Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Argument in ancient philosophy
- 2 The Presocratics
- 3 The Sophists and Socrates
- 4 Plato
- 5 Aristotle
- 6 Hellenistic philosophy
- 7 Roman philosophy
- 8 Philosophy and literature
- 9 Late ancient philosophy
- 10 Philosophy and science
- 11 Philosophy and religion
- 12 The legacy of ancient philosophy
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Argument in ancient philosophy
- 2 The Presocratics
- 3 The Sophists and Socrates
- 4 Plato
- 5 Aristotle
- 6 Hellenistic philosophy
- 7 Roman philosophy
- 8 Philosophy and literature
- 9 Late ancient philosophy
- 10 Philosophy and science
- 11 Philosophy and religion
- 12 The legacy of ancient philosophy
- Bibliography
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
Compare the following two questions, both of which greatly exercised ancient Greek and Roman thinkers:
1 What is a good human life?
2 Why isn't the earth falling?
They appear about as different as any two questions could be. The first is one that most of us continue to consider important today. The second is not a question we are likely even to think worth asking: however little physics we know, we know enough to realize that the question itself rests on false suppositions.
Despite this and other contrasts, those who manage to get inside the subject – Greek and Roman philosophy – to which this book aims to provide an entry route should find that the two questions come to exercise an equal fascination. They may even find that the two of them have more in common than at first appears, as I shall suggest below.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003