Classical Philosophy

Readership: Anyone interested in philosophy, the history of ideas, or the ancient Greek world

Classical Philosophy is a comprehensive examination of early philosophy from the presocratics through to Aristotle. The aim of the book is to provide an explanation and analysis of the ideas that flourished at this time and considers their relevance both to the historical development of philosophy and to contemporary philosophy today. From these ideas we can see the roots of arguments in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and political philosophy. The book is arranged in four parts by thinker and covers: The Presocratics Socrates Plato Aristotle Christopher Shields' style is inviting, refreshing and ideal for anyone coming to the subject for the first time. He provides a balanced account of the central topics and ideas that emerged from the period and includes helpful further reading and chapter overviews.

A companion for visitors to Greece and Rome, and for armchair travelers as well. John Gaskin unfolds the thinking about nature, life, death, and other worlds that informed the culture and society of the classical world—still visible in today’s cityscapes and archaeological sites—and draws out its relevance and interest for the modern reader. It was the Greeks who first asked and discussed in a rational way two fundamental questions that never cease to concern thinking human beings: what is the nature of the universe, and what can I make of my brief time in it? Their answers, developed between the eighth century BC and the fourth century AD, are still relevant to the modern reader and traveler. The author associates each philosopher and his ideas with a particular tourist destination, and a gazetteer describes the sites and notes the people and ideas connected with them.

The Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy is a reference work on the philosophy of Greek and Roman antiquity. It includes subjects and figures from the dawn of philosophy in Ionia in the 6th century BC to the demise of the Academy in Athens in the 6th century AD. Scholarly study of the texts and philosophical thought of this period has been, during the last half of the 20th century, amazingly productive and has become increasingly sophisticated. The 269 articles in the encyclopedia reflect this development. While the majority of the articles are devoted to individual figures, many of the articles are thematic surveys of broad areas such as epistemology, ethics, and political thought. Some articles focus on particular concepts that evoked significant philosophical treatment by the ancients, and have proved central to later thought. Other articles treat fields that are no longer considered part of philosophy proper, such as mathematics and science. There are articles examining areas of intellectual or cultural endeavour, such as poetry or rhetoric, or genres of philosophical expression, such as dialogue and diatribe. Still others describe the historical developments of philosophical schools and traditions. The encyclopedia includes a chronology and guide to further reading. Best Reference Source

Hadot shows how the schools, trends, and ideas of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy strove to transform the individual's mode of perceiving and being in the world. For the ancients, philosophical theory and the philosophical way of life were inseparably linked. Hadot asks us to consider whether and how this connection might be reestablished today.

This Oxford Reader seeks to introduce some of the main philosophical questions raised by the Greek and Roman philosophers of classical antiquity. Selections from the writings of ancient philosophers are interspersed with Terence Irwin's incisive commentary, and sometimes with contributions from modern philosophers expounding relevant philosophical positions or discussing particular aspects of classical philosophy. The arrangement of the book is thematic, rather than chronological, allowing the reader to focus on philosophical problems and ideas, but a general introduction places philosophers and schools within their historical context. Irwin brings together contributions which shaped debates about knowledge, freedom, ethics, politics, and religious belief - debates which continue to be contested today, 2500 years from their conception.

In recent decades, scholars have come to recognize the importance of classical Islamic philosophy both in its own right and in its preservation of and engagement with Western philosophical ideas. At the same time, the period immediately following the so-called classical period has often beenseen as a sort of dark age, in which Islamic thought entered a long period of decline. In this monumental new work, Frank Griffel seeks to overturn this conventional wisdom, arguing that what he calls the "post-classical" period has been unjustly maligned and neglected by previous generations ofscholars.The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam is a comprehensive study of the far-reaching changes that led to a re-shaping of the philosophical discourse in Islam during the twelfth century. Earlier Western scholars thought that Islam's engagement with the tradition of Greek philosophy endedduring that century. More recent analyses suggest that Islamic thinkers instead integrated Greek thought into the genre of rationalist Muslim theology (kalam). Griffel argues that even this view misses a key point. In addition to the integration of Greek ideas into kalam, Muslim theologians pickedup the discourse of philosophy in Islam (falsafa) and began to produce books on philosophy. Books in these two genres, kalam and philosophy, argue for opposing teachings on the nature of God, the world's creation, and on the afterlife - even when written by the same authors. Griffel explains theemergence of a new genre of philosophical books called "hikma," works that stand opposed to Islamic theology and at the same wish to complement it. Offering a detailed history of philosophy in Iraq, Iran, and Central Asia during the twelfth century, together with an analysis of the way philosophywas practiced during this time, Griffel shows how works of falsafa, written by major Muslim theologians such as al-Ghazali developed step-by-step into critical assessments of philosophy that try to improve philosophical teachings, and eventually become fully fledged philosophical summas in the workof Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. Griffel's examination of the different methods of kalam and hikma demonstrate both the coherence and ambiguity of a Muslim post-classical philosopher's oeuvre.A work of extraordinary breadth and depth, The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Philosophy or the history of Islam.

Peter Adamson offers an accessible, humorous tour through a period of eight hundred years when some of the most influential of all schools of thought were formed: from the third century BC to the sixth century AD. He introduces us to Cynics and Skeptics, Epicureans and Stoics, emperors and slaves, and traces the development of Christian and Jewish philosophy and of ancient science. Chapters are devoted to such major figures as Epicurus, Lucretius, Cicero, Seneca, Plotinus, and Augustine. But in keeping with the motto of the series, the story is told 'without any gaps,' providing an in-depth look at less familiar topics that remains suitable for the general reader. For instance, there are chapters on the fascinating but relatively obscure Cyrenaic philosophical school, on pagan philosophical figures like Porphyry and Iamblichus, and extensive coverage of the Greek and Latin Christian Fathers who are at best peripheral in most surveys of ancient philosophy. A major theme of the book is in fact the competition between pagan and Christian philosophy in this period, and the Jewish tradition also appears in the shape of Philo of Alexandria. Ancient science is also considered, with chapters on ancient medicine and the interaction between philosophy and astronomy. Considerable attention is paid also to the wider historical context, for instance by looking at the ascetic movement in Christianity and how it drew on ideas from Hellenic philosophy. From the counter-cultural witticisms of Diogenes the Cynic to the subtle skepticism of Sextus Empiricus, from the irreverent atheism of the Epicureans to the ambitious metaphysical speculation of Neoplatonism, from the ethical teachings of Marcus Aurelius to the political philosophy of Augustine, the book gathers together all aspects of later ancient thought in an accessible and entertaining way.