Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy Books

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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Book SynopsisHistorically speaking, the majority of efforts in the study of ancient Greek physics have traditionally been devoted either to the analysis of the surviving evidence concerning Presocratic philosophers or to the systematic examination of the Platonic and the Aristotelian oeuvre. The aim of this volume is to discuss the notion of space by focusing on the most representative exponents of the Hellenistic schools and to explore the role played by spatial concepts in both coeval and later authors who, without specifically thematising these concepts, made use of them in a theoretically original way. To this purpose, renowned scholars investigate the philosophical and historical significance of the different conceptions of space endorsed by various thinkers ranging from the end of the Classical period to the middle Imperial age. Thus, the volume brings to light the problematical character of the ancient reflection on this topic.

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This volume investigates Proclus' own thought and his wide-ranging influence within late Neoplatonic, Alexandrine and Byzantinian philosophy and theology. It further explores how Procline metaphysics and doctrines of causality influence and transition into Arabic and Islamic thought, up until Richard Hooker in England, Spinoza in Holland and Pico in Italy. John Dillon provides a helpful overview of Proclus' thought, Harold Tarrant discusses Proclus' influence within Alexandrian philosophy and Tzvi Langermann presents ground breaking work on the Jewish reception of Proclus, focusing on the work of Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (1591-1655), while Stephen Gersh presents a comprehensive synopsis of Proclus' reception throughout Christendom. The volume also presents works from notable scholars like Helen Lang, Sarah Wear and Crystal Addey and has a considerable strength in its presentation of Pseudo-Dionysius, Proclus' transmission and development in Arabic philosophy and the problem of the eternity of the world. It will be important for anyone interested in the development and transition of ideas from the late ancient world onwards.

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Book SynopsisThis collection of articles is an important milestone in the history of the study of time conceptions in Greek and Roman Antiquity. It spans from Homer to Neoplatonism. Conceptions of time are considered from different points of view and sources. Reflections on time were both central and various throughout the history of ancient philosophy. Time was a topic, but also material for poets, historians and doctors. Importantly, the contributions also explore implicit conceptions and how language influences our thought categories.

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Book SynopsisThe late Platonist philosopher Damascius both reassumed and rejuvenated the rich and long-established Greek thinking about time. In distinguishing between different perceptions of time, by Plato, Aristotle and his Neoplatonist predecessors, Damascius offered novel perspectives, which can be seen as anticipating modern and contemporary theories of time, such as McTaggart’s series and presentism. The greatest merit of his philosophy of time, however, is his deep reflection on what it is for a living being to have its being in becoming – as it happens with us human beings – and how this relates to stillness, temporality and temporalization. Time is interpreted by Damascius not merely as a concomitant of the celestial motions, nor as an abstract entity existing in the human soul, but as a power of ordering, which is active at different levels. Damascius’ time comprises the biological and the historical time but is also the time that pertains to the essence and the activity of heaven, in which there is neither past nor future. The present book explores the richness of Damascius’ thought by going into the fundamental concepts of his philosophy of time: the indivisible now and the present time, the flowing now and the non-flowing now, the flowing time and the whole of time, in which past, present and future coincide. Damascius fully developed his thoughts about time in his treatise On Time, which is lost. The preserved fragments of this treatise are translated and annotated in an Appendix.

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Book SynopsisThis study reconstructs Hypatia’s existential and intellectual life and her modern Nachleben through a reception-oriented and interdisciplinary approach. Unlike previous publications on the subject, Hypatia explores all available ancient and medieval sources as well as the history of the reception of the figure of Hypatia in later history, literature, and arts in order to illuminate the ideological transformations/deformations of her story throughout the centuries and recover “the true story”. The intentionally provocative title relates to the contemporary historiographical notion of “false” or “fake history”, as does the overall conceptual and methodological treatment. Through this reception-oriented approach, this study suggests a new reading of the ancient sources that demonstrates the intrinsically political nature of the murder of Hypatia, caused by the phtonos (violent envy) of the Christian bishop Cyril of Alexandria. This is the first comprehensive treatment of the figure of Hypatia addressed to both academic readers – in Classics, Religious Studies, and Reception Studies – and a learned, non-specialist readership. Revised edition in paperback.

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Book SynopsisIm Jahr 1978 kam ein wissenschaftliches Unternehmen zum Abschluss, das 1894 begonnen worden war: 'Pauly s Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft' mit ihren 83 Bänden eine der größten Fachenzyklopädien der Welt.

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Book SynopsisDer Kleine Pauly ist ein Standardwerk zur raschen und zuverlässigen Orientierung zu Themen der Antike. Die Auswahl der Stichwörter und ihre lexikographische Behandlung orientiert sich an den Bedürfnissen des wissenschaftlich arbeitenden Benutzers, machen das Werk darüberhinaus aber auch zum Standardwerk für alle, die sich rasch und zuverlässig über die Antike informieren wollen. Die aktuelle Ausgabe enthält zusätzlich eine alphabetische Artikelliste, die auch die Nachträge in den verschiedenen Bänden nachweist.

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Book SynopsisWer sich ernsthaft mit der Philosophie beschäftigt, wird sich immer auch für ihre Geschichte und all die Schätze interessieren, die sie seit ihren Anfängen im antiken Griechenland für uns bereithält. Diese kleine Einführung bietet deshalb einen knappen und dennoch vollständigen, dabei aber leicht verständlichen Überblick über zweitausendfünfhundert Jahre europäischer Philosophiegeschichte. In fünf Kapiteln werden sowohl die Hauptepochen der philosophischen Entwicklung von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart und die großen philosophischen Zusammenhänge als auch die maßgebenden Persönlichkeiten vorgestellt, die das philosophische Denken bis heute prägen. Das Schlusskapitel zeigt, dass die philosophische Tradition weiterhin lebendig ist und auch künftig nicht überholt sein wird.Table of ContentsEinleitung: In Umbrüchen blüht das GrübelnPhilosophie der Antike: In Europa erwacht das Denken des DenkensZusammenfassungVorspielGriechenland - Besondere Bedingungen fur TheorieVorsokratiker - Allgemeine Prinzipien statt DichterwahrheitenSokrates - Fragwurdigkeit des ScheinwissensPlaton - Ewige Ideen gegen vergängliche KörperAristoteles - Sammeln, Sortieren und die Aufwertung von ErfahrungEpikur - Gluck durch Ruckzug in private FreundschaftenZenon - Pflichtgefuhl und LeidenschaftslosigkeitRömer - Rhetorik statt PhilosophiePhilosophie im Mittelalter: Theologie beherrscht alles DenkenZusammenfassungVorspielSpätantike und Mittelalter: Jenseitsorientierung als Bruch mit der AntikeChristliche Philosophie - Mönche kassieren die Philosophie einBildungsverlust - Auswanderung des Wissens in den OstenPlotin - Abwendung vom DiesseitsAugustinus - Gottesstaat und gerechte KriegeBoethius - Wirklichkeit von BegriffenMittelalterliche Universitäten - Ruckkehr der aristotelischen LogikAnselm - Gottesbeweis aus dem Begriff herausThomas - Ausufernde VersöhnungsversucheUniversalien - Phantasie und WahrheitAuflösungssymptome - Scholastik am EndpunktBacon - Glauben, Denken, ErfahrungEckhart - Auf dem mystischen Weg zum NichtsNikolaus - Unzulänglichkeit endlicher BegriffePhilosophie der Neuzeit und Aufklärung: Das Denken druckt die NeustarttasteZusammenfassungVorspielNeuzeit - Besondere Bedingungen fur ein neues MenschenbildNeuzeitliche Philosophie - Mathematik als VorbildDescartes - Denkendes Ich als sicheres FundamentHobbes - Staatsgewalt zur Zähmung wilder WölfeSpinoza - Denkfreiheit und PantheismusLeibniz - Logisch geordneter KosmosAufklärung - Natur und Vernunft als neue ethische RichtgrößenLocke - Freiheit, Eigentum und ToleranzHume - Erfahrung und Moral als GewohnheitsprinzipienEnzyklopädisten - Streitbare Salons und gesammeltes WissenVoltaire - Toleranz und vernunftige ReligionRousseau - Selbstaufgabe im allgemeinen VolkswillenMenschenrechte - Schutz vor Institutionen und StaatKant - Vernunft als methodisches VerfahrenPhilosophie im neunzehnten Jahrhundert: Vom Aufstieg und Fall der VernunftansprucheZusammenfassungVorspielDas lange Jahrhundert - Besondere Bedingungen in DeutschlandVersöhnungskonzepte - Kunst statt PolitikPhilosophie im 19. Jahrhundert - Geist, Materie und erfolgreiche NaturwissenschaftenDeutscher Idealismus - Sehnsucht nach GanzheitFichte - Unendliche IchaktivitätSchelling - Unendliche NaturaktivitätHegel - Ich, Natur und SystemoptimismusNach dem Idealismus - Das Ende der VernunftausdehnungSchopenhauer - Leiden und tröstliche KunstKierkegaard - Angstgetriebene ExistenzFeuerbach - Körper und GespensterMarx - Menschliche Praxis und GeschichtszwängeNietzsche - Wahrheit als TriebDie Materialität von Sprache – Sprechendes DenkenPhilosophie des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts: Intersubjektivität als MaßstabZusammenfassungVorspielDas Ende philosophischer Großentwürfe – Neue GeltungsfragenNeuansätze – Sprache, Rationalitätskritik und Fragen der EthikFreud – Zwischen Naturwissenschaft und KulturgeschichteWittgenstein – Sprache und Konstruktion der WirklichkeitAnalytische Philosophie – KlarheitsoptimismusHeidegger – Endlichkeit und ModernitätsabwehrExistenzialismus – Literarisierung eines GrundgefühlsKritische Theorie – Gescheiterte ModernitätAdorno – Fluchtweg KunstMarcuse – Fluchtweg RevolteHabermas – VernunftoptimismusMenschenrechte – Anerkennung des AnderenMenschenwürde – Intersubjektive Achtung des AnderenAmerikanischer Pragmatismus – NutzenprüfungRawls – Fairplay Poststrukturalismus – Denksysteme und ihr UnbewusstesFoucault – Effekte der MachtDerrida – Buchstabenmacht und VerdrängungTugendethiken – Rückkehr eines alten PrinzipsNussbaum – Bedürftigkeit als GrundbedingungSen – Andersheit und EmpathieMacIntyre – Kraft der TraditionAusblick – Globale Werte?

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