Early Greek Philosophies of Nature

Early Greek Philosophies of Nature PDF

Author: Andrew Gregory

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-10-01

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1350080993

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This book examines the philosophies of nature of the early Greek thinkers and argues that a significant and thoroughgoing shift is required in our understanding of them. In contrast with the natural world of the earliest Greek literature, often the result of arbitrary divine causation, in the work of early Ionian philosophers we see the idea of a cosmos: ordered worlds where there is complete regularity. How was this order generated and maintained and what underpinned those regularities? What analogies or models were used for the order of the cosmos? What did they think about causation and explanatory structure? How did they frame natural laws? Andrew Gregory draws on recent work on mechanistic philosophy and its history, on the historiography of the relation of science to art, religion and magic, and on the fragments and doxography of the early Greek thinkers to argue that there has been a tendency to overestimate the extent to which these early Greek philosophies of nature can be described as 'mechanistic'. We have underestimated how far they were committed to other modes of explanation and ontologies, and we have underestimated, underappreciated and indeed underexplored how plausible and good these philosophies would have been in context.

The Greek Concept of Nature

The Greek Concept of Nature PDF

Author: Gerard Naddaf

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0791483673

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In The Greek Concept of Nature, Gerard Naddaf utilizes historical, mythological, and linguistic perspectives to reconstruct the origin and evolution of the Greek concept of phusis. Usually translated as nature, phusis has been decisive both for the early history of philosophy and for its subsequent development. However, there is a considerable amount of controversy on what the earliest philosophers—Anaximander, Xenophanes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, and Democritus—actually had in mind when they spoke of phusis or nature. Naddaf demonstrates that the fundamental and etymological meaning of the word refers to the whole process of birth to maturity. He argues that the use of phusis in the famous expression Peri phuseos or historia peri phuseos refers to the origin and the growth of the universe from beginning to end. Naddaf's bold and original theory for the genesis of Greek philosophy demonstrates that archaic and mythological schemes were at the origin of the philosophical representations, but also that cosmogony, anthropogony, and politogony were never totally separated in early Greek philosophy.

Greek Natural Philosophy

Greek Natural Philosophy PDF

Author: John Baird Callicott

Publisher:

Published: 2017-12-21

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9781516554270

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Greek Natural Philosophy presents the primary sources on the Presocratics in a straightforward way in order to tell a coherent story about the astonishing development of natural philosophy in ancient Greece and its relevance today. The book begins with historical influences on the birth of natural philosophy, especially literacy and the ecosystem services provided by the natural environment of ancient Greece. It argues that the individual philosophers' thoughts about the nature of the cosmos, living things, humankind, and human culture were linked by a "diachronic dialectic of ideas." Each philosopher's speculations were subjected to a critique by the next generation who crafted more subtle theories. The dialectical transition is traced from the mythopoeic worldview of Hesiod to the rational worldview of Thales and his Milesian successors, followed by Xenophanes and Heraclitus, then Parmenides and his Eleatic successors, and the qualitative pluralisms of Anaxagoras and Empedocles. An entirely fresh interpretation is provided of the Atomists and later Pythagoreans, whose work culminated in the ideas upon which Galileo, Newton, and the other architects of modern science, continued to build. In the span of only two centuries, the Presocratics developed the basic principles of philosophy and natural science, ecology, mathematical astronomy, the atomic theory of matter, an inertial theory of motion, and the possibility that our solar system is only one of infinitely many scattered throughout infinite time and space. The concluding chapter traces natural philosophy through subsequent centuries until its abandonment in 20th century philosophy, leading to the moribund state of philosophy by the end of that century. The authors show how environmental philosophy represents a return to natural philosophy and a model for the revival of philosophy's vigor and relevance in the 21st century. Greek Natural Philosophy is suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses in ancient Greek philosophy or in environmental philosophy, and will be of interest to scholars in these fields.

The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers

The Theology of the Early Greek Philosophers PDF

Author: Werner Jaeger

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2003-09-02

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1592443214

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The new and revolutionizing ideas which the early Greek thinkers developed about the nature of the universe had a direct impact upon their conception of what they called, in a new sense, 'God' or 'the Divine.' The history of the philosophical theology of the Greeks is thus the history of their rational approach to the nature of reality itself in its successive phases. The late Professor Jaeger's classic book traces this development from the first intimations in Hesiod of the theology that was to come, through the heroic age of Greek cosmological thought, down to the time of the Sophists of the fifth century B.C.

Early Greek philosophy

Early Greek philosophy PDF

Author: John Burnet

Publisher: Good Press

Published: 2022-08-21

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13:

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"Early Greek philosophy" by John Burnet. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Money and the Early Greek Mind

Money and the Early Greek Mind PDF

Author: Richard Seaford

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-03-11

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9780521539920

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How were the Greeks of the sixth century BC able to invent philosophy and tragedy? In this book Richard Seaford argues that a large part of the answer can be found in another momentous development, the invention and rapid spread of coinage, which produced the first ever thoroughly monetised society. By transforming social relations monetisation contributed to the ideas of the universe as an impersonal system, fundamental to Presocratic philosophy, and of the individual alienated from his own kin and from the gods, as found in tragedy.

Early Greek philosophy

Early Greek philosophy PDF

Author: John Burnet

Publisher: Phoemixx Classics Ebooks

Published: 2022-01-27

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 3986778195

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Early Greek philosophy John Burnet - When traditional view of the world & the customary rules of life had broken down, the Greeks began to feel the needs which philosophies of nature & of conduct seek to satisfy.Note on the 4th EditionPreface to 3rd EditionIntroductionNote on the SourcesTHE MILESIAN SCHOOLSCIENCE & RELIGIONHERAKLEITOS OF EPHESOSPARMENIDES OF ELEAEMPEDOKLES OF AKRAGASANAXAGORAS OF KLAZOMENAITHE PYTHAGOREANSTHE YOUNGER ELEATICSLEUKIPPOS OF MILETOSECLECTICISM & REACTION

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