Platos Natural Philosophy

Author : Thomas Kjeller Johansen
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107320119
Total Pages : 229 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plato's Natural Philosophy written by Thomas Kjeller Johansen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-07-01 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plato's dialogue the Timaeus-Critias presents two connected accounts, that of the story of Atlantis and its defeat by ancient Athens and that of the creation of the cosmos by a divine craftsman. This book offers a unified reading of the dialogue. It tackles a wide range of interpretative and philosophical issues. Topics discussed include the function of the famous Atlantis story, the notion of cosmology as 'myth' and as 'likely', and the role of God in Platonic cosmology. Other areas commented upon are Plato's concepts of 'necessity' and 'teleology', the nature of the 'receptacle', the relationship between the soul and the body, the use of perception in cosmology, and the work's peculiar monologue form. The unifying theme is teleology: Plato's attempt to show the cosmos to be organised for the good. A central lesson which emerges is that the Timaeus is closer to Aristotle's physics than previously thought.

Author : Julia Annas
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 019157922X
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plato: A Very Short Introduction written by Julia Annas and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003-02-13 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lively and accessible introduction to Plato focuses on the philosophy and argument of his writings, drawing the reader into Plato's way of doing philosophy, and the general themes of his thinking. This is not a book to leave the reader standing in the outer court of introduction and background information, but leads directly into Plato's argument. It looks at Plato as a thinker grappling with philosophical problems in a variety of ways, rather than a philosopher with a fully worked-out system. It includes a brief account of Plato's life and the various interpretations that have been drawn from the sparse remains of information. It stresses the importance of the founding of the Academy and the conception of philosophy as a subject. Julia Annas discusses Plato's style of writing: his use of the dialogue form, his use of what we today call fiction, and his philosophical transformation of myths. She also looks at his discussions of love and philosophy, his attitude to women, and to homosexual love, explores Plato's claim that virtue is sufficient for happiness, and touches on his arguments for the immortality of the soul and his ideas about the nature of the universe. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author : Sarah Broadie
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139503448
Total Pages : 317 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Nature and Divinity in Plato's Timaeus written by Sarah Broadie and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-11-10 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plato's Timaeus is one of the most influential and challenging works of ancient philosophy to have come down to us. Sarah Broadie's rich and compelling study proposes new interpretations of major elements of the Timaeus, including the separate Demiurge, the cosmic 'beginning', the 'second mixing', the Receptacle and the Atlantis story. Broadie shows how Plato deploys the mythic themes of the Timaeus to convey fundamental philosophical insights and examines the profoundly differing methods of interpretation which have been brought to bear on the work. Her book is for everyone interested in Ancient Greek philosophy, cosmology and mythology, whether classicists, philosophers, historians of ideas or historians of science. It offers new findings to scholars familiar with the material, but it is also a clear and reliable resource for anyone coming to it for the first time.

Author : T. K. Johansen
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780521790673
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plato's Natural Philosophy written by T. K. Johansen and published by . This book was released on 2004-07-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the unifying teleological theme in Plato's dialogue the Timaeus-Critias.

Author : Marije Martijn
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004193251
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Proclus on Nature written by Marije Martijn and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-03-22 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study presents a revision of Proclus’ natural philosophy, starting from the Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus. It provides new insight into Proclus' metaphysics of nature, his surprisingly peripatetic philosophy of science, the role of mathematics, and the nature of discourse.

Author : Andrew Gregory
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 147250237X
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plato's Philosophy of Science written by Andrew Gregory and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-03-02 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this illuminating book Andrew Gregory takes an original approach to Plato's philosophy of science by reassessing Plato's views on how we might investigate and explain the natural world. He demonstrates that many of the common charges against Plato - disinterest, ignorance, dismissal of observation - are unfounded, and shows instead that Plato had a series of important and cogent criticisms to make of the early atomists and other physiologoi. Plato's views on science, and on astronomy and cosmology in particular, are shown to have developed in interesting ways. Thus, the book argues, Plato can best be seen as a philosopher struggling with the foundations of scientific realism, and as someone, moreover, who has interesting epistemological, cosmological and nomological reasons for his approach. Plato's Philosophy of Science is important reading for all those with an interest in Ancient Philosophy and the History of Science.

Author : Plato
Publisher : 1st World Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1421892944
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Timaeus and Critias written by Plato and published by 1st World Publishing. This book was released on 1929 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : John Wild
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Plato's Modern Enemies and the Theory of Natural Law written by John Wild and published by . This book was released on 1953 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Jean W. Rioux
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1725241463
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Nature, the Soul, and God written by Jean W. Rioux and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2004-04-14 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complete title of one of the most famous works ever written, Isaac Newton's Principia, was actually Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy". Sadly, many contemporary philosophers would be hard-pressed to say just what natural philosophy (or philosophy of nature) is all about. Without question, the philosophy of nature has received relatively less attention than ethics and metaphysics for some time. In "Nature, the Soul, and God," Jean W. Rioux has brought together a number of important readings in natural philosophy, from the Pre-Socratic philosophers and Aristotle to the 19th-century entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre. Collectively, they present three ways in which one might conceive of the natural world in a pre-scientific reflection upon the way things are: either the classical materialism of Empedocles, Democritus, and Epicurus, the formalism of Plato, or the hylomorphic view espoused and defended by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. In the sections following the consideration of nature are selections from these representative views concerning the immortality of the soul and the existence of God. Through the medium of philosophers both ancient and modern, Rioux makes the point that one's philosophical account of the natural world will have an impact upon how one regards human nature, as well as divinity itself. It all begins with nature.

Author : Ann Ward
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739135708
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Matter and Form written by Ann Ward and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2009-10-29 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Matter and Form explores the relationship that has long existed between natural science and political philosophy. Plato's Socrates articulates the Ideas or Forms as an account of the ultimate source of causality in the cosmos. Aristotle's natural philosophy had a significant impact on his political philosophy: he argues that humans are by nature political animals, having their natural end in the city whose regime is hierarchically structured based on differences in moral and intellectual capacity. Medieval theorists attempt to synthesize classical natural and political philosophy with the revealed truths of scripture; they argue that divine reason structures an ordered universe, the awareness of which allows for psychic and political harmony among human beings. Enlightenment thinkers challenge the natural philosophy of classical and medieval philosophers, ushering in a more liberal political order. For example, for Hobbes, there is no rest in nature as there are no Aristotelian forms or natural places that govern matter. Hobbes applies his mechanistic understanding of material nature to his understanding of human nature: individuals are by nature locked in an endless pursuit of power until death. However, from this mechanistic understanding of humanity's natural condition, Hobbes develops a social contract theory in which civil and political society is constituted from consent. Later thinkers, such as Locke and Rousseau, modify this Hobbesian premise in their pursuit of the protection of rights and a free society. Nevertheless, materialist conceptions of the cosmos have not always given rise to liberal democratic philosophies. Historicist influence on scientific inquiry in the nineteenth century is connected to Darwin's theory of evolution; Darwin reasoned that over time the process of natural selection produces ever newer and more highly adapted species. Reflecting a form of social Darwinism, Nietzsche envisions an aristocratic order that draws its inspiration from art rather than the rationalism embodied in the history of natural and political philosophy. Matter and Form's interdisciplinary approach, by international scholars in philosophy and political science, suits it for researchers, teachers and students of these fields.