Introducing Greek philosophy
By: M.R. Wright
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 244
ISBN-13: 9780520261464; 9780520261488
Description: This concise, lively introduction to ancient Greek philosophy will help beginning students of both classical studies and philosophy get their bearings within an important yet complex array of names, schools, and ideas. The book illuminates the key period from the sixth to the third century BC, looking at the ideas that engaged the Greeks, in particular those of the Presocratics, the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the earliest Hellenistic philosophers. After chronologically mapping the main figures and their interconnections, "Introducing Greek Philosophy" focuses on themes especially relevant to philosophy today, including the origins of the universe and its mathematical structures; divine creation versus evolution and natural law; probability theory and the criteria for truth; political debates on democracy, citizen rights, and state obligations; and, finally ethics, happiness, and the best way to live.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Mapping the territory; title: Language, logic and literary form; title: Cosmologies; title: Pagan monotheism; title: Souls and selves; title: Believing, doubting and knowing; title: Leadership, law and the origins of political theory; title: Ethics, goodness and happiness.