Ancient Philosophy A New History of Western Philosophy, Volume I

by Kenny, Anthony

• ISBN13: 9780198752721
• ISBN10: 0198752725
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Sir Anthony Kenny here tells the fascinating story of the birth of philosophy and its remarkable flourishing in the ancient Mediterranean world. This is the initial volume of a four-book set in which Kenny will unfold a magisterial new history of Western philosophy, the first major single-author history of philosophy to appear in decades. Ancient Philosophyspans over a thousand years and brings to life the great minds of the past, from Thales, Pythagoras, and Parmenides, to Socrates, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Augustine. The book's great virtue is that it is written by one of the world's leading authorities on the subject. Instead of an uncritical, straightforward recitation of known facts--Plato and his cave of shadows, Aristotle's ethics, Augustine's City of God--we see the major philosophers through the eyes of a man who has spent a lifetime contemplating their work. Thus we do not simply get an overview of Aristotle, for example, but a penetrating and insightful critique of his thought. Kenny offers an illuminating account of the various schools of thought, from the Pre-Socratics to the Epicureans. He examines the development of logic and reason, ancient ideas about physics ("how things happen"), metaphysics and ethics, and the earliest thinking about the soul and god. Vividly written, but serious and deep enough to offer a genuine understanding of the great philosophers, Kenny's lucid and stimulating history will become the definitive work for anyone interested in the people and ideas that shaped the course of Western thought.

Author Biography

Sir Anthony Kenny is one of Britain's most distinguished academic figures. He has been Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Master of Balliol College, Chairman of the Board of the British Library, and President of the British Academy. He has published more than forty books on philosophy and history.

Table of Contents

Map	p. x
Introduction	p. xi
Beginnings: From Pythagoras to Plato	p. 1
The Four Causes	p. 1
The Milesians	p. 4
The Pythagoreans	p. 9
Xenophanes	p. 11
Heraclitus	p. 12
Parmenides and the Eleatics	p. 17
Empedocles	p. 20
Anaxagoras	p. 24
The Atomists	p. 26
The Sophists	p. 28
Socrates	p. 32
The Socrates of Xenophon	p. 35
The Socrates of Plato	p. 37
Socrates' Own Philosophy	p. 41
From Socrates to Plato	p. 45
The Theory of Ideas	p. 49
Plato's Republic	p. 56
The Laws and the Timaeus	p. 60
Schools of Thought: From Aristotle to Augustine	p. 65
Aristotle in the Academy	p. 65
Aristotle the Biologist	p. 69
The Lyceum and its Curriculum	p. 73
Aristotle on Rhetoric and Poetry	p. 75
Aristotle's Ethical Treatises	p. 79
Aristotle's Political Theory	p. 82
Aristotle's Cosmology	p. 87
The Legacy of Aristotle and Plato	p. 89
Aristotle's School	p. 91
Epicurus	p. 94
Stoicism	p. 96
Scepticism in the Academy	p. 100
Lucretius	p. 101
Cicero	p. 103
Judaism and Christianity	p. 104
The Imperial Stoa	p. 106
Early Christian Philosophy	p. 109
The Revival of Platonism and Aristotelianism	p. 111
Plotinus and Augustine	p. 112
How to Argue: Logic	p. 116
Aristotle's Syllogistic	p. 117
The de Interpretatione and the Categories	p. 123
Aristotle on Time and Modality	p. 129
Stoic Logic	p. 136
Knowledge and its Limits: Epistemology	p. 145
Presocratic Epistemology	p. 145
Socrates, Knowledge, and Ignorance	p. 148
Knowledge in the Theaetetus	p. 152
Knowledge and Ideas	p. 156
Aristotle on Science and Illusion	p. 161
Epicurean Epistemology	p. 166
Stoic Epistemology	p. 169
Academic Scepticism	p. 173
Pyrrhonian Scepticism	p. 175
How Things Happen: Physics	p. 178
The Continuum	p. 178
Aristotle on Place	p. 182
Aristotle on Motion	p. 184
Aristotle on Time	p. 186
Aristotle on Causation and Change	p. 189
The Stoics on Causality	p. 192
Causation and Determinism	p. 194
Determinism and Freedom	p. 196
What There Is: Metaphysics	p. 199
Parmenides' Ontology	p. 200
Plato's Ideas and their Troubles	p. 205
Aristotelian Forms	p. 216
Essence and Quiddity	p. 218
Being and Existence	p. 223
Soul and Mind	p. 229
Pythagoras' Metempsychosis	p. 229
Perception and Thought	p. 232
Immortality in Plato's Phaedo	p. 234
The Anatomy of the Soul	p. 237
Plato on Sense-Perception	p. 240
Aristotle's Philosophical Psychology	p. 241
Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind	p. 248
Will, Mind, and Soul in Late Antiquity	p. 251
How to Live: Ethics	p. 257
Democritus the Moralist	p. 257
Socrates on Virtue	p. 260
Plato on Justice and Pleasure	p. 264
Aristotle on Eudaimonia	p. 266
Aristotle on Moral and Intellectual Virtue	p. 269
Pleasure and Happiness	p. 274
The Hedonism of Epicurus	p. 277
Stoic Ethics	p. 280
God	p. 289
Xenophanes' Natural Theology	p. 289
Socrates and Plato on Piety	p. 290
Plato's Evolving Theology	p. 293
Aristotle's Unmoved Movers	p. 296
The Gods of Epicurus and the Stoics	p. 302
On Divination and Astrology	p. 308
The Trinity of Plotinus	p. 311
Chronology	p. 317
List of Abbreviations and Conventions	p. 319
Bibliography	p. 323
List of Illustrations	p. 331
Index	p. 335
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