Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy Books

Book SynopsisIt is an excellent companion to Plato's Dialogues.Trade ReviewReaders of all levels can be grateful for this ambitious book, which is not limited to an account of Plato's political philosophy narrowly understood. Besides skillful chapters on Laws, Republic, and Statesman, Blitz provides accurate and instructive treatments of 11 other dialogues... Highly recommended. Choice 2011 [Blitz's] book is beautifully organized, and he succeeds in moving "along Plato's spiraling paths." -- Mary P. Nichols Claremont Review of Books 2011Table of ContentsIntroductionPart I: Politics and Virtue1. The World of the Dialogues2. Virtue3. Virtue and Politics: The LawsPart II: Politics and Philosophy4. The Roots of Philosophy5. Beauty and Nobility6. Philosophy and Politics: The RepublicPart II: Politics and Knowledge7. Pleasure and the Soul8. Knowledge and Illusion9. Knowledge and Politics: The StatesmanConclusionNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisPlato's dialogues are some of the most widely read texts in Western philosophy, and one would imagine them fully mined for elemental material. Yet, in Plato and Tradition, Patricia Fagan reveals the dialogues to be continuing sources of fresh insight. She recovers from them an underappreciated depth of cultural reference that is crucial to understanding their central philosophical concerns.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements 6 Introduction 7 Section I: Eros and Tradition 15 Chapter 1: Alcibiades I and Pederasty 16 I. The Conversation of Alcibiades I 16 II. Learning Language 20 III. Socrates’ Knowledge 24 IV> Socratic Love 27 V. The New Pederasty 29 VI. The New Eros as a Challenge to Athenian Culture 36 Chapter 2: The Symposium and Sappho 38 1. Care 39 II.Careful Reading 49 III. Diotima 52 IV. Eros 63 Conclusion 69 Section II: Polis and Tradition 74 Chapter 3: Republic 3 and the Sirens 75 I. Republic 3 and Odyssey 12 78 II. Socrates’ Foundational Myths 90 III> Republic 3 and Sparta 98 Chapter 4: Laws 4 and the Cyclopes 102 I. The Situation of the City 103 II. The Cyclopes 107 III. Dionysus 113 Conclusion 118 Section III: Philosophy and Tradition 121 Chapter 5: The Apology and Oedipus 122 I. Oedipus 124 II. Socrates 127 III. Teiresias 136 IV. Tragedy to Epic 139 Conclusion: Genre and Innovation 142 Chapter 6: The Crito and Thersites 145 I. Socrates’ Dream 146 II. Crito and Thersites 149 III. Socrates’ Response 155 Conclusion 162 Conclusion 165 Bibliography 167 Notes 177

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Essential Vulnerabilities, Deborah Achtenberg contests Emmanuel Levinasâs idea that Plato is a philosopher of freedom for whom thought is a return to the self. Instead, Plato, like Levinas, is a philosopher of the other. Nonetheless, Achtenberg argues, Plato and Levinas are different. Though they share the view that human beings are essentially vulnerable and essentially in relation to others, they conceive human vulnerability and responsiveness differently. For Plato, when we see beautiful others, we are overwhelmed by the beauty of what is, by the vision of eternal form. For Levinas, we are disrupted by the newness, foreignness, or singularity of the other. The other, for him, is new or foreign, not eternal. The other is unknowable singularity. By showing these similarities and differences, Achtenberg resituates Plato in relation to Levinas and opens up two contrasting ways that self is essentially in relation to others.

Read more less

Book SynopsisOffers a systematic exploration of the meanings of logos throughout Aristotle’s work. This volume claims that the basic meaning is “gathering”, in the sense of a relation that holds its terms together without isolating them or collapsing one to the other. This basic meaning applies to logos in the sense of human language as well.

Read more less

Book SynopsisInterpreting the Nazi era using the basic diagnostic tools provided by the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, Judaeo-Christian culture, and contemporary German-language writers, this book provides an alternative approach to the topic of the individual German's entanglement with the Hitler regime.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe third and last volume of Voegelin's study of Greek culture from its earliest pre-Hellenic origins to its full maturity. This work is principally devoted to the two great thinkers who represent the high point of philosophical enquiry among the Greeks: Plato and Aristotle.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA complete translation of The Manual of Harmonics by the Pythagorean philosopher Nicomachus of Gerasa (second century C.E.) published with a comprehensive, chapter-by-chapter commentary. It is a concise introduction to the study of harmonics, the universal principles of relation embodied in the musical state. .

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA study of place and creative inspiration

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTo Think Like God focuses on the emergence of philosophy as a speculative science, tracing its origins to the Greek colonies of Southern Italy, from the late 6th century to mid-5th century B.C.E. Special attention is paid to the sage Pythagoras and his movement, the poet Xenophanes of Colophon, and the lawmaker Parmenides of Elea. In their own ways, each thinker held that true insight, whether as wisdom or certainty, belonged not to mortal human beings but to the gods.The Pythagoreans sought to approach this otherworldly knowledge by studying numerical relationships, believing them to govern the universe, and that those who know the number of a thing know its true nature. Yet their quest was a hopeless one, bogged down by cultism, numerology, political conspiracies, bloody uprisings, and exile. Above all, number did not turn out as the most reliable of mediums; it was certainly not a key to the realm of the divine. Thus, their contributions to philosophy's inception, while much better publicized, were not the most significant. That particular role was reserved for an unusual challenge and the elaborate reaction it provoked.The challenge came from Xenophanes, who had argued that reliable truth was beyond mortal reach, because even if by accident a human being should state what is exactly the case, he had no way of knowing that he did, all things being susceptible to opinion. This dilemma is sure to have bothered a legislative mind like that of Parmenides, and we find him introducing techniques for testing the veracity of statements. These methods were meant to be carried out by reasoning and argument alone, without relying on physical evidence or mortal sense-perception, which was deemed untrustworthy. Reason was that one faculty shared by gods and humans alike.In time, Parmenides' ingenious arguments have earned him the title of the first logician and metaphysician whose influence on subsequent thinkers was immeasurable. Parmenides taught us that philosophy was not about claims but about proof, which also makes him the father of theoretical science—which, curiously, began as a quest into the mind of God.Trade ReviewThis is a fresh and stimulating study of the father of Eleaticism – and it would be interesting to see whether this construction of Parmenides could be made to work as a reaction to the modes of thought implicit in the cosmologies of his Ionic predecessors"". - Cambridge Journals

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book is a collection of dovetailing essays which together interpret and assess the chief arguments and texts which make up Plato’s cosmology. Arguments in the Timaeus, Sophist, Statesman, Philebus, and Laws X are analyzed with an eye to problems which affect the wider understanding of Plato’s metaphysics, theology, epistemology, psychology, and physics. New interpretations are given to Plato’s views on the role and characteristics of his craftsman God, the nature and status of Forms, the nature of time and eternity, the status and nature of space and the phenomenal realm, and the nature of and relations between reason, souls, bodies, and motion.The book is critically sympathetic to the Platonic project, at least to the extent that it argues that many (though not all) features of the Platonic cosmology are more intelligible and coherent than usually supposed by critics. It defends the view that for Plato God makes the world in the way that a carpenter cuts a board to be exactly a yard long – by applying a yard stick to the board and removing the excess wood. This view of a making requires that there be standards or measures that exist independently both of the agent who creates and the world on which he works. These standards are Plato’s Forms. Transcendent Forms cannot be excised from the Platonic metaphysics as many modern critics have been trying to do in an attempt to make Plato respectable by today’s criteria of philosophical decency.This work presents a revised and updated edition of the author's 1985 book The Platonic Cosmology (E.J. Brill, Leiden) together with four revised and updated essays by the author on Plato's metaphysics, and a wholly new essay, ""Extensions,"" which expands the themes of the book into wider philosophical contexts.Trade ReviewMohr's collection of essays has remained over the years one of the standard reference books for Timaeus . . . . [he] was and remains right to insist on the importance of Timaeus to a number of central Platonic issues. . . I continue to applaud his insistence that we take Timaeus literally"". - Heythrop Journal

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Sophist sets out to explain what the sophist does by defining his art. But the sophist has no art. Plato lays out a challenging puzzle in metaphysics, the nature of philosophy, and the limitation of philosophy that is unraveled in this new and unconventional interpretation.Here is a new translation of this important late Platonic dialogue, with a comprehensive commentary that reverses the dominant trends in the scholarship of the last fifty years. The Sophist is shown to be not a dry exposition of doctrine, but a rich exercise in dialectic, which reveals both the Eleatic roots of Platonic metaphysics and Plato’s criticism of unrevised Eleaticism as a theoretical underpinning for sophistry.The Sophist is presented now not as an artefact of the intellectual past or precursor of late 20th century philosophical theories, but as living philosophy. In a new translation and interpretation, this late dialogue is shown to be a defense of not a departure from Plato’s metaphysics.The book is intended to provide a complete interpretation of Plato's Sophist as a whole. Central to the methodology adopted is the assumption that all elements of the dialogue to be understood must be understood in the context of the dialogue as a whole and in its relation to other works in the Platonic corpus.Three main points are argued: 1) the dialogue does not present a definitive or positive doctrine of the late Plato, but has the structure of a reductio ad absurdum; 2) the figure of the sophist is employed to critically examining the metaphysics of Parmenides. While acknowledging a core of metaphysical insight in Parmenides, the argument implies that, by failing to account for resemblance, Eleaticism implies an inadequate theory of relations, which makes impossible an adequate understanding of essence. Consequently, Eleaticism unrevised can be taken as the philosophical underpinning for the antithesis of philosophy, lending legitimacy to sophistry; 3) the criticism constitutes an indirect argument for Platonic metaphysics, which has roots in Eleaticism, that is, for the Theory of Forms.Trade Reviewthere are things to be grateful for in this book; above all, it is well argued and clearly written. And, just because of its difficulties, Sophist is studied less than many Platonic dialogues: it is good to have a new translation and a thought-provoking book-length commentary"". - Heythrop Journal

Read more less

Book SynopsisHomer's Iliad - More than 3,000 years after the fall of Troy, here at last is a rendition of the Homeric epic that everybody can understand and appreciate. The world can't hear Homer speak his own words, but Stanley Lombardo is the next best thing. Reading his own acclaimed (unabridged) translations, Lombardo's insightful rendition takes advantage of the rhythms and other poetic resources of everyday American speech. The result provides cinematic and performance qualities to the time-honored poetry—sharp scene cuts, dynamic language, urgency of the characters (human and divine). His virtuoso performance in these audiobooks reflects years of experience before a wide variety of audiences—beautifully paced, shaped, intoned, and acted throughout.Trade ReviewMatch The Iliad by Homer, read by Stanley Lombardo (12 CDs. retail ed. Parmenides Audio. 2006. ISBN 978-1-930972-08-7. $42), to a long straight drive with nothing much to see so that you can safely sink into the meter. Homer’s dark meditation features the rage and regret of Achilles during the Trojan War, at the siege of Ilium. The epic was meant to be recited aloud, and Lombardo’s spellbinding narration acts as a time capsule, hurling listeners back to the heroic age and placing them in the presence of a master storyteller. His voice slips into chant, rises and crests with the terrible violence of battle, and shifts into pure incantation as Homer transitions into the emotional caverns of the story"". - Library Journal“Great poetry is best heard, not just read… Lombardo’s voice is wonderfully resonant and expressive… and together with the original music, beautifully evokes the world of the Trojan War and Odysseus’ journey home.” - The Bloomsbury Review, Nov 2006

Read more less

Book SynopsisHomer's Iliad & Odyssey, abridged - More than 3,000 years after the fall of Troy, here at last is a rendition of the Homeric epic that everybody can understand and appreciate. The world can't hear Homer speak his own words, but Stanley Lombardo is the next best thing. Reading his own acclaimed (unabridged) translations, Lombardo's insightful rendition takes advantage of the rhythms and other poetic resources of everyday American speech. The result provides cinematic and performance qualities to the time-honored poetry—sharp scene cuts, dynamic language, urgency of the characters (human and divine). His virtuoso performance in these audiobooks reflects years of experience before a wide variety of audiences—beautifully paced, shaped, intoned, and acted throughout.Trade ReviewGreat poetry is best heard, not just read, and these two CD sets of Homer’s epic works are exemplars of the spoken word. Stanley Lombardo, professor of classics at the University of Kansas, is among the leading scholars of Homer, and here reads his own translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey in their entirety. Each recorded set includes a booklet with a map of Homer’s storied world; synopses of each book in the work, which are read by actress Susan Sarandon; and a glossary of personal and place names. Lombardo’s voice is wonderfully resonant and expressive­—he is also a performer—and together with the original music, beautifully evokes the world of the Trojan War and Odysseus’ journey home. These productions from Parmenides Publishing, which specializes in Western philosophy, are a class act"". - Bloomsbury ReviewTable of ContentsForeword; Growing Up in Neoliberal Times; Identity: A Project of the Self; Research Tools; Beginning Post-School Transitions; Great Expectations; Performing Collective Identities; Spirituality as a Resource; Young People Re-Creating; Children of the Market?; Culturally Intelligible Femininities & Masculinities; Transition Interrupted: Young Mothers; Unfolding Plans; Crafting Identities; References; Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA distinguished Platonic scholar discusses the impact of the Greek discovery of the ""cosmos"" on man's perception of his place in the universe, describes the problems this posed, and interprets Plato's response to this discovery.Starting with the Presocratics, Vlastos describes the intellectual revolution that began with the cosmogonies of Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes in the sixth century B.C. and culminated a century later in the atomist system of Leucippus and Democritus. What united these men was that for all of them nature remained the inviolate, all-inclusive principle of explanation, precluding any appeal to a supernatural cause or ordering agency.In a detailed analysis of the astronomical and physical theories of the Timaeus, Vlastos demonstrates Plato's role in the reception and transmission of the discovery of the new conception of the universe. Plato gives us the chance to see that movement from a unique perspective: that of a fierce opponent of the revolution who was determined to wrest from its brilliant discovery, annex its cosmos, and redesign it on the pattern of his own idealistic and theistic metaphysics.This book is a reprint of the edition published in 1975 by the University of Washington Press. It includes a new Introduction by Luc Brisson.Trade ReviewPresented by a brilliant modern philosopher who has lived with Plato’s work, this beautifully written account ought to be read by every educated person"". - Choice Reviews

Read more less

Book SynopsisParmenides of Elea was the most important and influential philosopher before Plato. Patricia Curd here reinterprets Parmenides' views and offers a new account of his relation to his predecessors and successors.In the traditional interpretation, Parmenides argues that generation, destruction, and change are unreal and that only one thing exists. He therefore rejected as impossible the scientific inquiry practiced by the earlier Presocratic philosophers. But the philosophers who came after Parmenides attempted to explain natural change and they assumed the reality of a plurality of basic entities. Thus, on the traditional interpretation, the later Presocratics either ignored or contradicted his arguments. In this book, Patricia Curd argues that Parmenides sought to reform rather than to reject scientific inquiry and offers a more coherent account of his influence on the philosophers who came after him.The Legacy of Parmenides provides a detailed examination of Parmenides' arguments, considering his connection to earlier Greek thought and how his account of ""what-is"" could serve as model for later philosophers. It then considers the theories of those who came after him, including the Pluralists (Anaxagoras and Empedocles), the Atomists (Leucippus and Democritus), the later Eleatics (Zeno and Melissus), and the later Presocratics (Philolaus of Croton and Diogenes of Apollonia). The book closes with a discussion of the importance of Parmenides' views for the development of Plato's Theory of Forms.This first-time in paperback edition includes a new Introduction by the author in which she clarifies her position on the following points: Monism, Internal and External Negations, Locomotion and the Specification of How What-is Is, and Doxa. Also added is a Supplementary Bibliography. (The Legacy of Parmenides was first published in hardcover in 1997 by Princeton University Press).Trade ReviewThis book by Patricia Curd (C. hereafter), professor of Purdue University (Indiana, USA), was published for the first time in 1998 (by Princeton University Press). The present paperback version of the book contains a few small changes in the main text and is prefaced by a new detailed introduction, in which C. answers criticism and clarifies her present position. The book is supplied with detailed indexes, bibliography and abundant footnotes. This introduction allows the reader to understand the C.'s intentions and the nature of her interest in Parmenidean doctrine. The introduction also maps the book: it refers to the parts of the book where the reader can find a detailed exposition of C.'s particular claims. Abridged"". - Bryn Mawr Classical Review Abridged

Read more less

Book SynopsisFascinating illustrations contribute to this illuminating account of how and why philosophy emerged and make it a must-read for any inquisitive thinker unsatisfied with prevailing assumptions on this timely and highly relevant subject.By taking the reader back to the Greek colonies of Southern Italy more than 500 years B.C.E., the author, with unparalleled insight, tells the story of the Pythagorean quest for otherworldly knowledge—a tale of cultism, political conspiracies, and bloody uprisings that eventually culminate in tragic failure. The emerging hero is Parmenides, who introduces for the first time a technique for testing the truth of a statement that was not based on physical evidence or mortal sense-perception, but instead relied exclusively on the faculty we humans share with the gods: the ability to reason.Trade ReviewHermann's book brings Parmenides to life through lucid explanations and an incisive use of quotations from Parmenides and his contemporaries, offering both scholars and lay readers a 21st-century consideration of an ancient thinker. It succeeds admirably, shedding a classical light on our own age as well as revealing lively intellect of the past"". - Publisher's Weekly

Read more less

Book SynopsisParmenides and the History of Dialectic is a study of Greek philosophical method as it affects contemporary philosophical issues. What was distinctive about the method of Parmenides, the inventor of philosophical argument as we know it? How did Parmenides' method affect Plato's dialectic, which was supposed to provide the solution to all ultimate philosophical problems? How, in turn, did Plato influence Hegel and our subsequent tradition?There are many studies of Parmenides' text, its philosophical content, and its influence. This study aims to do something different, to look at the form of the argument, the scope of its positive and negative language, the balanced structure its author generates, and the clear parallels with Plato's Parmenides.Along the way, Austin considers issues like these: was Parmenides, an absolute monist, entitled to speak at all, and in many negative words at that? How did he think that his own language related to the reality that he was trying to describe? What was his notion of the use of metaphor? What logical techniques did he invent? Has his type of philosophy come to an end?Trade ReviewThe three essays of Austin’s subtitle are, respectively, ‘Parmenidean Dialectic’ (1-27), which asserts that the central Parmenides fragment, B8, bespeaks a method that recurs in the second part of Plato’s Parmenides; ‘Parmenidean Metaphysics’ (29-49), which mostly makes claims about the ‘signposts’ cited in B8; and ‘Parmenides and the History of Dialectic’ (51-83), which compares B8 with the dialectic of a number of later figures, especially Plato, Aquinas, and Hegel. The essays are given a certain unity—hence their appearance together here—by the author’s predominant concern with the structure of Parmenides’ thought as opposed to its content"". - Ancient Philosophy

Read more less

Book SynopsisA secret concealed for centuries, shrouded in myth, silenced by stone.A secret that if unleashed threatens to shake the very foundation of Western civilization.A secret that can remain hidden no longer.The quest begins in Rome, where a grisly murder and a plundered tomb serve to ignite perhaps the most controversial conflict in human history. Inspector Domenico Conti is charged with the task of recovering the contents of the tomb, but as he delves deeper into the investigation, he is thrust into the center of a centuries-old struggle between truth and those who would stop at nothing to conceal it. But he is not alone.Dr. Dana McCarter, newly appointed director of the Advanced Institute for the Study of Antiquity, finds herself at the heart of the mystery when her considerable expertise in ancient Greek philosophy and her suspect involvement with the black market take her on a journey beginning in her New York University offices and sweeping around the globe—from the dark alleys of Moscow, to the rolling hills of the Italian countryside and the enigmatic relics of an ancient civilization, alive with long-kept secrets.As the search for answers leads them through a labyrinth of conspiracy and intrigue, Dana and Domenico must question everything they believe in and decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to know the truth.Trade ReviewIf you haven't recently thought much about the lost writings of Aristotle, and even if you find the philosophical dialogue a soporific literary genre, you may well find yourself inclined otherwise while devouring Black Market Truth, a 'philosophical suspense thriller' and page-turner by Sharon Kaye"". - San Francisco Chronicle

Read more less

Book SynopsisA secret concealed for centuries, shrouded in myth, silenced by stone.A secret that if unleashed threatens to shake the very foundation of Western civilization.A secret that can remain hidden no longer.The quest begins in Rome, where a grisly murder and a plundered tomb serve to ignite perhaps the most controversial conflict in human history. Inspector Domenico Conti is charged with the task of recovering the contents of the tomb, but as he delves deeper into the investigation, he is thrust into the center of a centuries-old struggle between truth and those who would stop at nothing to conceal it. But he is not alone.Dr. Dana McCarter, newly appointed director of the Advanced Institute for the Study of Antiquity, finds herself at the heart of the mystery when her considerable expertise in ancient Greek philosophy and her suspect involvement with the black market take her on a journey beginning in her New York University offices and sweeping around the globe—from the dark alleys of Moscow, to the rolling hills of the Italian countryside and the enigmatic relics of an ancient civilization, alive with long-kept secrets.As the search for answers leads them through a labyrinth of conspiracy and intrigue, Dana and Domenico must question everything they believe in and decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to know the truth.Trade ReviewIf you haven't recently thought much about the lost writings of Aristotle, and even if you find the philosophical dialogue a soporific literary genre, you may well find yourself inclined otherwise while devouring Black Market Truth, a 'philosophical suspense thriller' and page-turner by Sharon Kaye"". - San Francisco Chronicle

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisPhysics 7.3 is one of the crucial texts in Aristotle's theory of change, in which he deals with the question of what alteration is and what it is not. Aristotle discusses change in various parts of his writings, and seems to provide a broad range of notions: movement and change of place, alteration in aspect and form, temporal change, variation in the way a given being is perceived, the change in relationship between beings, qualitative and accidental alterations.This volume presents the results of the ESAP-HYELE conference on ""Aristotle, Physics 7.3: What is Alteration?"", which took place in Vitznau, Switzerland in 2007. The contributors are part of a team of Aristotelian scholars that first came together in 1995, and have since been meeting every spring. The purpose of their gatherings was to read and interpret line by line a short, but important chapter of Aristotle's works. In this way, attention was focused on key texts of particular exegetic and theoretical interest. Each session started with the presentation of a translation and a first analysis of the main problems; these then became the subject of an intense debate which illustrates the different schools of thought and methodological approaches.This volume sets out to provide the reader with new insights into Aristotle's: Physics 7.3.Trade ReviewThis book is a very useful tool for understanding Phys. VII.3 in several respects: first, because it focuses on a limited portion of text which focuses on aspects of textual exegesis and philosophy, and secondly because VII.3 currency in relation to other writings of Aristotle and thus it provides a 'global interpretation, and finally because we appreciate the effort that was made by the authors to compare their positions and hermeneutics to connect with each other, as well as the efforts of curators to harmonize the content of the whole book. The final outcome is certainly that of a volume indispensable for future studies on the subject"". - Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Aristotle’s Empiricism, Jean De Groot argues that an important part of Aristotle’s natural philosophy has remained largely unexplored. She shows that much of Aristotle’s analysis of natural movement is influenced by mathematical mechanics that emerged from late Pythagorean thought. De Groot draws upon the pseudo-Aristotelian Physical Problems XVI to reconstruct the context of mechanics of Aristotle’s time and to trace the development of kinematic thinking from Archytas to the Aristotelian Mechanics. She argues that the influence of kinematics on Aristotle pinpoints the original meaning of his concept of power, or potentiality, as a physicalistic meaning addressed to the problem of movement.De Groot identifies epistemic features of kinematics as a scientific enterprise, including economy of explanation and direct inference to a principle. She shows how these features are woven into Aristotle’s thinking in the motion books of the Physics, On the Heavens, and Movement of Animals. The book places in doubt both the view that Aristotle’s natural philosophy codifies opinions held by convention and, alternatively, the view that the cogency of his scientific ideas depends on metaphysics.Trade ReviewThis book presents an ‘other’ or alternative Aristotle to the caricature and straw man set up through the mistaken Baconian capitulation to Democratean ‘sense data’, a non-empirical ideology that distorts rather than enhances our radical, unavoidable, pre-philosophic experience of power and necessity. This is a revolutionary book that transforms our view of Aristotle and specifically our evaluation of his natural philosophy"". - Heythrop Journal

Read more less

Book SynopsisAll philosophy is a footnote to Plato. No other person so shaped the Western world and the way we think about it.Plato''s questions remain as real for us today as they were 2500 years ago, and as human beings, we can not avoid their presence nor shirk our responsibility to attempt to answer them:What is Justice?What is Truth?What is Beauty?What kind of society should we build?How do we know what we know?PLATO FOR BEGINNERS introduces the reader to Socrates, Plato''s mentor whose martyrdom led Plato to formulate a new system of knowledge based on reason. Socrates was found guilty and sentenced to death for refusing to recognize the gods of the State and for introducing other divinities. He was also found guilty of corrupting youth.PLATO FOR BEGINNERS also covers the history of Greece as well as the life and ideas of this great philosopher and his influence over time, from early Christianity to the 20th Century. The reader learns what he meant by Truth, Beauty, and the Good. Classical dialogues such as Symposium, Phaedo, The Apology and The Republic are all explored in the context of his time and our own.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less