'Boys-Stones handles with painstaking precision and philosophical acumen an incredible amount of complex and controversial issues, without ever losing sight of the project as a whole. The result is an exciting and novel book.' Sara Magrin, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

'Middle' Platonism has some claim to be the single most influential philosophical movement of the last two thousand years, as the common background to 'Neoplatonism' and the early development of Christian theology. This book breaks with the tradition of considering it primarily in terms of its sources, instead putting its contemporary philosophical engagements front and centre to reconstruct its philosophical motivations and activity across the full range of its interests. The volume explores the ideas at the heart of Platonist philosophy in this period and includes a comprehensive selection of primary sources, a significant number of which appear in English translation for the first time, along with dedicated guides to the questions that have been, and might be, asked about the movement. The result is a tool intended to help bring the study of Middle Platonism into mainstream discussions of ancient philosophy.
Les mer
Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction: studying middle platonism; 1. Plato's authority and the history of philosophy; 2. Making sense of the dialogues; Part I. Cosmology: 3. Causal principles for a non-materialist cosmology; 4. The debate over matter and the problem of evil; 5. Paradigm-forms; 6. The creator god; 7. Theories of creation; 8. World soul and nature; 9. Individual souls and their faculties; 10. Living beings: gods, daimons, humans, animals, plants; 11. Providence; 12. Fate; Part II. Dialectic: 13. Epistemology; 14. Logic; 15. Aristotle's Categories: ontology and linguistics; 16. The hierarchy of sciences; Part III. Ethics: 17. The goal of virtue and the ideal life; 18. Ethical virtue and the management of the passions; 19. Politics; 20. The system of the Chaldaean Oracles; Glossary; References; Catalogue of platonists; Index of sources and references; Index to notes and further reading.
Les mer
The first comprehensive guide in English to 'Middle' Platonism, based on a wealth of source-texts in English translation.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780521838580
Publisert
2017-12-21
Utgiver
Vendor
Cambridge University Press
Vekt
1170 gr
Høyde
235 mm
Bredde
160 mm
Dybde
33 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
662

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

George Boys-Stones is Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Durham University and has published widely on Middle Platonism among other topics. He is co-editor of The Platonic Art of Philosophy (Cambridge, 2013) and author of Post-Hellenistic Philosophy (2001), which laid the groundwork for this volume.