book: State and Nature
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

State and Nature

Studies in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
  • Edited by: and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2021
Download eBook (PDF) Download eBook (EPUB)
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us

About this book

A much-maligned feature of ancient and medieval political thought is its tendency to appeal to nature to establish norms for human communities. From Aristotle's claim that humans are "political animals" to Aquinas' invocation of "natural law," it may seem that pre-modern philosophers were all too ready to assume that whatever is natural is good, and that just political arrangements must somehow be natural. The papers in this collection show that this assumption is, at best, too crude. From very early, for instance in the ancient sophists' contrast between nomos and physis, there was recognition that political arrangements may be precisely artificial, not natural, and it may be questioned whether even such supposed naturalists as Aristotle in fact adopt the quick inference from "natural" to "good." The papers in this volume trace the complex interrelations between nature and such concepts as law, legitimacy, and justice, covering a wide historical range stretching from Plato and the Sophists to Aristotle, Hellenistic philosophy, Cicero, the Neoplatonists Plotinus and Porphyry, ancient Christian thinkers, and philosophers of both the Islamic and Christian Middle Ages.

Author / Editor information

Peter Adamson and Christof Rapp, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany.

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    Table of Contents

    vii
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    Introduction

    ix
    Download PDF
  • Part I: Plato and Aristotle
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Human Nature and Legal Norms: Antiphon the Sophist as Anonymous Target in Plato’s Republic IX

    1
    Oliver Primavesi
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Natural Born Philosophers

    35
    Dominic Scott
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Normative Naturalism in Aristotle’s Political Philosophy?

    59
    Christoph Horn
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Whose State? Whose Nature? How Aristotle’s Polis is ‘Natural’

    81
    Christof Rapp
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Aristotle on Freedom, Nature, and Law

    119
    Fred D. Miller and David Keyt
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Aristotle on the Rationality of Women: Consequences for Virtue and Practical Accountability

    135
    Béatrice Lienemann
    Download PDF
  • Part II: Hellenistic Philosophy
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Cynic Origins of the Stoic Doctrine of Natural Law?

    159
    René Brouwer
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    The Normativity of Nature in Epicurean Ethics and Politics

    181
    Tim O’Keefe
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Nature and Psychology in Cicero’s Republic

    201
    Philipp Brüllmann
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Unnatural Law: A Ciceronian Perspective

    221
    Raphael Woolf
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Natural Law and Casuistic Reasoning in Roman Jurisprudence

    247
    Caroline Humfress
    Download PDF
  • Part III: Late Antiquity
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Human Nature and Normativity in Plotinus

    269
    Christopher Isaac Noble
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    On Justice in Porphyry’s On Abstinence

    293
    Miira Tuominen
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Early Christian Philosophers on Society and Political Norms

    317
    George Karamanolis
    Download PDF
  • Part IV: Medieval Philosophy
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Against Nature: Two Critics of Naturalism in the Islamic World

    343
    Peter Adamson
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    “Like Ants in a Colony We Do Our Share”: Political Animals in Medieval Philosophy

    365
    Juhana Toivanen
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Ockham on Human Freedom and the Nature and Origin of Lordship

    393
    Jenny Pelletier
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Index of Names

    415
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Index of Subjects

    419
    Download PDF

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
April 19, 2021
eBook ISBN:
9783110730944
Hardcover published on:
April 19, 2021
Hardcover ISBN:
9783110735437
Paperback published on:
December 19, 2022
Paperback ISBN:
9783111121970
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
11
Main content:
424
Illustrations:
2
Tables:
1
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110730944
eBook ISBN: 9783110730944
Hardcover ISBN: 9783110735437
Paperback ISBN: 9783111121970
Keywords for this book
Political Philosophy; Naturalism; Aristotle; Natural law
Audience(s) for this book
Specialists and advanced students with an interest in political theory or history of philosophy
Safety & product resources
Downloaded on 9.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110730944/html
Scroll to top button