The essays in this volume treat a wide variety of fundamental topics and problems in ancient Greek philosophy. The scope of the section on pre-Socratic thought ranges over the views which these thinkers have on such areas of concern as religion, natural philosophy and science, cosmic periods, the nature of elements, theory of names, the concept of plurality, and the philosophy of mind. The essays dealing with the Platonic dialogues examine with unusual care a great number of central themes and discuss them in considerable depth: problems in language and logic, myth, reason, hypothesis, eros, friendship, reason, morality, society, art, the nature of soul, and immortality. In addition, they offer fresh discussions on a number of basic morphological, methodological, and philological issues related to philosophical arguments and introduce new aspects for a critical reexamination of controversies surrounding the doctrines and the authenticity of certain Platonic works. The essays on the philosophy of Aristotle are closely reasoned analyses of such basic themes as the universality of the sensible, the nature of kinesis, the problem of future contingencies, the meaning of qualitative change, the doctrine of phantasia, the essence of intelligence, and the metaphysical foundations for the ethical life. The essays on post-Aristotelian developments in ancient philosophy offer challenging and well-documented discussions on topics in the history of ancient logic, categorical thought, the ethical doctrines of ancient Scepticism, epistemological issues in the physical theory of the Epicureans, and basic concepts in the metaphysics of the neo-platonists.

An anthology devoted to the intellectual developments that led up to the philosophy of Plato.

Papers presented to the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy since its beginnings in the 1950's.

Arnaldo Momigliano was one of the foremost classical historiographers of the twentieth century. This collection of twenty-one carefully selected essays is remarkable both in the depth of its scholarship and the breadth of its subjects. Moving with ease across the centuries, Momigliano supplements powerful readings of writers in the Greek, Jewish, and Roman traditions, such as Tacitus and Polybius, with writings that focus on later historians, such as Vico and Croce. Charmingly written and concise, these pieces range from review essays reprinted from the New York Review of Books to treatises on the nature of historical scholarship. Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography is a brilliant reminder of Momigliano’s profound knowledge of classical civilization and his gift for deftly handling prose. With a new Foreword by Anthony Grafton, this volume is essential reading for any student of classics or historiography.

The Plato who emerges from these essays is the seminal thinker, the profound philosopher, the master of dialectic who offers, together with his insights into reality and human values, a systematically developed set of powerful devices for the articulation and defence of his ideas. In each case the discussion unfolds not as advocacy of Platonic doctrines but as critical assessment of argument, and is meant as judicious explication of the logical form of significant theses often believed, during centuries of Platonic commentary, to be cornerstones of a monumental speculative system. It demonstrates a shared and strikingly high regard for Plato as a major thinker in the western philosophical tradition, a recognition that the dialogues he wrote continue to exert influence as well as attract theoretical attention. Taken together with the material on Plato in Volume II, Volume III displays a definite continuity in direction, scope, and quality, strengthening the conviction that Platonic scholarship has entered a new and different phase and has consolidated the approach that this new movement introduced.

Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy, Volume Two, reflects the refinements in scholarship and philosophical analysis that have impacted classical philosophy in recent years. It is a selection of the best papers presented at the annual meetings of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy during the last decade. The papers presented indicate a shift in accent from a predominant preference for the application of linguistic methods in the study of texts to a more intensified concern for contextual examinations of philosophical concepts. The works of both younger scholars and senior authors show a more liberal, yet controlled, use of historical and cultural elements in interpretation. The papers also reflect advances in scholarship in adjacent fields of Greek studies. From pre-Socratic to post-Aristotelian philosophers, the papers in this volume are intended to stimulate interest in the major accomplishments of classical philosophers. This work augments its companion volume Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy.

Papers presented to the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy since its beginnings in the 1950's.

Papers originally presented at the annual meetings of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy. Seventeen essays demonstrate a shared and strikingly high regard for Plato as a major thinker in the western philosophical tradition, a recognition that the dialogues he wrote continue to exert influence as well as attract theoretical attention. Paper edition ($18.95) not seen. The essays in this collection have been selected from a much larger set of papers on Aristotle's ethics, presented before the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy during the past decade. The essays are arranged (roughly) according to several unifying themes: methodology, ergon, virtue and character, moral reasoning, and persons and property. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Focusing primarily on Plato, Aristotle, and the Pyrrhonian skeptics, Fine discusses the following questions, among others: does Socrates, in the Apology, claim to know that he knows nothing? How do Plato and Aristotle conceive of doxa and epistêmê? Are doxa and epistêmê belief and knowledge as we conceive of them nowadays? Do Plato and Aristotle allow us to have doxa of everything about which we can have epistêmê? How does Plato conceive of perception in the Phaedo and in Theaetetus 184-6? How should we understand his theory of recollection in the Phaedo? Do the Pyrrhonian skeptics disavow all beliefs? Do they have a conception of purely subjective experience? Do they take anything to be subjective? Are they external world skeptics? How do their views of subjectivity and skepticism compare with Descartes'? Taken as a whole, the essays explain why ancient epistemology is instructive and illuminating for us today.

The second volume of Jonathan Barnes' papers on ancient philosophy contains twenty-seven pieces under the broad heading of Logic. The essays were written over a period of some forty years. Some of them were published in obscure places (and two or three of them in a foreign language). The French essays have been done into English; and all the essays have been retouched, and a few of them substantially revised. The first three essays in the volume are of a general nature, being concerned with ancient views on the status of logic--and with the distinction between formal and material inferences. The next nine items deal with different aspects of Aristotelian logic--the copula, negation, the categories, homonymy, and the principle of contradiction. Then come three papers about the connection (or lack of connection) between Aristotelian logic and Stoic logic. Two of the pieces discuss Theophrastus' theory of 'hypothetical' syllogisms. After that, things run more or less chronologically--a short notice on the Dialecticians, three essays on aspects of Stoic logic, a pair of papers on ancient theories of meaning, items on adverbs and connectors, on Philoponus and Boethius, and on an anonymous tract written in the autumn of 1007 AD. All in all, there is matter to divert scholars and students of ancient philosophy.