Philosophia Antiqua

This is the first monograph dedicated entirely to Proclus’ theory of time, showing the roots of his obscure claim that time is a god and a cause in his reception of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Plotinus. Proclus’ theory of time appears as a natural theology, a reasoned ascent to divine principles starting from natural phenomena (in particular, from natural cycles and their synchronization). This theological approach to time develops the pioneering psychological approach of Proclus’ predecessor Plotinus, anchoring time not in the world soul, but in the divine unchanging source of the world soul’s life.

Did the ancient Greeks and Romans have a concept of moral duty? Jack Visnjic seeks to settle this long-standing controversy in The Invention of Duty: Stoicism as Deontology. According to the prevailing view, ancient ethical systems lacked any sense of moral obligation and were built instead around notions of virtue and human flourishing. Visnjic argues that, millennia before Kant, the Stoics already developed a robust notion of moral duty as well as a sophisticated deontological ethics. While most writings of the Stoics perished, their concept of duty lived on and eventually came to influence the modern notion. In fact, there are strong indications that Kant’s formulation of a new duty-based morality was inspired by his encounter with Stoic ideas.

"I found Visnjic’s account of Stoic ethics rich and stimulating [...]. I am now converted to the view that one ought to think of Stoic kathêkonta as duties rather than merely appropriate courses of action and I am grateful to Visnjic for pushing this point."
-John Sellars, Royal Holloway, University of London, Bryn Mawr Classical Review (July 2021)

In The First Principle, Jonathan Greig examines the philosophical theology of the two Neoplatonists, Proclus and Damascius (5th–6th centuries A.D.), on the One as the first cause. Both philosophers address a tension in the Neoplatonic tradition: namely that the One was seen as absolutely transcendent, yet it was also seen as intimately related to other things as the source of their unity and being. Proclus’ solution is to posit intermediate causes after the One, while Damascius posits a distinct principle, the ‘Ineffable’, above the One. This book provides a new, thorough study of the theories of causation that lead each to their respective position and reveals crucial insights involved in a rigorous negative theology employed in metaphysics.

A new reconstruction and text of the Placita of Aëtius (ca. 50 CE), accompanied by a full commentary and an extensive collection of related texts. This compendium, arguably the most important doxographical text to survive from antiquity, is known through the intensive use made of it by authors in later antiquity and beyond. Covering the entire field of natural philosophy, it has long been mined as a source of information about ancient philosophers and their views. It now receives a thorough analysis as a remarkable work in its own right. This volume is the culmination of a five-volume set of studies on Aëtius (1996–2020): Aëtiana I (ISBN: 9789004105805, 1996), II (Parts 1&2; set ISBN 9789004172067; 2008), III (ISBN 9789004180413; 2009), IV (ISBN: 9789004361454, 2018), and V (Parts 1-4). It uses an innovative methodology to replace the seminal edition of Hermann Diels (1879).

The collection of nineteen articles in Jaap Mansfeld’s Studies in Early Greek Philosophy span the period from Anaximander to Socrates. Solutions to problems of interpretation are offered through a scrutiny of the sources, and also of the traditions of presentation and reception found in antiquity. Excursions in the history of scholarship help to diagnose discussions of which the primum movens may have been forgotten. General questions are treated, for instance the phenomenon of detheologization in doxographical texts, while problems relating to individual philosophers are also discussed. For example, the history of Anaximander’s cosmos, the status of Parmenides’ human world, and the reliability of what we know about the soul of Anaximenes, and of what Philoponus tells us about the behaviour of Democritus’ atoms.

La Turba Philosophorum est un traité dont l’original arabe est perdu, et qui est l’un des textes fondateurs de l’alchimie latine. Mais son intérêt dépasse de loin l’histoire de l’alchimie : s’alimentant à des sources aussi diverses que Zosime de Panopolis, Stéphanos d’Alexandrie ou, plus surprenant, Hippolyte de Rome, la Turba se situe au confluent de nombreuses traditions grecques (philosophiques, hermétiques et patristiques), et porte témoignage à la fois de l’histoire de la transmission du savoir grec, et de celle de sa réception dans l’Égypte du IXe siècle. L’étude de la structure du traité montre en outre l’exceptionnelle originalité du projet philosophique de son auteur : construire un cheminement permettant au lecteur de s’approprier la doctrine des “philosophes” grecs.

The Turba Philosophorum is a treatise whose Arabic original is lost, and which is one of the founding texts of Latin alchemy. But its interest goes far beyond the history of alchemy: using sources as different as Zosimus of Panopolis, Stephanos of Alexandria or, more surprising, Hippolyte of Rome, the Turba is at the confluence of many Greek traditions (philosophical, hermetic and patristic), and bears testimony both to the history of the transmission of Greek knowledge, and of its reception in Egypt in the ninth century. The study of the structure of the treatise also shows the exceptional originality of the philosophical project of its author: to construct a path allowing the reader to appropriate the doctrine of Greek "philosophers".

The articles collected here are based for the most part on papers read at the Colloquium “The Placita of Aëtius: Foundations for the Study of Ancient Philosophy,” held in Melbourne in December 2015. The Placita, a first century CE collection of systematically organised tenets in natural philosophy ranging from first principles to human physiology is incompletely extant in several later sources. Its laborious reconstruction and the identity of its author are discussed from various angles. The text of the treatise is further elucidated by a novel statistical exploration of what is extant and what is missing. Its relation to various currents in the history of Greek philosophy and its reliability are also examined in some detail.

Reading Aristotle: Argument and Exposition argues that Aristotle’s treatises must be approached as progressive unfoldings of a unified position that may extend over a single book, an entire treatise, or across several works. Contributors demonstrate that Aristotle relies on both explanatory and expository principles. Explanatory principles include familiar doctrines such as the four causes, actuality’s priority over potentiality and nature’s doing nothing in vain. Expository principles are at least as important. They pertain to proper sequence, pedagogical method, the role of reputable views and the opinions of predecessors, the equivocity of key explanatory terms, and the need to scrupulously observe distinctions between the different sciences. A sensitivity to expository principles is crucial to understanding both particular arguments and entire treatises.

In Platonici minores Marie-Luise Lakmann offers a collection of all philosophers considered to be “Middle Platonists” (1st century BC to AD 2nd century). The collection includes 85 “minor” Platonists, arranged in alphabetical order, little known figures seldom discussed in modern research. For each philosopher all known facts about life and teaching are presented with a bibliography. This is followed by a collection of fragments and testimonia relating to the Platonist. Each original text is accompanied by a German translation. An appendix includes a brief presentation of all “major” Platonists of this period.

The volume provides a complete conspectus of an important period in the history of philosophy, bringing together many scattered materials and throwing new light on what is already known of the Middle Platonism.

The so-called eighth Stromateus (‘liber logicus’) by Clement of Alexandria (d. before 221 C.E.) is an understudied source for ancient philosophy, particularly the tradition of the Aristotelian methodology of science, scepticism, and the theories of causation. A series of capitula dealing with inquiry and demonstration, it bears but few traces of Christian interests.

In this volume, Matyáš Havrda provides a new edition, translation, and lemmatic commentary of the text. The vexing question of the origin of this material and its place within Clement’s oeuvre is also addressed. Defending the view of ‘liber logicus’ as a collection of excerpts made or adopted by Clement for his own (apologetic and exegetical) use, Havrda argues that its source could be Galen’s lost treatise On Demonstration.

In Plato on Democracy and Political technē Sørensen argues that the question of democracy’s ‘epistemic potential’ was one that Plato took more seriously than is usually assumed. While he famously rejected democracy on the basis of its inherent inability to accommodate political expertise (technē), he did not think that this failure on democracy’s part was necessarily inevitable but a concept that required further examination. Sørensen shows that in a number of his most important dialogues (Republic, Gorgias, Statesman, Protagoras, Theaetetus), Plato was ready to take up the question of democracy’s epistemic potential and to enter into strikingly technical and sophisticated discussions of what both rule by technē and rule by the people would have to look like in order for the two things to be compatible.

In Epicurean Meteorology Frederik Bakker discusses the meteorology as laid out by Epicurus (341-270 BCE) and Lucretius (1st century BCE). Although in scope and organization their ideas are clearly rooted in the Peripatetic tradition, their meteorology sets itself apart from this tradition by its systematic use of multiple explanations and its sole reliance on sensory evidence as opposed to mathematics and other axiomatic principles.
Through a thorough investigation of the available evidence Bakker offers an updated and qualified account of Epicurean meteorology, arguing against Theophrastus’ authorship of the Syriac meteorology, highlighting the originality of Lucretius’ treatment of mirabilia, and refuting the oft-repeated claim that the Epicureans held the earth to be flat.

In Aristotle’s Ever-turning World in Physics 8 Dougal Blyth analyses, passage by passage, Aristotle’s reasoning in his explanation of cosmic movement, and provides a detailed evaluation of ancient and modern commentary on this centrally influential text in the history of ancient and medieval philosophy and science. In Physics 8 Aristotle argues for the everlastingness of the world, and explains this as deriving from a single first moved body, the sphere of the stars whose rotation around the earth is caused by an immaterial prime mover.

Blyth’s explanation of Aristotle’s individual arguments, techniques of reasoning and overall strategy in Physics 8 aims to bring understanding of his method, doctrines and achievements in natural philosophy to a new level of clarity.

Plato’s Phaedo has never failed to attract the attention of philosophers and scholars. Yet the history of its reception in Antiquity has been little studied. The present volume therefore proposes to examine not only the Platonic exegetical tradition surrounding this dialogue, which culminates in the commentaries of Damascius and Olympiodorus, but also its place in the reflections of the rival Peripatetic, Stoic, and Sceptical schools.
This volume thus aims to shed light on the surviving commentaries and their sources, as well as on less familiar aspects of the history of the Phaedo’s ancient reception. By doing so, it may help to clarify what ancient interpreters of Plato can and cannot offer their contemporary counterparts.

The Problemata physica is the third longest work in the corpus Aristotelicum, but among the least studied. It consists of 38 books, over 900 chapters, covering a vast range of subjects, including medicine and music, sex and salt water, fatigue and fruit, animals and astronomy, moderation and malodorous things, wind and wine, bruises and barley, voice and virtue. Aristotelian Problemata Physica: Philosophical and Scientific Investigations consists of 21 essays by scholars of ancient Greek philosophy and science. These essays shed light on this mysterious work, providing insights into the nature of philosophical and scientific inquiry in the Lyceum during Aristotle’s life and especially in the years following his death.

The Armenian version of David the Invincible’s Commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge, although extremely literal, is shorter by a quarter than the Greek original and contains revised passages. The Greek text reproduces Busse’s edition (1904) but sometimes preference is given to readings in the apparatus, corroborated by the Armenian version. The Armenian text is based on Arevšatyan’s edition (1976), but seven more manuscripts have been consulted and some varia lectiones confirmed by the Greek original have been included in the text. The English translation is from the Armenian version. The passages of the Greek text without Armenian equivalent are translated into English as well. Also, the book contains Armenian marginal scholia.

In Aristotle and Menander on the Ethics of Understanding, Valeria Cinaglia offers a parallel study of Menander’s New Comedy and Aristotle’s philosophy focusing on subjects ranging from epistemology and psychology to ethics. Cinaglia does not aim to demonstrate the direct philosophical influence of Aristotle on Menander, but explores the hypothesis that there are significant analogies between the two that disclose a shared thought-world.
Cinaglia shows that Aristotle and Menander offer analogous views of the way that perceptions and emotional responses to situations are linked with the presence or absence of ethical and cognitive understanding, or the state of ethical character development: the study of these analogies contributes to a deeper understanding of both frameworks involved.

In this annotated critical edition of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Lambda Stefan Alexandru explores and utilizes for the first time numerous previously neglected textual sources, written in Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew. The twelfth book of the Metaphysics, originally an independent treatise, is crucial for the understanding of Aristotle’s philosophy, primarily because the doctrine of the Unmoved Mover is nowhere else set forth in greater detail.
Not only all the forty-two formerly known Greek codices have been collated, but also commentaries and translations. Moreover, a hitherto undiscovered, independent manuscript, representing a tenuous and particularly valuable branch of the direct tradition, is minutely investigated. The document in question, preserved in the Vatican, is an autograph of the Byzantine humanist and Ecumenical Patriarch Gennadios II Scholarios.

Protagoras of Abdera, Socrates’ older contemporary, is regarded as one of the most prominent representatives of the so-called sophistic movement. Instead of simply accepting the biased reports given by Plato and Aristotle about this sophist, the contributors to this volume review the complicated doxographical situation and make a case for Protagoras as a philosopher in his own right. Two major themes of this volume are Protagoras’ relativism and his case for a moral and political ideal, both of which are contrasted with the metaphysical idealism of his future opponents in the Academy and the mundane conventionalism typically associated with the sophists. It turns out that rather than a parasitic force of intellectual subversion, Protagoras may have been a prolific and original thinker aiming at a coherent and comprehensive view of man’s place in the world.

Though the digression closing Simplicius’ commentary on Aristotle’s De caelo 2.12 has long been misread as a history of early Greek planetary theory, it is in fact a creative reading of Aristotle to maintain the authority of the De caelo as a sacred text in Late Platonism and to refute the polemic mounted by the Christian, John Philoponus. This book shows that the critical question forced on Simplicius was whether his school’s acceptance of Ptolemy’s planetary hypotheses entailed a rejection of Aristotle’s argument that the heavens are made of a special matter that moves by nature in a circle about the center of the cosmos and, thus, a repudiation of the thesis that the cosmos is uncreated and everlasting.

Reflecting the relatively recent high level of scholarly interest in Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics (EE), each paper in this collection is concerned first and foremost to understand the arguments from the EE it examines in terms of that work alone. The papers, by David Charles, Christopher Rowe, M.M. McCabe, Jennifer Whiting, and Friedemann Buddensiek, focus variously on the topics of the voluntary, friendship and luck, only drawing on other texts in the service of illuminating the EE. The result is a volume containing novel, at times even conflicting, readings of questions central to understanding this important text and Aristotle's ethics in general.

"...each of the five essays targets an important but relatively circumscribed issue, and together they should convince anyone of the desirability of fresh and serious investigation of the Eudemian Ethics." Daniel P. Maher, Assumption College

Studies of the notion of theoria and of the contemplative life have often been restricted to Plato and Aristotle. This volume shows that aspirations to contemplation and the life of the intellect survived long after the classical period, turning into topics of heated debates, powerful arguments and original applications throughout the Hellenistic, imperial, and late antique periods. The introduction attempts to reconstruct all the problems pertaining to the contemplative life in Antiquity, and the twelve papers, written by distinguished scholars, offer a thorough study of the appropriation, criticism and transformation of Plato’s and Aristotle’s positions on the contemplative life, including its epistemological and metaphysical foundation. The volume ranges from Theophrastus to the end of Antiquity, including Jewish and Christian authors, with a focus on Platonism from Cicero to Damascius.

Contemporary preoccupation with the self and the rise of comparative anthropology have renewed scholarly interest in the forms of personhood current in Ancient Greece. However the word which translates “self” most literally, the intensive adjective and reflexive morpheme αὐτός, and its critical role in the construction of human being have for the most part been neglected. This monograph rights the imbalance by redirecting attention to the diachronic development of the heavily marked reflexive system and its exploitation by thinkers to articulate an increasingly reflexive and non-dialogical understanding of the human subject and its world. It argues that these two developmental trajectories are connected and provides new insight into the intellectual history of subjectivity in the West.

The radical aporetism of the treatise on first principles written by the Neoplatonic philosopher Damascius may be understood as a unique approach to understand, in different ways and on an extremely high and abstract level, not only these principles but also ourselves as thinkers. In the quest to grasp ultimate reality, this treatise is also a deep reflection on the processes and limitations of human thought in relation to supreme principles. Damascius uncovers the many concealed snares of language, the limitations of our cognitive apparatus, and the common misconceptions about first principles, thereby revealing the underlying reasons for our aporias as well as their protreptic meaning and redeeming function. This study offers a new and positive reading of Damascius’ equally extreme and fascinating aporetic philosophy.

L’aporétique radicale du traité des Principes Premiers du néoplatonicien Damaskios doit être comprise comme étant l’unique voie d’accès vers une compréhension différente, supérieure et purifiée des principes premiers et de nous-mêmes. Autant qu’une quête des réalités primordiales, ce traité est une réflexion sur les processus et les limites de la pensée humaine dans ses rapports avec les principes premiers. Ce présent livre montre les raisons du surgissement de telles apories, leur sens et leur rôle paradoxalement salvateur en dénonçant les plus hautes imperfections de nos discours, les pièges insoupçonnés de nos mécanismes cognitifs et l’inadéquation funeste de nos conceptions concernant les premiers principes. Le résultat est un regard neuf et une compréhension dédramatisée de cette aporétique extrême et fascinante.

This book, a history of a religious category of ancient philosophy, is the first synthesis on the notion of daimōn in the Platonic tradition. Platonic demonology is a body of doctrine that constantly reorganized and redefined itself, from the Old Academy to the last Neoplatonists, by reinterpreting Plato’s texts concerning demons. The present work illuminates the modus operandi of this exegesis by analysing the relationship between demonology and, respectively, cosmology, the philosophical hermeneutics of religion, and theories of the soul.
This study aims to provide a better understanding of the attempts to rationalize and to define the religious phenomenon in Late Antiquity.

Histoire d’une catégorie religieuse de la philosophie ancienne, ce livre représente la première synthèse sur la notion de daimōn dans la tradition platonicienne. La démonologie platonicienne constitue un corps doctrinal qui se réorganise et se redéfinit constamment, de l’Ancienne Académie aux derniers néoplatoniciens, par la réinterprétation des textes de Platon relatifs aux démons. L’objectif du présent travail est d'éclairer le modus operandi de cette exégèse à partir de l’analyse des relations de la démonologie avec la cosmologie, avec l’herméneutique philosophique de la religion et avec les théories de l’âme.
Cette étude est susceptible de servir à une meilleure compréhension des tentatives de rationalisation et de définition du phénomène religieux dans l’Antiquité tardive.

Boethius (c.480-c.525/6), who is best known for his Consolation of Philosophy, has been accused of misinterpreting Aristotle’s logical works in his translations and commentaries thereof. Building on recent scholarship in the philosophy of late antiquity, this book challenges some of the past interpretations of Boethius and reveals significant features of his semantics and logic. With comparisons between his and contemporary arguments and attention to the terminology of late antiquity, this work is of use to those interested in semantics, logic and grammar from antiquity to the modern day. Furthermore, this book’s new conclusions aim to reinvigorate interest in this much-maligned and poorly understood philosopher.

Scholarship on ancient Pyrrhonism has made tremendous advances over the past three decades, thanks especially to the careful reexamination of Sextus Empiricus’ extant corpus. Building on this momentum, the authors of the eight essays collected here examine some of the most vexed and intriguing exegetical and philosophical questions posed by Sextus’ presentation of this form of skepticism. The essays explore in a new light the skeptical interpretation of Plato, the differences between Pyrrhonism and Cyrenaicism, the Pyrrhonist’s stance on ordinary life, religion, language, and ethics, Sextus’ discussion of our access to our own mental states, and the relationship between Pyrrhonism and epistemic internalism and externalism. These new essays represent a substantial contribution to the advancement of scholarship on Pyrrhonian skepticism.

The problem of the Materia Prima is certainly one of the most important challenges of late antique Physics. It is interesting to note that such a difficulty has never been focused on an exhaustive treatise in Antiquity. If the question of the matter resists any investigation, it is because the matter is radically 'aneideos' (without form) even though it is the condition 'sine qua non' of the existence of all forms in the sensible world.
The present study proposes the first translation in French of the entire eleventh Book of the Philoponus' Contra Proclum (VIe s.) which precisely discusses the status of the Prime Matter. After having clarified the context of such a question in the Neoplatonic Alexandrian School, it puts forward a detailled step-to-step analysis of the Philoponian argument, the notions used by him and a new general theory which attempts to evaluate the pertinence and the internal coherence of his contribution to this very problematic question.

Le problème de la Materia Prima est sans aucun doute l'une des questions les plus redoutables de la physique tardo-antique. Du moins s'il faut en croire la difficulté à en circonscrire la théorie dans un traité qui put faire école. Si la matière, en effet, résiste à toute investigation rationnelle c'est qu'elle est foncièrement sans forme bien qu'elle soit la condition sine qua non d'existence de toutes les formes du monde sensible.
La présente étude propose la première traduction en Français du Livre XI du Contra Proclum de Jean Philopon (VIe s.). Elle commence par recontextualiser le propos de Philopon en l'inscrivant dans la tradition de la 'Quaestio disputata' de l'Ecole néoplatonicienne d'Alexandrie. Chaque sous-chapitre traduit et exhaustivement annoté est suivi d'une analyse détaillée de l'argument philoponien et des notions mobilisées, ainsi que d'une théorie générale qui essayera à chaque fois d'évaluer la cohérence et la pertinence du propos du grammairien alexandrin.

This collection of essays highlights Ancient, Byzantine and Medieval developments in the discussion of scientific method and argument in the comment(arie)s on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics and related methodological passages in the Aristotelian corpus. Despite the importance of these discussions, the larger part of the commentary tradition on the Posterior Analytics still remains uncharted. The contributors to this volume identify and explore three important strands of interpretation, viz. (1) the reception of Aristotle’s logic of inquiry and theory of concept formation in Posterior Analytics II 19; (2) the influence of the Posterior Analytics on the evaluation of metaphysics as a science; and (3) the reception of Aristotle’s theory of demonstration, definition, and causation in Posterior Analytics book II.

David the Invincible’s (6th century AD) Commentary on Aristotle's Prior Analytics survives only in an old Armenian translation from Greek. Its critical edition with a Russian translation (1967) was based on the editio princeps of Venice (1833) and five manuscripts of the Matenadaran (Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, Erevan). This edition includes the text of 1967, revised through careful rechecking of the same five manuscripts and the editio princeps, as well as on the basis of twenty-three other manuscripts. The book contains the first English translation of the work, textual parallels with other commentaries on Aristotle, trilingual (Armenian, Greek, English) glossaries and other material useful to interested specialists. The introduction, among other subjects, discusses the disputable issues of authorship and the translator.

Of Proclus’ immense philosophical system, the part concerning the natural world may well be the most fascinating. Traditional scholarship tends to downplay that part of Neoplatonism, in favour of idealism, but recently this attitude is changing. This study contributes to that development by showing how Proclus’ natural philosophy relates to theology, while remaining a science in its own right. Starting from his Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, it presents a revision of Proclus’ metaphysics of nature and provides new insight into his surprisingly peripatetic philosophy of science, the role of mathematics, and the nature of discourse in natural philosophy. This book will be of interest both to students of the Platonic tradition, and to historians of natural science, metaphysics and epistemology.

Ancient Greek philosophy has been criticised, for example by the late Bernard Williams, for emphasising the universal at the expense of the particular. Six leading scholars consider what the Greeks themselves, from Plato to the period of the Roman Empire, had to say on this issue in the contexts of ethics, psychology, metaphysics and cosmology. Ancient views are compared with modern ones, and the influence of the former on the latter is considered.

This volume is the first collection of scholarly articles in any modern language devoted to Aristotle’s De caelo. It grew out of series of workshops held at Princeton, Cambridge, and Paris in the late 1990’s. Since Aristotle’s De caelo had a major influence on cosmological thinking until the time of Galileo and Kepler and helped to shape the way in which Western civilization imagined its natural environment and place at the center of the universe, familiarity with the main doctrines of the De caelo is a prerequisite for an understanding of much of the thought and culture of antiquity and the Middle Ages.

David, a member of the Platonic school in Alexandria in the sixth century, is credited with several commentaries on Aristotle’s logic: those commentaries, and their Armenian translations, form the subject of this book. An introduction, which discusses David and his place in the Greek and the Armenian traditions, is followed by a series of studies of the relations between the Greek texts and their Armenian translations: the aims are, first, to assess the value of the translations for the constitution of the original Greek, and secondly, to consider the ways in which the Armenian translations adapted the texts to suit their new readership. More generally, the book is concerned with the ways in which Greek thought was exported abroad—to Armenia and to Syria: it is required reading for anyone who is interested in the circulation of ideas between east and west.

Contributors include: Sen Arevshatyan, Jonathan Barnes, Valentina Calzolari, Henri Hugonnard-Roche, Gohar Muradyan, Michael Papazian, Manea Shirinian, Clive Sweeting, Albert Stepanyan, Aram Topchyan.

Ancient doxography, particularly as distilled in the work on problems of physics by Aëtius, is a vital source for our knowledge of early Greek philosophy up to the first century BCE. But its purpose and method, and also its wider intellectual context, are by no means easy to understand. The present volume contains 19 essays written between 1989 and 2009 in which the authors grapple with various aspects of the doxographical tradition and its main representatives. The essays examine the origins of the doxographical method in the work of Aristotle and Theophrastus and also provide valuable insights into the works of other authors such as Epicurus, Chrysippus, Lucretius, Cicero, Philo of Alexandria and Seneca. The collection can be read as a companion collection to the two earlier volumes of Aëtiana published by the two authors in this series (1997, 2009).

Traditional scholarship has generally neglected the philosophy of nature in Greek Neoplatonism. In the last few decades, however, this attitude has changed radically. Natural philosophy has increasingly been regarded as a crucial aspect of late antique thought. Furthermore, several studies have outlined the impressive historical legacy of Neoplatonic physics. Building on this new interest, the ten papers published here concentrate on Neoplatonic philosophy of nature from Plotinus to Simplicius, and on its main conceptual features and its relation to the previous philosophical and scientific traditions. The papers were presented at a conference sponsored by the European Science Foundation in Castelvecchio Pascoli in June 2006. This volume makes an important contribution to the understanding of Greek Neoplatonism and its historical significance.

The theme of this study is the Doxography of problems in physics from the Presocratics to the early first century BCE attributed to Aëtius. Part I focuses on the argument of the compendium as a whole, of its books, of its sequences of chapters, and of individual chapters, against the background of Peripatetic and Stoic methodology. Part II offers the first full reconstruction in a single unified text of Book II, which deals with the cosmos and the heavenly bodies. It is based on extensive analysis of the relevant witnesses and includes listings of numerous doxographical-dialectical parallels in other ancient writings. This new treatment of the evidence supersedes Diels’ still dominant source-critical approach, and will prove indispensable for scholars in ancient philosophy.

The book analyses Plotinus’ notion of 'that which depends on us', which although central to his ethics, has never been examined in a specific study before. The book traces the sources of this notion in Aristotle and its reception in Stoicism, Middle Platonism and Early Aristotelian Commentators. It then shows how Plotinus’ critical discussion of the inherent problems in previous accounts and his investigation of the notion's application to the Intellect and the One, leads to a highly original interpretation of the notion as central to his account of human agency. The book demonstrates Plotinus’ serious engagement with the central issues of ancient ethics, and his original way of tackling them.

The Cratylus contains Plato’s important, yet ambiguous discussion of language. By studying the reception of this text in antiquity, this book explores the various ideas on language and its relation to philosophy in the Platonic tradition. This discussion provides the backdrop for a detailed analysis of the commentary on the dialogue by Proclus. His, often original, views on language are, it appears, the product of a critical reevaluation of those of his predecessors, whereas his interpretation of the Cratylus throws new light on that dialogue. This book will thus be of interest both to students of Plato and the Platonic tradition, as well as to those working on ancient theories of language.

Against the background of age-old Greek wisdom, Epicurus' advice to 'live unnoticed' (lathe biosas) was particularly provocative and scandalous. Why, after all, would an unknown Greek soldier in Agamemnon's army have been happier than famous Achilles? Or why should an ordinary Athenian be regarded as more blessed and enviable than Pericles? Yet Epicurus' ideal was far from unattractive, guaranteeing as it did a quiet and untroubled existence far from the dangerous turmoil of public life.

This book casts new light on Epicurus' socio-political philosophy through a careful analysis of his arguments. It also shows how the ideal of an 'unnoticed life' was received during the later history of Epicureanism and how it occasionally occurs in ancient Latin poetry.

Twentieth-century Scholarship on Aristotle's De Memoria et Reminiscentia was dominated by the view that Aristotle's theories of memory and recollection are basically very similar to ours. By means of a new critical edition of the Greek text, an essay on Aristotle's own theories and an essay on these theories as they were received in the Latin West, the present book offers material that challenges the opinio communis. The result is a new interpretation of Aristotle's De Memoria et Reminiscentia and its relevance to the concerns of 21st-century philosophers, both regarding the concepts of memory and recollection and regarding Aristotle's philosophical methodology.

Ce volume s’occupe du Lexique platonicien de Timée le Sophiste, auteur qui a appartenu à la deuxième sophistique. Une introduction de Jonathan Barnes présente l’histoire des manuscrits de ce lexique et de ses éditions, ainsi qu’une analyse de sa structure et une évaluation de son importance pour la lexicographie ancienne et pour les études platoniciennes. La première partie du livre présente une nouvelle édition du texte avec une traduction française et quatre apparats, des scolies du manuscrit, des loci platonici, des loci similes, et l’apparat critique. La deuxième partie du livre présente un commentaire fourni, qui considère la relation du lexique avec les lexiques atticistes et byzantins, les scolies et les commentaires platoniciens, ainsi que les textes philosophiques.

This book is an edition of the Lexicon to Plato written by Timaeus the Sophist. An Introduction by Jonathan Barnes discusses the history of the manuscripts and editions of the Lexicon, analyses the structure and nature of the work, sites it in the history of ancient lexicography, and attempts to assess its virtues and its importance. The first part of the book contains a new edition of the Greek text, faced by a French translation and equipped with four apparatuses. The second part of the book is the commentary: it is primarily concerned to connect the entries of the Lexicon to appropriate passages in Plato, to trace the links between Timaeus and the ancient tradition of Platonic scholarship, and to locate the Lexicon in thevoluminous and complex history of ancient lexicography.

This book argues that Aristotle offers us a consistent theory of definition, according to which a particular type of definition – one which states the formal cause of a simple item – is fundamental. It begins by considering definitions as indemonstrable first principles in demonstrations, and inquires how such definitions can have the certainty required by that role. Later chapters look to the Metaphysics to understand how the unity of definitions guarantees their certainty, and to the Topics to discover why definitions must be formulated in terms of the genus and differentia(e) of the object defined. This work contributes to our understanding of the connection between the function of definition in demonstration and its character as a statement of essence.

There has recently been a great deal of scholarship on the origins of rhetoric, as well as on important 4th-century figures, such as Isocrates and Alcidamas. This volumes focuses particularly on the generation before Aristotle wrote his Rhetoric, the central text of ancient Greek rhetorical theory. Individual papers concentrate on different aspects of the Peripatetics' writings, both of Aristotle and Theophrastus, their thoughts on character, emotion, logos, style, and metaphor, the influences of dramatic writings, the relationship with Plato and with the Rhetorica ad Alexandrum, and the historical contexts. Some papers offer close readings of individual passages, while others tease out information based on fragmentary references. All of the papers offer original insights based on a thorough knowledge of the original texts.

Discussions on akrasia (lack of control, or weakness of will) in Greek philosophy have been particularily vivid and intense for the past two decades. Standard stories that presented Socrates as the philosopher who simply denied the phenomenon, and Plato and Aristotle as rehabilitating it straightforwardly against Socrates, have been challenged in many different ways. Building on those challenges, this collective provides new, and in some cases opposed ways of reading well-known as well as more neglected texts. Its 13 contributions, written by experts in the field, cover the whole history of Greek ethics, from Socrates to Plotinus, through Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics (Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Epictetus).

On Weather Signs, traditionally ascribed to Theophrastus, contains the most complete list of such signs in antiquity and it was, in this or some very similar form, consulted by Aratus, Vergil (in Georgics I), and Pliny the Elder, as well as by many other authors throughout the Byzantine period. This edition is the first to take account of all the manuscripts and the commentary, the first in over a century, is on a far grander scale than earlier ones by Schneider (1818-21) and Wood (1894), listing almost all parallel texts for each sign. The introduction places the work in the context of its genre and for the first time lays out the details of its manuscript tradition.

This volume gathers the papers presented at an International Colloquium held in Paris in 2003, and offers new contributions and new interpretative suggestions about both canonical and relatively neglected research areas on Democritus, including ethics, physics and epistemology, as well as musical and literary criticism, technics, zoology, and the catalogue of works. Specific contributions are furthermore devoted to Democritus’ posterity and the problem of sources. The book also offers a detailed bibliography and several indices, which render it an up-to-date and stimulating tool for contemporary research on Democritus and atomism.
Essays by: A. Brancacci, L. Gemelli, A. Jaulin, W. Leszl, J. Mansfeld, P.-M. Morel, D. O’Brien, L. Perilli, J. Salem, C.C.W. Taylor, J. Warren.

This volume focuses on Aristotle’s practical philosophy. His analysis of emotional response takes pride of place. It is followed by discussion of his moral psychology: the division of the human soul into emotional and deliberative parts.
Moral virtue is studied in relation to emotion, and animals are shown to lack both emotion and virtue. Different kinds of friendship are analyzed, and the effects of vehemence, i.e., temperament are given special attention. Aristotle’s justification for assigning natural slaves and women subordinate roles receives detailed consideration. The same is true of his analysis of correct and incorrect constitutions. Finally, persuasion is taken up from several angles including Aristotle’s emphasis on the presentation of character and his curious dismissal of delivery in speech.

This book proposes a reading of Dionysius the Areopagite's longest and most important treatise 'On the Divine Names' from a philosophical point of view, rather than from a theological point of view which dominates the secondary literature. More in particular, it proposes an interpretation of the puzzling structure of the treatise which takes its starting point from earlier interpretations of medieval and modern scholars. The new reading of Dionysius' main text achieves more coherence than they did precisely because of the philosophical angle, which is meant to serve as a complement, not an alternative, to theological and historical interpretations. Thus the book can be read as an introduction to the philosophy of Dionyius as it shows how the author makes original moves in introducing the Christian concepts of peace and creation as philosophical concepts in a Platonic framework.

This volume deals with the philosophy of Proclus, the most influential philosopher of the Neoplatonic school of Athens. Its 17 essays present the major themes of Proclus’ work.
The first part discusses the method of Proclus’ philosophy, concentrating on his theory of language and his interpretation of Plato. The second part focusses on his theory of the soul, especially of the human soul and its various functions. The third part covers Proclus’ metaphysics, his theory of ideas and his famous scheme of duration, procession and reversion.
Thus, the volume contributes to the renewed interest in Neoplatonism. For the specialists, it contains some new insights into Proclus’ thought. For the non-specialist, the volume can be used as introductory text to the main themes of Proclean philosophy.

This book deals with the nature and function of the good in Plato’s philosophy, by focusing on the dialogue explicitly devoted to it: the Philebus. It provides a comprehensive commentary of this difficult dialogue in which almost all the themes of Plato’s philosophy are discussed or alluded to. The author shows that a scrupulous analysis and reconstruction of its argumentative progress makes it possible to discover the unity between these different topics, and argues that this unity lies in the fact that Plato develops there what he was calling for notably in the Republic, i.e. a (dialectical) science of the good (or ‘agathology’). Read from this viewpoint, the Philebus appears as a dialogue of tremendous importance for the understanding of Plato’s philosophy as a whole.

The revival of Scepticism in the first century B.C. is due to Aenesidemus of Cnossus. Nonetheless, very little is known of him, and much of it seems to suggest that his thought tended more towards Dogmatism, and Heraclitean philosophy in particular. The puzzle has set the scene for a long-term debate, but, as yet, no agreed solution has been propounded. The present book provides a close examination of ancient evidence as well as of critical literature, and arrives at the conclusion that Aenesidemus merely intended to offer a Sceptical interpretation of Heraclitus, and that the ideas which are incorporated in it voice distinctive features of his Scepticism.

This book presents 17 articles by Woldemar Görler, published during the last 25 years, some of them not easily accessible hitherto. Most of them treat details of the history of the Hellenistic Academy and Cicero. Other papers explore the aftermath of Hellenistic thought in Lucilius, Lucretius, and Seneca, the literary form of Roman philosophical treatises, and Cicero’s personal interpretation of Academic scepticism.
All contributions are based on close reading of the source material. No attempt is made to harmonize conflicting evidence. Instead, different stages of the school discussions and some gradual changes in philosophical doctrine emerge more clearly. Special attention is paid to the conversion of Greek terms into Latin, in some cases implying unexpected consequences in meaning.

The 'On Affections' by the Stoic philosopher Chrysippus (c. 280-205 BCE) contains the classic exposition of the Stoic theory of the emotions. This book provides a fresh discussion of the extant evidence, i.e. the fragments and testimonies preserved by later sources. It aims to establish the exact amount of available evidence and to arrange the fragmentary material so as to see how far the original treatise can be reconstructed. The fragments are interpreted both in their literary context and in the light of Stoic doctrines known from other sources. Given its contextual approach, this study includes extensive discussion of the methods of sources such as Galen, Posidonius and Cicero. In addition, the medical backdrop to Chrysippus’ theory receives considerable attention.

This study intends to show that the ascription of many shortcomings or obscurities to Aristotle is due to the persistent misinterpetation of key notions in his works, including anachronistic perceptions of statement making.
In the first volume Aristotle's semantics is culled from the Organon. The second volume presents Aristotle's ontology of the sublunar world, and pays special attention to his strategy of argument in light of his semantic views.
The reconstruction of the semantic models that come forward as genuinely Aristotelian can give a new impetus to the study of Aristotelian philosophic and semantic thought.

This study intends to show that the ascription of many shortcomings or obscurities to Aristotle is due to the persistent misinterpetation of key notions in his works, including anachronistic perceptions of statement making.
In the first volume Aristotle's semantics is culled from the Organon. The second volume presents Aristotle's ontology of the sublunar world, and pays special attention to his strategy of argument in light of his semantic views.
The reconstruction of the semantic models that come forward as genuinely Aristotelian can give a new impetus to the study of Aristotelian philosophic and semantic thought.

Iamblichus (245-325), successor to Plotinus and Porphyry, brought a new religiosity to Neoplatonism. His theory of the soul is at the heart of his philosophical system. For Iamblichus, the human soul is so far inferior to the divine that its salvation depends not on philosophy alone (as it did for Plotinus) but on the aid of the gods and other divinities. This edition of the fragments of Iamblichus' major work on the soul, De Anima, is accompanied by the first English translation of the work and a commentary which explains the philosophical background and Iamblichus' doctrine of the soul. Included too are excerpts from the Pseudo-Simplicius and Priscianus (also translated with commentary) that shed further light on Iamblichus' treatise.

The nine articles in this volume were orginally presented at the VIII. Symposium Hellenisticum in Lille in August 1998. The authors discuss
a set of theological questions that were central to the doctrines of the dominant schools in the Hellenistic age, such as the existence of the gods, their nature, and their concern for humankind. While the philosophers of the Classical age had kept their distance from conventional religion, the Stoics and Epicureans saw the need to come to terms with the religious tradition both in a critical and in a supportive sense. Especially the challenge by the Sceptics forced the followers of the dogmatic schools (Stoics, Epicureans) to clarify the basis of their theological tenets. Many of the texts that are accessible to us only in a fragmentary state were still highly influential in the early Christian era, so that the reconstruction of the theological views of the Hellenistic philosophers form an important part not only of the history of philosophy, but also of Christian theology and the history of religion in general. One distinctive feature of the volume is that it mirrors the changes of perspective that took place over the many centuries in this area, thus presenting the Hellenistic contribution within the larger framework of Greek philosophical theology.

This volume discusses the relationship between the four extant ancient commentaries on Aristotle's Metaphysics of Alexander of Aphrodisias, Syrianus, Asclepius and Ps. Alexander. Comparative analysis of these commentaries allows Luna to attribute the Ps. Alexander to Michael of Ephesis and to show to what extend Syrianus made use of Alexander and Asclepius of both of them.
The author draws up a precise genealogy of these Metaphysics commentaries. The book is indispensable for anyone working on the history of Aristotelian exegesis.

This volume traces the development of Aristotle’s hypothetical syllogistic through antiquity, and shows for the first time how it later became misidentified with the logic of the rival Stoic school. By charting the origins of this error, the book illuminates elements of Aristotelian logic that have been obscured for almost two thousand years, and raises important issues concerning the distinctive roles of semantic and syntactic analysis in theories of logical consequence.
The first chapters of the book deal with the original Aristotelian hypothetical syllogistic, and explain how Aristotle’s later followers began to conflate it with Stoic logic. The final chapters examine in detail the two most crucial surviving treatments of the subject, Boethius’s On hypothetical syllogisms and On Cicero’s Topics, which carried this conflation into the Middle Ages.

This book studies the hymns composed by the Neoplatonist Proclus in the context of his philosophy. Its main claim is that the hymns should be understood in the context of theurgy, the ritual art adopted by the Neoplatonists in order to obtain mystical experiences.
The first part of the book consists of a series of essays which discuss the relation of the hymns to Proclus’ Neoplatonism, his theory of poetry, and especially to theurgy. The second part offers translations of the individual hymns together with a detailed commentary.
This study will be of special interest to those working in the field of Neoplatonism and a helpful guide to scholars of Late Antique poetry and religion who wish to explore these intriguing, yet at times obscure poems.

This book claims that Aristotle followed an aspect theory of predication. On it statements make a basic assertion of existence that can be more or less qualified. It is claimed that the aspect theory solves many puzzles about Aristotle's philosophy and gives a new unity to his logic and metaphysics.
The book considers Aristotle's views on predication relative to Greek philology, Aristotle's philosophical milieu, and the history and philosophy of predication theory. It offers new perspectives on such issues as existential import; the relation of Categories 2 & 4; the place of differentiae and propria; the predication of matter; unnatural predication; and the square of opposition. It ends by comparing Aristotle's theory with current ones.

The Anonymous Philosophical Treatise is here presented to the western world for the first time. It is a philosophical treatise of the Late Antique period, written in about the sixth century C.E. The author was a Christian, but he utilized pagan philosophical sources. Thus this is one of the latest writings of ancient philosophy, and as such is of very considerable interest and importance.
The Anonymous Philosophical Treatise was preserved only in Armenian. It was published first half-a-century ago in Armenian and in Russian translation, but is barely known to western scholarship. Here a new edition is presented, prepared on computer, together with critical apparatuses, translation and commentary. A variety of tools for the study of the text are included: a concordance, a word list of the English translation, triliteral tables of Armenian - Greek - English technical terminology and more.

This volume deals with the general theory of pleasure of Plato and his successors.
The first part describes the two paradigms between which all theories of pleasure oscillate: Plato's definition of pleasure as the repletion of a lack, and Aristotle's view that pleasure is the perfect performance of an activity. After an excursus on Epicureans and Stoics, the book concentrates on Neoplatonism, opposing the 'standard Neoplatonic view' of Plotinus and Proclus to the original viewpoint of Damascius' commentary on Plato's Philebus.
The volume sheds light on the discussion between hedonists and anti-hedonists, by concentrating on the 'crucial point' at which any philosophical analysis of the good life (hedonistic or other) ought to argue that the life of the philosopher is the most desirable, and thus truly pleasurable, life.

This study offers a new and stimulating interpretation of Theophrastus' De sensibus, a treatise unique in content and method, as it reports and criticizes the theories of sense perception of the Presocratics and Plato.
Most of the material on the Presocratics is found nowhere else, which explains why many passages can be found scattered over the Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. As an antidote to this fragmented approach the Presocratics are here studied in context, a text informed by a distinctly Peripatetic perspective. The analysis of the reports and (long neglected) criticisms of Plato (ch.4) and the Presocratics (ch.5) offers new insights into Theophrastus' exegetical procedure by succesfully using Peripatetic dialectic as a heuristic tool. The Epilogue outlines some implications for the role of the treatise in the doxographical tradition.

Epictetus' Encheiridion, which was composed by his pupil Arrian with the purpose of giving a comprehensive account of Epictetus' thought, has been transmitted in many sources. Besides the rich direct tradition there are three Christian adaptations, a voluminous commentary by the sixth-century philosopher Simplicius, as well as the indirect tradition.
The most recent critical edition is the editio maior by Johannes Schweighäuser (1798), which does not meet the requirements of modern philology.
In the first part of this book there is a full account of the transmission of Epictetus' Encheiridion and the three Christian adaptations, based on all extant manuscripts. The second part of the book contains critical editions of the four texts; for the Christian Encheiridion of Vaticanus graecus 2231 this is the editio princeps.

This is the first study to deal with the history of Greek mathematics - starting with Appollonius and including astronomy - as part of the history of literary culture. It attempts to find out how mathematical works were presented by original authors (e.g. Ptolemy), and introduced and explained by commentators (e.g. Pappus who is at the centre of this enquiry, Eutocius, and prolegomena by late Anonymi). The manner in which mathematical treatises were presented and studied is entirely comparable to that practised in e.g. philosophy, medicine, biblical and literary studies (see the author's Prolegomena, (Brill, 1994)). Discussion of introductory issues is a standard feature, and in mathematics the development from the implicitly expressed to the explicitly expressed and from there to scholastic routine is the same as in these other fields.

This volume provides the first critical edition of Boethius' De divisione. The importance of Boethius' treatise is twofold: it was widely read in the medieval schools, and it preserves the only known vestiges of Porphyry's commentary on Plato's Sophist and of Andronicus' treatise on diaeresis.
The book is in four main sections: prolegomena in three parts, dealing with the date, source(s), and text of De divisione; critical text with apparatus and English translation; detailed philological and philosophical commentary; appendix, bibliography, and word index.
This is the first edition of De divisione based on the earliest extant manuscripts, and the first complete commentary in any modern language. It will be of particular interest to students of later ancient and medieval philosophy and literature.

This book provides a translation of the only surving ancient commentary on Plato's Goroias, written by the Alexandrian Platonist Olympiodorus in the sixth century A.D.
There are substantial notes on the commentary, which assist the reader to understand the context of Olympiodorus' Platonism, the choices available to him as an interpreter, and the special characteristics of his interpretation. A full introduction tackles the issues of greatest interest that arise from the work, including the author's mission as a Hellenist resisting Christian attacks on his discipline. Indices are provided.
The authors show that there is much more of value in this commentary than has often been supposed, and that the differences between Olympiodorus' approach and those of modern commentators are often illuminating.

This work deals with Aristotle's Topics, a textbook on how to argue successfully in a debate organised in a certain way. The origins of the three branches of logic can be found here: logic of propositions, of predicates and of relations.
Having dealt with the structure of the dialectical debates and the theory of the predicables, the central notion of the topos is analysed. Topoi are principles of arguments designed to help a disputant refute his opponent and function as hypotheses in hypothetical syllogisms, the main form of argument in the Topics. Traces of the crystallization of their theory can be found in the Topics and Analytics.
The author analyses a selection of topoi including those according to which categorical and relational syllogisms are constructed.

The main argument of this book, against a prevailing orthodoxy, is that the study of logic was a vital - and a popular - part of stoic philosophy in the early imperial period. The argument relies primarily on detailed analyses of certain texts in the Discourses of Epictetus. It includes some account of logical 'analysis', of 'hypothetical' reasoning, and of 'changing' arguments.
Written both for historians and for philosophers, and presupposing no logical expertise, this is an important contribution to the history of philosophy in the early imperial period.

Cicero's philosophical works are a rich source for the understanding of Hellenistic philosophy, and his Academic Books are of critical importance for the study of ancient epistemology, especially the central debate between the Academic sceptics and the Stoics. This volume makes Cicero's challenging work accessible to philosophers and historians of philosophy and represents the best current work in both fields.
The ten papers published here are the work of leading authorities from North America, England and Europe; they were presented and discussed at the seventh Symposium Hellenisticum at Utrecht, August 1995, and deal with every aspect of the Academic Books, historical, literary and philosophical.
Several papers make major contributions to the understanding of ancient scepticism and sceptical arguments, to the role of Socrates in later Greek thought, to the history of the Academy as an institution, and to the philosophical stance of Cicero himself.

In the first part of this study, the theme of the union (henosis) is analysed in Dionysius the Areopagite's De Divinis Nominibus. The starting point of this inquiry is the trinitarian theology of Dionysius. He distinguishes between Union (henosis) and distinction (diakrisis), ad intra of the divine Persons and ad extra of the divines names, understood as powers. The movement of procession and conversion of the divine names follows the very structure of the treatise: from the Union to the One, a movement called "the circle of love". In a second moment, the word henosis or the formula henosis hyper noun, "union above the intellect", are analysed in the De divinis nominibus, where they allude to the "union without confusion" of the ideas one with the other, or to the union of intellect with God in the unknowledge.
The second part is dedicated to the union with God in the De Mystica Theologia. The author first studies Moses' ascension and his entrance in the Darkness within the tradition of the commentaries of Exodus, such as Philo's or Gregory of Nyssa's treatises De Vita Mosis; she analyses the progress of negative theology towards the mystical union and she tries to identify the "unknown God" with whom the intellect becomes unified in the neoplatonician theory and also in the context of Paul's discourse on the Areopage. She concludes with an examination of the unio mystica and its major features in Pseudo-Dionysius.

In 1879 the young German scholar Hermann Diels published his celebrated Doxographi Graeci, (in which the major doxographical works of antiquity are collected and analysed). Diels' results have been foundational for the study of ancient philosophy ever since.
In their ground-breaking study the authors focus on the doxographer Aëtius, whose work Diels reconstructed from various later sources. First they examine the antecedents of Diels' Aëtian hypothesis. Then Diels' theory and especially the philological techniques used in its formulation are subjected to detailed analysis. The remainder of the volume offers a fresh examination of the sources for our knowledge for Aëtius. Diels' theory is revised and improved at significant points.
Subsequent volumes will examine the contents and methods of the doxographer and his antecedents in earlier Greek philosophy.
No scholar concerned with the history of ancient philosophy can afford to ignore this study.

During the past three decades Jaap Mansfeld, Professor of Ancient Philosophy in Utrecht, has built up a formidable reputation as a leading scholar in his field. His work has concentrated on the Presocratics, Hellenistic Philosophy, the sources of our knowledge of ancient philosophy (esp. doxography) and the history of scholarship.
In honour of his sixtieth birthday, colleagues and friends have contributed a collection of articles which represent the state of the art in the study of the history of ancient philosophy and frequently concentrate on subjects in which the honorand has made important discoveries.
The 22 contributors include M. Baltes, J. Barnes, J. Brunschwig, W.M. Calder III, J. Dillon, P.L. Donini, J. Glucker, A.A. Long, L.M. de Rijk, D. Sedley, P. Schrijvers, and M. Vegetti. The volume concludes with a complete bibliography of Jaap Mansfeld's scholarly work so far.

This study provides the first full discussion of Philoponus' excursus on matter in contra Proclum XI. 1-8 which sets out the innovative definition of prime matter as three-dimensional extension.
The author argues that Philoponus' definition was motivated primarily by philosophical problems in Neoplatonism. Philoponus employs the explanation of growth, the interpretation of Aristotle's category theory and the notions of formlessness and potentiality to substantiate his definition. To conclude, the book offers an assessment of the significance of Philoponus' innovation.
It is demonstrated for the first time that Plotinus' view of matter exerted considerable influence on both Philoponus and Simplicius. Moreover, the structure of Syrianus' and Proclus' metaphysics prepared the way for Philoponus' account of prime matter.

This volume deals with books II and III of the On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato by the medical scientist and philosopher Galen of Pergamum (129-c. 210 CE ). In these books Galen offers an extensive critique of Stoic psychology, quoting a large number of passages from the otherwise lost treatise On the Soul by the great Stoic philosopher Chrysippus.
This first full-scale study of Chrysippus' mode of argumentation considers the fragments both in their Galenic context and in relation to Stoicism in general.
A separate discussion is devoted to Galen's aims and methods and the traditions he is indebted to. Though designed as a foil for the treatment of Chrysippus, it can also be read by those interested in Galen's methodology for its own sake.

John Cleary here explores the role which the mathematical sciences play in Aristotle's philosophical thought, especially in his cosmology, metaphysics, and epistemology. He also thematizes the aporetic method by means of which he deals with philosophical questions about the foundations of mathematics. The first two chapters consider Plato's mathematical cosmology in the light of Aristotle's critical distinction between physics and mathematics. Subsequent chapters examine three basic aporiae about mathematical objects which Aristotle himself develops in his science of first philosophy. What emerges from this dialectical inquiry is a different conception of substance and of order in the universe, which gives priority to physics over mathematics as the cosmological science. Within this different world-view, we can better understand what we now call Aristotle's philosophy of mathematics.

The significance of Simplicius' commentary lies in the fact that it is a Neoplatonist interpretation of a Stoic text. This volume presents the first critical edition based on all the known manuscripts of this work and offers, in contrast to the edition of Schweighäuser (1800) and the recapitulation of this edition by Dübner (1840), a text which is more complete and improved. A long introduction places the work in the philosophical and historical context of its time and characterises it as a spiritual exercise. The edition is preceded by a summary of the history of the text.

Concepts of Space in Greek Thought studies ancient Greek theories of physical space and place, in particular those of the classical and Hellenistic period. These theories are explained primarily with reference to the general philosophical or methodological framework within which they took shape. Special attention is paid to the nature and status of the sources. Two introductory chapters deal with the interrelations between various concepts of space and with Greek spatial terminology (including case studies of the Eleatics, Democritus and Epicurus). The remaining chapters contain detailed studies on the theories of space of Plato, Aristotle, the early Peripatetics and the Stoics.
The book is especially useful for historians of ancient physics, but may also be of interest to students of Aristotelian dialectic, ancient metaphysics, doxography, and medieval and early modern physics.

Prolegomena deals with the introductory and hermeneutic sections of a wide range of commentaries and studies on philosophical, scientific, biblical and other ancient authors.
Special attention is given to unclearness as a stimulus for interpretation. New light is shed on the Life of an author (e.g. Plotinus') as a preliminary to the study of his works, and on the part played by the idea that life and doctrine should agree with each other.
The results obtained by the study of the practices as well as the avowed principles of ancient scholars and commentators among other things further the understanding of the interrelated philosophical, literary, medical and patristic exegetical traditions, of the book of Diogenes Laërtius, of Galen's autobibliographies and of Thrasyllus' Before the Reading of the Dialogues of Plato.

Aulus Gellius' accounts of his studies in Athens are a major source for the personality of Taurus the Platonic philosopher of the 2nd century A.D. and besides, give important insights into the history of Platonic school of that time.
The present work puts together Gellius' reports on the Middle Platonist for the first time and — by its detailed commentary — offers a new understanding of contents, form and methods of his philosophical instructions, of the relationship between teacher and students, and of student life in the 2nd century A.D. in general. By this means numerous topics in ancient philosophy, philology, science, and pedagogics are dealt with.
Finally the results thus gained are combined with all remaining literary and epigraphic evidence, so that a lively portrait of Taurus as a philosophical teacher emerges. A collection of testimonies and fragments concerning Taurus' life and work, a comprehensive bibliography, and indices complete the work.

Ways into the Logic of Alexander of Aphrodisias is intended to give an overview of the logic of Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. early 3rd century A.D.). Since much of what might be called Alexander's logic is simply Aristotelian logic, instead of engaging in point-by-point analysis, it takes up three themes, one from each of the main areas of traditional logic: the assertoric syllogistic, the modal syllogistic, and the area of metalogical concerns. It provides insight not only into Aristotle's logical writings themselves but also into the tradition of scholarship which they spawned: the ideas and analyses of such figures as Theophrastus of Eresus, John Philoponus and (more recently) Jan Lukasiewicz.

This volume deals with the important Herculanean and philosophical studies of the great Viennese Hellenist Theodor Gomperz. The introduction presents both a concise biography of Gomperz and a careful discussion of his work on the Herculanean Papyri of Epicurus and Philodemus.
Gomperz's essays, reprinted for the first time, are collected here in a photomechanical reprint and furnished with a new pagination. To respect the historical character of the collection no updating of the articles has been attempted.
An Index of the Herculanean Papyri and a Concordance complete the book.
Der Gedanke, eine Auswahl der Herculanensia minora von Theodor Gomperz, wenn auch als fotomechanischen Nachdruck, wieder vorzulegen, enstand sowohl aus dem Wunsch, diese Publikationen wieder zugänglich zu machen, als auch besonders aus dem Willen, bei dieser Gelegenheit dem Gelehrten, der sich ununterbrochen Zeit seines Lebens mit schöpferischem und unermündlichem Eifer den herkulanensichen Papyri gewidmet hat, die gebührende Anerkennung zukommen zu lassen.
Unter den vielen herkulanischen Schriften von Gomperz wurde eine notwendige Auswahl vorgenommen. Um den historischen Charakter der Beiträge zu wahren, wurden Aktualisierungen vermieden, allerdings ein Index der herkulanischen Papyri hinzugefügt.
Die kurze Einleitung erhebt nicht den Anspruch, ein systematisches und vollständiges Bild der herkulanischen Studien von Gomperz zu zeichnen; sie soll lediglich zur Orientierung und Einführung in die Lektüre dienen.

Plotinus' fiercely polemical treatise Against the Gnostics has proved peculiarly resistant to modern methods of criticism. So much so, that historians of philosophy frequently end up attributing to Plotinus himself the very beliefs which Plotinus attempts to demolish in his criticism of the Gnostics.
Denis O'Brien attempts to unravel this paradox by showing that, in earlier treatises of the Enneads, Plotinus puts forward a theory of the generation of matter by soul, which he then takes for granted in his attack on the Gnostics. This leads to a wholly new understanding of Plotinus' 'theodicy' and of the way in which Plotinus himself conceived of his relation to the Gnostics.
Denis O'Brien's analysis should highlight tired commonplaces and support the view that a consistent and original philosophy underlies the complexities and obscurities of the text of the Enneads.

The Stoicorum historia (PHerc. 1018) is one book in Philodemus' extensive History of Philosophy. The Epicurean philosopher Philodemus wrote this work during a stay in Italy ca. 70-60 B.C. with the aim of offering learned Romans an objective and unpolemical history of the Greek philosophical schools.
Philodemus sketches the lives and times of the main representatives of Stoicism from Zeno of Citium to Panaetius of Rhodes. The Stoicorum historia hands down a mass of information on the lives and thought of the Stoics which is not found in Diogenes Laertius' Lives of Eminent Philosophers (Book VII).
This new edition contains the text of PHerc. 1018, now revised, on a critical basis, and Italian translation and commentary. An introduction and indexes complete the work.

The study of the Elenchos (c. 225 CE) involves the whole range of ancient interpretative traditions concerned with Greek Philosophy, from Aristotle to the Late Neoplatonists. The present inquiry places Hippolytus' important reports about the Greek philosophers in the context of these traditions and so is able to illuminate not only what he has to offer but also to increase our knowledge of the traditions he depends on. For him the Pythagoreanizing current in Pre-Neoplatonism is of paramount importance. Accordingly, he constructs a succession (diadoche) starting with Pythagoras and including Empedocles, Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics, and argues that the diadoche of the Gnostic heresiarchs is parasitical on its Pythagorean predecessor.
A new assessment of the sources used — the first serious attempt since that of Diels in 1879 — hinges on an analysis of Hippolytus' method of presentation, which is a blend of cento and exegesis geared to his anti-Gnostic purpose.

The Cratylus has puzzled many readers with its lengthy discussion of the 'true meanings' of more than a hundred Greek names. This book aims to give a coherent interpretation of the whole dialogue, paying particular attention to these etymologies.
The book discusses the rival theories of naming offered by Cratylus, Hermogenes, and Socrates, arguing that Socrates presents a prescriptive theory, laying down what names should be, rather than describing what they are. This distinction between prescriptive and descriptive theories is elaborated and used to illuminate the etymologies themselves. After discussing possible sources for the etymologies, the author argues that the etymological section amounts to a Platonic critique of the muddled attitude of Greek poets and thinkers towards names.

Proclus (c. 410 - 485) was one of the major Greek philosophers of late Antiquity. In his metaphysics he developed and systematized fundamental problems of Plato's thought, such as participation; transcendence - immanence; causation - participation - return; henads and monads. In a theological way he interpreted some of Plato's dialogues. In the tradition of the neo-platonic school of Athens he tried to bring together Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato.
Before and after his works had been translated into Latin, Proclus influenced the Christian West through the Liber de causis ("Book of Causes"), a Latin translation of an anonymous Arab version of his Elementatio theologica. Among those who commented on the Liber or on some of its theses, were many well-known philosophers: Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Master Eckhart, Berthold of Moosberg and William of Ockham. The Liber de causis stimulated discussions about the concepts of God, first and second causality, universals, metaphysics of being as opposed to metaphysics of the one.
In the volume various specialists discuss these problems: Saffrey, De Rijk, Meyer, Steel, De Libera, Aertsen, Beierwaltes and Bos.

The French translation with commentary, the first in a modern language, allows historians of philosophy access to a fundamental work for the understanding of medieval and modern thought. They could also explore more easily the great variety of information contained in the commentary of Simplicius on the history of the exegis of the Catégories of Aristotle, and more generally on the history of comparative philosophy of Simplicius. They will discover some important aspects in the actual thought of Simplicius, which so far has hardly been explored.

Vol. 1: Prefeace, Greek Text
Vol. 2: Translations, Index verborum