Studies In Early Greek Philosophy

Jaap Mansfeld’s Studies in Early Greek Philosophy span the period from Anaximander to Socrates. General issues and particular problems of interpretation are tackled by a scrutiny of the sources, and of traditions of reception both ancient and modern.

A 1999 Companion to Greek philosophy, invaluable for new readers, and for specialists.

Allegory in Early Greek Philosophy examines the role that allegory plays in Greek thought, particularly in the transition from the mythic tradition of the archaic poets to the philosophical traditions of the Presocratics and Plato. It explores how a mode of speech that "says one thing, but means another" is integral to philosophy, which otherwise seeks to achieve clarity and precision in its discourse. By providing the early Greek thinkers with a way of defending and appropriating the poetic wisdom of their predecessors, allegory enables philosophy to locate and recover its own origins in the mythic tradition. Allegory allows philosophy simultaneously to move beyond mythos and express the whole in terms of logos, a rational account in which reality is represented in a more abstract and universal way than myth allows.

This two-part volume collects the complete fragments and most important testimonies for the leading presocratic philosophers. The Greek and Latin texts are translated on facing pages and accompanied by a brief commentary for each philosopher.

Diese Sammlung bereits veröffentlichter Aufsätze – von denen einige erweitert und überarbeitet wurden – bietet eine nachhaltige Analyse der konzeptuellen Verbindungen zwischen der Metaphysik und Erkenntnistheorie des Parmenides und entsprechenden Motiven in den Philosophien anderer Vorsokratiker. Der zentrale Teil des Buches untersucht, wie die frühen Philosophen Griechenlands nach und nach für die Bedeutung von Begriffen wie "Form", "Typ", "Struktur", "Anordnung" sensibilisiert wurden. Diese Entwicklung hat sich vor allem deshalb vollzogen, weil derartige Konzepte, die Pluralität und Differenzierung importieren, für Parmenides von Natur aus problematisch sind. Der zentrale Teil des Buches kann daher als Bericht über die "Entdeckung der Form" in der frühen griechischen Philosophie gelesen werden

Becoming god was an ideal of many ancient Greek philosophers, as was the life of reason, which they equated with divinity. This book argues that their rival accounts of this equation depended on their divergent attitudes toward time. Affirming it, Heraclitus developed a paradoxical style of reasoningGÇö chiasmus GÇöthat was the activity of his becoming god. Denying it as contradictory, Parmenides sought to purify thinking of all contradiction, offering eternity to those who would follow him. Plato did, fusing this pure style of reasoningGÇöconsistencyGÇöwith a Pythagorean program of purificati.

Gregory Vlastos (1907-1991) was one of the twentieth century's most influential scholars of ancient philosophy. Over a span of more than fifty years, he published essays and book reviews that established his place as a leading authority on early Greek philosophy. The two volumes that comprise Studies in Greek Philosophy include nearly forty contributions by this acknowledged master of the philosophical essay. Many of these pieces are now considered to be classics in the field. Perhaps more than any other modern scholar, Gregory Vlastos was responsible for raising standards of research, analysis, and exposition in classical philosophy to new levels of excellence. His essays have served as paradigms of scholarship for several generations. Available for the first time in a comprehensive collection, these contributions reveal the author's ability to combine the skills of a philosopher, philologist, and historian of ideas in addressing some of the most difficult problems of ancient philosophy. Volume I collects Vlastos's essays on Presocratic philosophy. Wide-ranging concept studies link Greek science, religion, and politics with philosophy. Individual studies illuminate the thought of major philosophers such as Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, and Democritus. A magisterial series of studies on Zeno of Elea reveals the author's power in source criticism and logical analysis. Volume II contains essays on the thought of Socrates, Plato, and later thinkers and essays dealing with ethical, social, and political issues as well as metaphysics, science, and the foundations of mathematics.