Knowledge, nature, and the good : essays on ancient philosophy / John M. Cooper.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cooper, John M. (John Madison), 1939-2022.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy, Ancient.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (420 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Knowledge, Nature, and the Good brings together some of John Cooper's most important works on ancient philosophy. In thirteen chapters that represent an ideal companion to the author's influential Reason and Emotion, Cooper addresses a wide range of topics and periods--from Hippocratic medical theory and Plato's epistemology and moral philosophy, to Aristotle's physics and metaphysics, academic scepticism, and the cosmology, moral psychology, and ethical theory of the ancient Stoics. Almost half of the pieces appear here for the first time or are presented in newly expanded, extensively revised versions. Many stand at the cutting edge of research into ancient ethics and moral psychology. Other chapters, dating from as far back as 1970, are classics of philosophical scholarship on antiquity that continue to play a prominent role in current teaching and scholarship in the field. All of the chapters are distinctive for the way that, whatever the particular topic being pursued, they attempt to understand the ancient philosophers' views in philosophical terms drawn from the ancient philosophical tradition itself (rather than from contemporary philosophy). Through engaging creatively and philosophically with the ancient texts, these essays aim to make ancient philosophical perspectives freshly available to contemporary philosophers and philosophy students, in all their fascinating inventiveness, originality, and deep philosophical merit. This book will be treasured by philosophers, classicists, students of philosophy and classics, those in other disciplines with an interest in ancient philosophy, and anyone who seeks to understand philosophy in philosophical terms.

Contents:

Knowledge

Method and science in On ancient medicine

Plato on sense-perception and knowledge (Theaetetus 184-186)

Plato, Isocrates, and Cicero on the independence of oratory from philosophy

Arcesilaus : Socratic and skeptic

Nature

Aristotle on natural teleology

Hypothetical necessity

Two notes on Aristotle on mixture

Metaphysics in Aristotle's embryology

Stoic autonomy

The good

Two theories of justice

Plato and Aristotle on "finality" and "(Self)sufficiency"

Moral theory and moral improvement : Seneca

Moral theory and moral improvement : Marcus Aurelius.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [369]-379) and indexes.

ISBN:

9786612087080

9781282087088

1282087088

9781400826445

1400826446

OCLC:

368350350