randomness?Plotinus' On the Voluntary and on the Free Will of the One is a groundbreaking work that provides a new understanding of the importance and nature of free human agency. It articulates a creative idea of agency and radical freedom by showing how such terms as desire, will, self-dependence, and freedom in the human ethical sphere can be genuinely applied to Intellect and the One while preserving the radical inability of all metaphysical language to express anything about God or gods.

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Book SynopsisThe term dunamis (potentiality) entered into the philosophical vocabulary with Plato, but it was with Aristotle that it acquired, together with energeia (actuality), the strong technical meaning that the two terms have maintained, with variations, throughout subsequent philosophical tradition.The significance of the notions of actuality and potentiality in Plotinus’ thought can hardly be overstated. Throughout the Enneads, they are crucial to understanding the specific causality of intelligible realities and the relation of participation between intelligible and sensible realms.In Ennead II.5, Plotinus for the first time provides a systematic clarification of his peculiar use of these terms, through a sustained revision of Aristotle’s own elaboration of the topic and of his terminology. The treatise discusses the different meanings of potentiality and actuality as well as the way each of them applies or does not apply to the sensible realm, to the intelligible realm, and to matter.While the structure of the text unfolds in a coherent and cohesive manner, Plotinus’ writing in this treatise is dense and at times dry in its technicality. The detailed commentary guides the reader step by step, making an otherwise particularly difficult text accessible. Trade ReviewThis text is difficult due to Plotinus’ dense style. Based on the inclusion of important research in recent years, such as that of Narbonne and Kalligas, and on the author’s own contributions, Cinzia Arruzza’s new English translation is an improvement compared with the older ones. And her clear commentary not only sheds light upon the difficult text, but also offers innovative investigation of and answers to the controversial problems in this treatise"". - Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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Book SynopsisPlotinus’ Ennead V.8, originally part of a single work (with III.8, V.5, and II.9), provides the foundation for a positive view of the universe as an image of divine beauty against the Gnostic rejection of the world. Although it emphasizes the cosmic dimension of beauty, it is, as are most treatises of Plotinus, concerned with the individual soul. The notion that the artist has within him an idea of beauty that derives directly from the intelligible world in fact coincides with his theory that each one of us has access to Intellect through his or her own intellect. It is the exploitation of this theme that forms the central dynamic of the treatise, with its stress on our ability to ""see"" and be one with the intelligible world and its beauty.

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Book SynopsisEnnead IV.4.30–45 and IV.5 retrieves the unity in this last section of Plotinus’ treatise on Problems concerning the Soul. Combining translation with commentary, Gurtler enhances both the accuracy of the translation and the recovery of Plotinus’ often unsuspected originality. This is especially true for IV.5, where previous translations fail to convey the concise nature of his argument against both the Aristotelian and Platonic theories of vision.Plato and Aristotle each claim that vision depends on the light between the eye and the object, but Plotinus presents evidence that this is not the case and develops a novel theory of light as a second activity that moves from source to object directly, even arguing that color is in the light itself rather than merely a quality of the object. This theory of vision, in turn, depends on the nature of sympathy developed especially in IV.4.30–45, where Plotinus shows how action at a distance is both possible and necessary for the proper unity in diversity of the sensible cosmos.Trade ReviewIn this third and last part of ‘Problems Concerning the Soul’, Plotinus takes up three final problems or aporiai; insights from the first two parts are used to attack the popularly-credited influence of the planets on human enterprises, and the attendant problem of their memory and cooperation with evil"". - Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisThis celebratory Festschrift dedicated to Charles Kahn comprises some 23 articles by friends, former students and colleagues, many of whom first presented their papers at the international "Presocratics and Plato" Symposium in his honor (European Cultural Center of Delphi, Greece, 3–7 June, 2009). The conference was organized and sponsored by the HYELE Institute for Comparative Studies, Parmenides Publishing, and Starcom AG, with endorsements from the International Plato Society, and the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania. While Kahn's work reaches far beyond the Presocratics and Plato, it is in these subject areas that the distinction of his scholarship has come to be regarded as virtually unrivaled. The articles contributed to this volume are by some of the most renowned scholars working on these topics today, their breadth and depth bearing witness to his profound impact and influence on the discipline of Ancient Greek Philosophy.Trade ReviewCharles Kahn has been a major presence in the world of ancient Greek philosophy since his first publications at the end of the 1950s. The present volume, a Festschrift, contains an 11-page list of his publications, and anyone working in the field will instantly recognize many of the titles and know their importance. Post-Aristotelian philosophy features rarely, Aristotle somewhat less rarely, Plato (especially ‘early’ Plato) and the Presocratics heavily. Hence the title and focus of this book, though in fact of the three essays in the fourth and final section of the book, ‘Plato and Beyond’, two are on Neoplatonism (the other on Aristotle). The other sections are: ‘The Presocratics’ (six essays); ‘Plato: Studies in Individual Dialogues’ (nine essays); and ‘Themes in Plato’ (five essays). Given Kahn's longevity and importance, it is no surprise to see that the list of contributors, friends and students, is star-studded.—Robin WaterfieldThe Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisPlotinus was much exercised by Plato's doctrines of the soul. In this treatise, at chapter 1 line 27, he talks of "the divine Plato, who has said in many places in his works many noble things about the soul and its arrival here, so that we can hope for some clarity from him. So what does the philosopher say? It is clear that he does not always speak with sufficient consistency for us to make out his intentions with any ease." The issue in this treatise is one that has puzzled students of Plato from ancient to modern times—and is indeed a popular topic for undergraduate essays even today: Why should the philosopher, who has ascended through a long and painful process of dialectic to "assimilation to the divine," ever descend back into the body? Plotinus himself is said by Porphyry to have attained such a state of other-worldly transcendence on at least four occasions during his lifetime, so this was a very real and personal issue for him. In this treatise we see him grappling with it.Trade Review"This volume makes an excellent start to the series. Barrie Fleet's translation is both accurate and readable. His scholarly and well-informed commentary is particularly valuable in demonstrating how Plotinus' views on the soul arise from the interpretation of Plato." Anne SheppardProfessor of Ancient PhilosophyRoyal Holloway, University of London, UK "The first volume of a new series of translations and commentaries, edited by John Dillon and Andrew Smith, is devoted to Enn IV.8. We are in the capable hands of Barrie Fleet, author of an important previous study on Enn III.6...Fleet's introduction to the treatise and his commentary will be especially helpful to readers coming to Plotinus for the first time ...[He] provides extensive discussion of the Platonic passages that inspired Plotinus; an approach that fits IV.8 especially well, since this treatise is unusually explicit in its doxographical use of Plato. Overall the volume is a promising beginning to a new series that will provide an English readership with something akin to the single-treatise commentaries and translations published by Cerf in France." Peter AdamsonProfessor of Ancient and Medieval PhilosophyKing's College London, UK "Enn. IV 8 is one of Plotinus' most fascinating essays. It begins by addressing what for ancient Platonism was a very traditional topic, namely the descent of the soul, and examines it in the light of his own personal experience, while also taking into account the doctrines of previous thinkers including Plato and Aristotle. It concludes by expounding a radically novel view according to which no real descent occurs after all. This involves a fundamental reassessment of the status of the soul and its position in the universe and, furthermore, a new understanding of its association with the body and with sensible reality as a whole. Fleet's presentation is highly readable and informative, and provides an excellent introduction to Plotinus' views on man and his relation to the cosmos." Paul KalligasProfessor of Ancient PhilosophyUniversity of Athens, Greece "A clear and accurate translation of one of Plotinus' first and more significant writings, accompanied by a helpful commentary for the English-speaking reader." Dominic O'MearaProfessor EmeritusChair of Metaphysics and Ancient PhilosophyUniversity of Fribourg, SwitzerlandTable of ContentsIntroduction: Achilles' Shield; The Fall; The Ambassadors of Death; Horse & Rider; The Silence of Words; The Structure of Narrative; The Chaos of Colors & the Order of Words; The Fallen Angel & the Survivor's Burning Eye; Epilogue: Ekphrasis, Mimesis & the Difference between Word & Image; Index.

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Book SynopsisThe Statesman is a difficult and puzzling Platonic dialogue. In A Stranger's Knowledge Marquez argues that Plato abandons here the classic idea, prominent in the Republic, that the philosopher, qua philosopher, is qualified to rule. Instead, the dialogue presents the statesman as different from the philosopher, the possessor of a specialist expertise that cannot be reduced to philosophy. The expertise is of how to make a city resilient against internal and external conflict in light of the imperfect sociality of human beings and the poverty of their reason. This expertise, however, cannot be produced on demand: one cannot train statesmen like one might train carpenters. Worse, it cannot be made acceptable to the citizens, or operate in ways that are not deeply destructive to the city’s stability. Even as the political community requires his knowledge for its preservation, the genuine statesman must remain a stranger to the city.Marquez shows how this impasse is the key to understanding the ambiguous reevaluation of the rule of law that is the most striking feature of the political philosophy of the Statesman. The law appears here as a mere approximation of the expertise of the inevitably absent statesman, dim images and static snapshots of the clear and dynamic expertise required to steer the ship of state across the storms of the political world. Yet such laws, even when they are not created by genuine statesmen, can often provide the city with a limited form of cognitive capital that enables it to preserve itself in the long run, so long as citizens, and especially leaders, retain a “philosophical” attitude towards them. It is only when rulers know that they do not know better than the laws what is just or good (and yet want to know what is just and good) that the city can be preserved. The dialogue is thus, in a sense, the vindication of the philosopher-king in the absence of genuine political knowledge.Trade ReviewThe book contains an illuminating discussion of the Eleatic Stranger ’s initial divisions and his treatment of the statesman as a shepherd of human beings. Márquez persuasively argues that the bizarre details and conclusions of this discussion are in fact crucial for understanding important aspects of states- manship that are only fully developed later in the dialogue"". - The Review of Politics

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Book SynopsisEnnead IV.7 is a very early treatise (second according to Porphyry’s chronological table), and unlike the many treatises devoted to attempts at untangling various issues Plotinus found problematic in Plato’s thinking, this one presents the teachings of the other main schools current in Plotinus’ day: the Stoics, Epicureans, Pythagoreans, and Peripatetics, all of whom presented soul as something material or as contingent upon material soul, and so as being neither truly immortal nor imperishable.It includes observations on many mainly Stoic doctrines on perception, memory, sensation, thought, virtue, powers of material bodies, mixture and reproduction (Chapters 1–83); on Pythagorean attunement (84); and on Peripatetic entelechy (85). In Chapters 9–10 Plotinus presents, in broad terms, Plato’s doctrines on soul’s immortality—mainly that of the individual soul, but a fortiori that of the soul of the cosmos. These chapters offer some of Plotinus’ most powerful prose.He is not concerned to prove the soul’s immortality—that was an uncontroversial tenet of Platonism, to be taken for granted. In this treatise Plotinus is laying down the in­disputable foundations for his later writings.

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Book SynopsisThis book analyses the role of diagrammatic reasoning in Plato’s philosophy: the readers will realize that Plato, describing the stages of human cognitive development using a diagram, poses a logic problem to stimulate the general reasoning abilities of his readers. Following the examination of mental models in this book, the readers will reflect on what inferences can be useful to approach this kind of logic problem. Plato calls for a collaboration between writer and readers. In this book the readers will examine the connection between diagrams and discovery, realizing the important epistemic role of visualization. They will recognize the crucial role that diagrams play in problem solving. The logic problem elaborated by Plato is addressed considering the epistemic function of mental models. These models introduce to an advanced stage of cognitive development, in which reasoning uses in its investigations a higher-level of mathematical complexity, represented by structuralism.Table of ContentsCHAPTER ONE: Introduction,- CHAPTER TWO: The Collaboration between Writer and Reader,- CHAPTER THREE: Visual Thinking,- CHAPTER FOUR: Diagrammatic Reasoning,- CHAPTER FIVE: Mental Models,-Chapter 6. Theoretical Adulthood and Structuralism.

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Book SynopsisNumerous thinkers have considered the Principle of Non-Contradiction, but none has clearly identified its inherent limitation: that it is itself only a formal principle. This book shows that negation plays a fundamental role both in the constitution of the principle and in the affirmation of its value, which consists in its undeniability.

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Book SynopsisAt its most basic, philosophy is about learning how to think about the world around us. It should come as no surprise, then, that children make excellent philosophers! Naturally inquisitive, pint-size scholars need little prompting before being willing to consider life's "big questions," however strange or impractical. Plato & Co. introduces children and curious grown-ups to the lives and work of famous philosophers, from Socrates to Descartes, Einstein, Marx, and Wittgenstein. Each book in the series features an engaging and often funny story that presents basic tenets of philosophical thought alongside vibrant color illustrations. In Diogenes the Dog-Man, the philosopher Diogenes not only admires the honesty of dogs, he has actually become one sleeping, eating, and lifting his leg to pee wherever he chooses! Best of all, unlike humans, who dupe one another as to their true feelings, Diogenes the Dog-Man is free to bark his displeasure and even bite his adversaries in the calves even if they happen to be Alexander the Great. Initially, the citizens gathered in the Agora think Diogenes is mad. Does he have rabies? But it soon becomes clear that we can all learn a thing or two from dogs about how to live a simple life.

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Book SynopsisThe problem of body and soul has a long history that can be traced back to the beginnings of Greek culture. The existential question of what happened to the soul at the moment of death, whether and in what form there is life after death, and of the exact relationship between body and soul was answered in different ways in Greek philosophy, from the early days to Late Antiquity. The contributions in this volume not only do justice to the breadth of the topic, they also cover the entire period from the Pre-Socratics to Late Antiquity. Particular attention is paid to Plato, Aristotle and Hellenistic philosophers, that is the Stoics and the Epicureans.

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Book SynopsisDer Einfluss der platonischen Ideenlehre umfasst nahezu alle Epochen und zahlreiche Disziplinen der westlichen Philosophiegeschichte. Kaum bekannt ist, dass auch arabisch und persisch schreibende Philosophen zu allen Zeiten „Platonische Ideen“ und „Platonische Urbilder“ diskutierten, obwohl ihnen die platonischen Dialoge selbst nicht zugänglich waren. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht, in welcher Weise und auf welchen Grundlagen diese islamischen Konzeptionen „Platonischer Ideen“ ohne jegliche Rückbindung an das platonische Œuvre doktrinal gefüllt wurden. Der erste, begriffsgeschichtliche Teil geht terminologischen und systematischen Fragen der arabisch-islamischen Auseinandersetzung mit diesen Konzeptionen in zahlreichen Werken aus dem 9. bis 17. Jahrhundert nach, darunter solchen von al-Farabi und Avicenna. Im zweiten Teil werden einige der relevanten arabischen Texte erstmals in deutscher Übersetzung zugänglich gemacht. Die Studie eröffnet damit auch dem Nichtarabisten einen ersten Einblick in einen bisher unerforschten Zweig der Rezeptionsgeschichte des Platonismus, der zugleich ein integraler Bestandteil der islamischen Geistesgeschichte ist.

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Book SynopsisScientific and technological texts have not played a significant role in modern literary criticism. This applies to Classics, too, despite the fact that a large part of the field’s extant texts deal with questions of medicine, mathematics, and natural philosophy. Focusing mostly on medical and mathematical texts, this collection aims at approaching ancient Greek science and its texts from the cross-disciplinary perspective of authorship. Among the questions addressed are: What is a scientific author? In what respect does scientific writing differ from ‘literary’ writing? How does the author present himself as an authoritative figure through his text? What strategies of trust do these authors employ? These and related questions cannot be discussed within the typical boundaries of modern academic disciplines, thus most of the sixteen authors, many of them leading experts in the fields of ancient science, bring a comparative perspective to their subjects. As a result, the collection not only offers a new approach to this vast area of ancient literature, thus effectively discovering new possibilities for literary criticism, it also reflects on our current forms of scientific and scholarly written communication.

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Book SynopsisDoes the soul have parts? What kind of parts? And how do all the parts make together a whole? Many ancient, medieval and early modern philosophers discussed these questions, thus providing a mereological analysis of the soul. Their starting point was a simple observation: we tend to describe the soul of human beings by referring to different types of activities (perceiving, imagining, thinking, etc.). Each type of activity seems to be produced by a special part of the soul. But how can a simple, undivided soul have parts? Classical thinkers gave radically different answers to this question. While some claimed that there are indeed parts, thus assigning an internal complexity to the soul, others emphasized that there can only be a plurality of functions that should not be conflated with a plurality of parts. The eleven chapters reconstruct and critically examine these answers. They make clear that the metaphysical structure of the soul was a crucial issue for ancient, medieval and early modern philosophers.

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