Post-Hellenistic Philosophy: A Study In Its Development From The Stoics To Origen Hardcover

G.R. Boys-Stones

This book traces, for the first time, a revolution in philosophy which took place during the early centuries of our era. It reconstructs the philosophical basis of the Stoics' theory that fragments of an ancient and divine wisdom could be reconstructed from mythological traditions, and shows that Platonism was founded on an argument that Plato had himself achieved a full reconstruction of this wisdom, and that subsequent philosophies had only regressed once again in their attempts to 'improve' on his achievement. The significance of this development is highlighted through parallel studies of the Hellenistic debate over the status of Jewish culture; and of the philosophical beginnings of Christianity, where the notions of 'orthodoxy' and 'heresy' in particular are shown to be tools in the construction of a unified history of Christian philosophy stretching back to primitive antiquity.

9780198152644

English

Oxford University Press

1 June 2001

252

Lecturer in Classics at the University of Durham.

Boys-Stones paints a far more exciting picture of the period than anyone else in this highly interesting and at times controversial book. * Hermathena * ... a relatively short but important book. * The Philosophical Review * Post-Hellenistic Philosophy has much to offer students of ancient philosophy and intellectual history, and offers interesting and for the most part plausible ideas about the ways in which a new Platonic philosophy came into existence. * Ancient Philosophy *