The Theaetetus is among the most brilliant of Plato's dialogues, but is also deeply enigmatic, leaving readers divided over its philosophical intentions. David Sedley proposes and develops a solution, based on a groundbreaking two-level reading. Offering significant reinterpretations of the dialogue's main arguments, The Midwife of Platonism is addressed to all readers interested in Plato, and does not require knowledge of Greek.

The Midwife of Platonism: Text and Subtext in Plato's Theaetetus

Politics & Social Sciences

Sedley, David

Philosophy

Clarendon Press

Plato's Cratylus (Cambridge Studies in the Dialogues of Plato)

Cambridge University Press

The world is configured in ways that seem systematically hospitable to life forms, especially the human race. Is this the outcome of divine planning or simply of the laws of physics? Ancient Greeks and Romans famously disagreed on whether the cosmos was the product of design or accident. In this book, David Sedley examines this question and illuminates new historical perspectives on the pantheon of thinkers who laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Versions of what we call the "creationist" option were widely favored by the major thinkers of classical antiquity, including Plato, whose ideas on the subject prepared the ground for Aristotle's celebrated teleology. But Aristotle aligned himself with the anti-creationist lobby, whose most militant members—the atomists—sought to show how a world just like ours would form inevitably by sheer accident, given only the infinity of space and matter. This stimulating study explores seven major thinkers and philosophical movements enmeshed in the debate: Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, the atomists, Aristotle, and the Stoics.

Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity

History

Ancient Civilizations

University of California Press

The world is configured in ways that seem systematically hospitable to life forms, especially the human race. Is this the outcome of divine planning or simply of the laws of physics? Ancient Greeks and Romans famously disagreed on whether the cosmos was the product of design or accident. In this book, David Sedley examines this question and illuminates new historical perspectives on the pantheon of thinkers who laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Versions of what we call the "creationist" option were widely favored by the major thinkers of classical antiquity, including Plato, whose ideas on the subject prepared the ground for Aristotle's celebrated teleology. But Aristotle aligned himself with the anti-creationist lobby, whose most militant members―the atomists―sought to show how a world just like ours would form inevitably by sheer accident, given only the infinity of space and matter. This stimulating study explores seven major thinkers and philosophical movements enmeshed in the debate: Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, the atomists, Aristotle, and the Stoics.

Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity (Volume 66)

Where does the notion of free will come from? How and when did it develop, and what did that development involve? In Michael Frede's radically new account of the history of this idea, the notion of a free will emerged from powerful assumptions about the relation between divine providence, correctness of individual choice, and self-enslavement due to incorrect choice. Anchoring his discussion in Stoicism, Frede begins with Aristotle--who, he argues, had no notion of a free will--and ends with Augustine. Frede shows that Augustine, far from originating the idea (as is often claimed), derived most of his thinking about it from the Stoicism developed by Epictetus.

A Free Will: Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought (Volume 68)

Frede, Michael

Long, A.A.

This book presents a global reintrepretation of the Cratylus, which bears on the relationship of language to knowledge, a topic that has never ceased to be of central philosophical importance. It is designed to be accessible to anyone interested either in Plato or in the history of linguistic thought. The main text does not presuppose prior expertise in Plato or knowledge of Greek; such scholarly aspects are confined to the footnotes.

Europe

This book presents a global reintrepretation of the Cratylus, which bears on the relationship of language to knowledge, a topic that has never ceased to be of central philosophical importance. It is designed to be accessible to anyone interested either in Plato or in the history of linguistic thought. The main text does not presuppose prior expertise in Plato or knowledge of Greek; such scholarly aspects are confined to the footnotes.

The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy

Pyrrhonian skepticism has gradually gained a stellar reputation. Rather than being dismissed as extremist and evidently implausible, as it often was in the past, it is now recognized as a philosophically sophisticated outlook, sympathetic to today's commitment to science as a long-term enterprise. Ancient skepticism is now seen as an important position in the history of philosophy and as addressing core questions in epistemology. It is worthwhile to be studied by anyone interested in the nature of investigation, knowledge, belief, language and action. Leading experts contribute to this volume, which offers a philosophical introduction, translation and commentary as well as scholarly essays on one of the most important texts about Pyrrhonian skepticism, Diogenes Laertius' report about Pyrrho and Timon in his Lives of Eminent Philosophers.

Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (Scripta Antiquitatis Posterioris Ad Ethicam Religionemque Pe) (English and Greek Edition)

Warren, James

Bett, Richard

Corti, Lorenzo

Olfert, Christiana MM

Scharffenberger, Elisabeth

Tiziano, Dorandi

Mohr Siebeck

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sedley, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Sedley, David

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sedley, David. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Midwife of Platonism: Text and Subtext in Plato's Theaetetus

The Midwife of Platonism: Text and Subtext in Plato's Theaetetus

Plato's Cratylus (Cambridge Studies in the Dialogues of Plato)

Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity

Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity (Volume 66)

A Free Will: Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought (Volume 68)

Plato's Cratylus (Cambridge Studies in the Dialogues of Plato)

Plato's Cratylus (Cambridge Studies in the Dialogues of Plato)

The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy

Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (Scripta Antiquitatis Posterioris Ad Ethicam Religionemque Pe) (English and Greek Edition)