State and nature : studies in ancient and medieval philosophy / edited by Peter Adamson, Christof Rapp.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Adamson, Peter, editor.

Rapp, Christof, 1964- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy, Ancient.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (XI, 424 p.)

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Plato and Aristotle

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

Natural Born Philosophers

Normative Naturalism in Aristotle's Political Philosophy?

Whose State? Whose Nature? How Aristotle's Polis is 'Natural'

Aristotle on Freedom, Nature, and Law

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

Part II: Hellenistic Philosophy

Cynic Origins of the Stoic Doctrine of Natural Law?

The Normativity of Nature in Epicurean Ethics and Politics

Nature and Psychology in Cicero's Republic

Unnatural Law: A Ciceronian Perspective

Natural Law and Casuistic Reasoning in Roman Jurisprudence

Part III: Late Antiquity

Human Nature and Normativity in Plotinus

On Justice in Porphyry's On Abstinence

Early Christian Philosophers on Society and Political Norms

Part IV: Medieval Philosophy

Against Nature: Two Critics of Naturalism in the Islamic World

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

Ockham on Human Freedom and the Nature and Origin of Lordship

Index of Names

Index of Subjects

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

3-11-073094-4

OCLC:

1248759158