The Blackwell guide to Ancient Philosophy

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The Blackwell Guide to
Ancient Philosophy

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The Blackwell Guide to
Ancient Philosophy
Edited by
Christopher Shields

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Contents
Notes on Contributors
vii
Editor’s Introduction
ix
Part I
Philosophy before Socrates: Introduction
1
1 Presocratic Philosophy
5
Richard McKirahan
2 The Sophists
27
John Gibert
Part II
Socrates: Introduction
51
3 Socrates
55
Thomas C. Brickhouse and Nicholas D. Smith
Part III
Plato: Introduction
71
4 Plato: Metaphysics
75
Daniel Devereux
5 Plato: Epistemology
100
Nicholas White
6 Plato: Ethics
118
Gerasimos Santas
7 Plato: Psychology
130
Allan Silverman
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Contents
Part IV
Aristotle: Introduction
145
8 Aristotle: Epistemology and Methodology
151
Robert Bolton
9 Aristotle: Metaphysics
163
Michael Loux
10 Aristotle: Ethics and Politics
184
Fred D. Miller, Jr.
11 Aristotle: Psychology
211
Gareth Matthews
Part V
Hellenistic Philosophy: Introduction
229
12 Epicureanism
237
David Konstan
13 Stoicism
253
Phillip Mitsis
14 Academics and Pyrrhonists
268
R. J. Hankinson
Part VI
Late Antique Philosophy: Introduction
301
15 Neoplatonism
303
Lloyd P. Gerson
Bibliography
324
Index
329
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Notes on Contributors
Robert Bolton is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and author of
numerous articles on Aristotle and other ancient authors. His most recent work
explores the topic of Aristotle on the varieties of human understanding.
Thomas C. Brickhouse is Professor of Philosophy at Lynchburg College. He is the
co-author (with Nicholas D. Smith) of the following: Socrates on Trial (Princeton
and Oxford), Plato’s Socrates (Oxford), The Philosophy of Socrates (Westview). He is
also co-editor (with Nicholas D. Smith) of The Trial and Execution of Socrates: Issues
and Controversies (Oxford).
Daniel Devereux is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. He is the
author of many articles on Plato and Aristotle.
Lloyd P. Gerson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He is the
author of many articles and books in Ancient Philosophy, including: God and Greek
Philosophy (Routledge), Plotinus (Routledge), and Knowing Persons: A Study in Plato
(Clarendon).
John Gibert is Associate Professor of Classics, University of Colorado at Boulder.
He is the author of Change of Mind in Greek Tragedy (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht),
Euripides: Ion (Cambridge), and (with C. Collard and M. J. Cropp) Euripides:
Selected Fragmentary Plays II (Aris & Phillips).
R. J. Hankinson is Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin. He is
the author of many articles and books in Ancient Philosophy, including: Cause and
Explanation in Ancient Greek Thought (Oxford) and The Sceptics (Routledge).
David Konstan is the John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics
and the Humanistic Tradition and Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown
University. His many books include: Some Aspects of Epicurean Psychology (Brill),
Greek Comedy and Ideology (Oxford), Friendship in the Classical World (Cambridge),
and Pity Transformed (Duckworth).
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Notes on Contributors
Michael Loux is George Schuster Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre
Dame. He is the author of Substance and Attribute (Reidel), Primary Ousia (Cornell),
and Metaphysics (Routledge).
Gareth Matthews is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst. In addition to many articles in Ancient Philosophy, he is the author of
Socratic Perplexity and the Nature of Philosophy (Oxford) and the editor of Augustine,
On the Trinity (Cambridge).
Richard McKirahan is Edwin Clarence Norton Professor of Classics and Professor
of Philosophy at Pomona College. He is the author of Principles and Proofs: Aristotle’s
Theory of Demonstrative Science and Philosophy Before Socrates (Hackett).
Fred D. Miller, Jr. is Professor of Philosophy and Executive Director of the Social
Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University. He has written
many articles in Ancient Philosophy and is the author of Nature, Justice and Rights
in Aristotle’s Politics (Oxford).
Phillip Mitsis is A. S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization at New
York University. He is author of The Pleasures of Invulnerability: Epicurus’ Ethical
Theory (Cornell).
Gerasimos Santas is Professor of Philosophy, University of California at Irvine. He
has written on a wide range of topics in Ancient Philosophy. His books include:
Socrates: Philosophy in Plato’s Early Dialogues (Routledge), Plato and Freud: Two
Theories of Love (Blackwell), and Theories of Good: Plato, Aristotle, and the Moderns
(Blackwell).
Christopher Shields is Professor of Philosophy and Classics, University of Colorado
at Boulder. He is the author of Order in Multiplicity: Homonymy in the Philosophy of
Aristotle (Oxford), Aristotle’s De Anima: Translation and Commentary (Oxford),
Classical Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge), and (with Robert
Pasnau) The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas (Westview).
Allan Silverman is Professor of Philosophy at the Ohio State University. He is the
author of The Dialectic of Essence: A Study of Plato’s Metaphysics (Princeton).
Nicholas D. Smith is James F. Miller Professor of Humanities at Lewis & Clark
College. He is co-author (with Thomas C. Brickhouse) of Socrates on Trial (Princeton
and Oxford), Plato’s Socrates (Oxford), The Philosophy of Socrates (Westview), and
Plato and the Trial of Socrates (Routledge). He has also co-edited (with Thomas C.
Brickhouse) The Trial and Execution of Socrates: Issues and Controversies (Oxford)
and (with Paul Woodruff ) Reason and Religion in Socratic Philosophy (Oxford).
Nicholas White is Professor of Philosophy, University of California at Irvine. He is
the author of Plato on Knowledge and Reality (Hackett), and Individual and Conflict
in Greek Ethics (Oxford).
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