The Presocratics and the Supernatural

The Presocratics and the Supernatural PDF Author: Andrew Gregory
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 147250416X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
This book examines the relationship between magic, philosophy and the investigation of nature in presocratic Greece. Did the presocratic thinkers, often praised for their rejection of the supernatural, still believe in gods and the divine and the efficacy of magical practices? Did they use animism, astrology, numerology and mysticism in their explanations of the world? This book analyses the evidence in detail and argues that we need to look at each of these beliefs in context.

The Presocratics and the Supernatural

The Presocratics and the Supernatural PDF Author: Andrew Gregory
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 147250416X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
This book examines the relationship between magic, philosophy and the investigation of nature in presocratic Greece. Did the presocratic thinkers, often praised for their rejection of the supernatural, still believe in gods and the divine and the efficacy of magical practices? Did they use animism, astrology, numerology and mysticism in their explanations of the world? This book analyses the evidence in detail and argues that we need to look at each of these beliefs in context.

The Presocratics and the Supernatural

The Presocratics and the Supernatural PDF Author: Andrew Gregory
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781472555847
Category : Philosophy, Ancient
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description


The Concept of Presocratic Philosophy

The Concept of Presocratic Philosophy PDF Author: André Laks
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691191484
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
When we talk about Presocratic philosophy, we are speaking about the origins of Greek philosophy and Western rationality itself. But what exactly does it mean to talk about “Presocratic philosophy” in the first place? How did early Greek thinkers come to be considered collectively as Presocratic philosophers? In this brief book, André Laks provides a history of the influential idea of Presocratic philosophy, tracing its historical and philosophical significance and consequences, from its ancient antecedents to its full crystallization in the modern period and its continuing effects today. Laks examines ancient Greek and Roman views about the birth of philosophy before turning to the eighteenth-century emergence of the term “Presocratics” and the debates about it that spanned the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He analyzes the intellectual circumstances that led to the idea of Presocratic philosophy—and what was and is at stake in the construction of the notion. The book closes by comparing two models of the history of philosophy—the phenomenological, represented by Hans-Georg Gadamer, and the rationalist, represented by Ernst Cassirer—and their implications for Presocratic philosophy, as well as other categories of philosophical history. Other figures discussed include Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Diogenes Laertius, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Nietzsche, Max Weber, and J.-P. Vernant. Challenging standard histories of Presocratic philosophy, the book calls for a reconsideration of the conventional story of early Greek philosophy and Western rationality.

Classical Thought

Classical Thought PDF Author: Terence Irwin
Publisher:
ISBN: 0192891774
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Spanning over a thousand years from Homer to Saint Augustine, Classical Thought encompasses a vast range of material in succinct style, while remaining clear and lucid even to those with no philosophical or Classical background The major philosophers and philosophical schools are examined---the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Neoplatonism; but other important thinkers, such as Greek tragedians, historians, medical writers, and early Christian writers, are also discussed. The emphasis is naturally on questions of philosophical interest (although the literary and historical background to Classical philosophy is not ignored), and again the scope is broad---ethics, the theory of knowledge, philosophy of mind, philosophical theology. All this is presented in a fully integrated, highly readable text which covers may of the most important areas of ancient thought and in which stress is laid on the variety and continuity of philosophical thinking after Aristotle.

Myth and Philosophy from the Presocratics to Plato

Myth and Philosophy from the Presocratics to Plato PDF Author: Kathryn A. Morgan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139427520
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
This book explores the dynamic relationship between myth and philosophy in the Presocratics, the Sophists, and in Plato - a relationship which is found to be more extensive and programmatic than has been recognized. The story of philosophy's relationship with myth is that of its relationship with literary and social convention. The intellectuals studied here wanted to reformulate popular ideas about cultural authority and they achieved this goal by manipulating myth. Their self-conscious use of myth creates a self-reflective philosophic sensibility and draws attention to problems inherent in different modes of linguistic representation. Much of the reception of Greek philosophy stigmatizes myth as 'irrational'. Such an approach ignores the important role played by myth in Greek philosophy, not just as a foil but as a mode of philosophical thought. The case studies in this book reveal myth deployed as a result of methodological reflection, and as a manifestation of philosophical concerns.

The Anatomy of Myth

The Anatomy of Myth PDF Author: Michael W. Herren
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019060669X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
The Anatomy of Myth is a comprehensive study of the methods of interpreting authoritative myths from the Presocratic philosophers to the Neoplatonists and their adoption by the Church Fathers.

Brill's Companion to the Reception of Presocratic Natural Philosophy in Later Classical Thought

Brill's Companion to the Reception of Presocratic Natural Philosophy in Later Classical Thought PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004443355
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
Brill's Companion to the Reception of Presocratic Natural Philosophy in Later Classical Thought explores both explicit and hidden influences of Presocratic (6-4th c. BCE) early scientific concepts, such as nature, elements, principles, soul, organization, causation, purpose, and cosmos in Platonic, Aristotelian, and Hippocratic philosophy

The Presocratic Philosophers

The Presocratic Philosophers PDF Author: Jonathan Barnes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134965133
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
The Presocratics were the founding fathers of the Western philosophical tradition, and the first masters of rational thought. This volume provides a comprehensive and precise exposition of their arguments, and offers a rigorous assessment of their contribution to philosophical thought.

The Founders of Western Thought – The Presocratics

The Founders of Western Thought – The Presocratics PDF Author: Constantine J. Vamvacas
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402097913
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
There can be little doubt that the Greek tradition of philosophical criticism had its main source in Ionia. . . It thus leads the tradition which created the rational or scienti?c attitude, and with it our Western civilization, the only civilization, which is based upon science (though, of course, not upon science alone). Karl Popper, Back to the Presocratics Harvard University physicist and historian of Science, Gerald Holton, coined the term “Ionian Enchantment”, an expression that links the idea back in the 6th c- tury B. C. to the ancient Ionians along the eastern Aegean coast, while capturing its fascination. Approximately within a seventy- ve year period (600–525 B. C. ) -a split second in the history of humanity- the three Milesian thinkers, Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes, without plain evidence, but with an unequalled power of critical abstraction and intuition, had achieved a true intellectual re- lution; they founded and bequeathed to future generations a new, unprecedented way of theorizing the world; it could be summarized in four statements: beneath the apparent disorder and multiplicity of the cosmos, there exists order, unity and stability; unity derives from the fundamental primary substratum from which the cosmos originated; this, and, consequently, the cosmic reality, is one, and is based not on supernatural, but on physical causes; they are such that man can - vestigate them rationally. These four statements are neither self-evident nor se- explanatory.

On the Gods and the World

On the Gods and the World PDF Author: Vojt?ch Hladk?
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192873245
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
The Derveni papyrus is a multi-layered and intricate philosophical and religious treatise written in Greek, probably just before 400 BCE. Since its discovery in 1962, the papyrus has attracted the attention of scholars in several areas of Classical studies, mostly ancient philosophy and religion, but also literary studies. The anonymous author of the text quotes a previously unknown Orphic poem and comments on it using philosophical motifs and concepts borrowed from various Presocratic thinkers but especially Heraclitus and the Anaxagoreans. The book presents a new interpretation of various aspects of this complex text: situating the treatise within the tradition of allegorical interpretation; providing an interpretation of the opening columns, which describe a peculiar ritual and contain some Heraclitean material, including, as the study argues, some previously unknown fragments; reconstructing the contents of the Orphic poem upon which the Derveni author comments; examining various allegorical devices employed by the Derveni author in his explanation of the Orphic poem, following his commentary in detail; and finally, discussing the likely intellectual background in which the Derveni treatise originated. In general, the study argues that rather than being the work of a philosophising Orphic initiate, the Derveni treatise is a philosophical text whose aim was to explain a nonstandard religious poem. The commentary explains the Orphic poem from a perspective influenced by discussions among the followers of philosophy of Anaxagoras and Heraclitus, and employs reflections on the use and function of language found in the writings of some contemporary thinkers. Based on an analysis of sources upon which the Derveni papyrus is based, it is concluded that its author was probably active in Athens in late fifth century BCE and may have been a person close to Socrates' teacher Archelaus.