Peripatetic Philosophy, 200 BC to AD 200
An Introduction and Collection of Sources in Translation

A collection of sources, including many which are here translated into English for the first time.

R. W. Sharples (Author)

9780521884808, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 October 2010

330 pages, 5 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.65 kg

'During the four centuries 200 BC–AD 200 foundations for the invention of Aristotelianism were being laid. The evidence for this important development, hitherto quite scattered and obscure, can now be thoroughly studied through the translations and discussions Professor Sharples provides in this splendid source book. By organizing the material under the headings of logic and ontology, ethics, and physics, he has made it possible to get a clear grasp of the principal themes and philosophical issues of this Peripatetic tradition. His book is a major achievement.' A. A. Long, University of California, Berkeley

This book provides a collection of sources, many of them fragmentary and previously scattered and hard to access, for the development of Peripatetic philosophy in the later Hellenistic period and the early Roman Empire. It also supplies the background against which the first commentator on Aristotle from whom extensive material survives, Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. c. AD 200), developed his interpretations which continue to be influential even today. Many of the passages are here translated into English for the first time, including the whole of the summary of Peripatetic ethics attributed to 'Arius Didymus'.

Introduction
1. People
2. The rediscovery of Aristotle's works?
3. A Hellenistic account of Aristotle's philosophy
4. Philosophy and rhetoric
5. The starting-point and parts of philosophy
6. Commentaries: logic and ontology
7. The categories: (i) placement and title
8. The categories: (ii) words or things or words as signifying things?
9. The categories: (iii) per se and relative: ten categories or two?
10. The categories: (iv) time and place
11. On interpretation
12. Ontology: form and matter
13. Logic
14. Theory of knowledge. Ethics
15. An account of Peripatetic ethics: Stobaeus, 'doxography C'
16. Emotions
17. The primary natural things: oikei?sis
18. Bodily and external goods and happiness. Physics
19. The nature of time and place
20. The eternity of the world
21. The heavens
22. God and providence
23. Fate, choice and what depends on us
24. Soul
25. Generation
26. Sensation
27. Intellect
Bibliography
Index of sources
Index of passages cited
Index of personal names (ancient)
General index.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]