Method In Ancient Philosophy Paperback

Gentzler, Jyl

Method in Ancient Philosophy brings together fifteen new, specially written essays by leading scholars on a broad subject of central importance. It is characteristic of human beings that they direct their activities by reasoning, but methods of reasoning, even towards the same ends, vary. Self-conscious reflection on the methods of reasoning marks the beginning of philosophy in the West; and the views of the ancient Greeks have had considerable influence upon our own assumptions about the demarcations between different kinds of enquiry and the sorts of methods that are appropriate for them. For this reason, examination of how the ancients reasoned, and how they thought about methods of reasoning, helps us to see how they came to hold the views they did, and how we have come to think as we do. Most of the essays focus on Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, but earlier and later ancient philosophy is brought into the picture by essays on Eleatic and Epicurean thought.

9780199244980

English

Oxford University Press

30 August 2001

408

Jyl Gentzler is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Amherst College, Massachusetts.

Jyl Gentzler

The papers collected in Method in Ancient Philosophy are generally of high quality and the book as a whole has something to offer for almost any student of ancient philosophy. * Keimpe Algra, Phronesis, XLIV/ 2, 1999. *