Epicureanism

By Sedley, David

Epicureanism is one of the three dominant philosophies of the Hellenistic age. The school was founded by Epicurus (341–271 bc) (see Prolēpsis). Only small samples and indirect ...

Epicureanism

Epicureanism is one of the three dominant philosophies of the Hellenistic age. The school was founded by Epicurus (341–271 bc) (see Prolēpsis). Only small samples and indirect ...

Ancient philosophy

By Sedley, David

The philosophy of the Greco-Roman world from the sixth century bc to the sixth century ad laid the foundations for all subsequent Western philosophy. Its greatest ...

Valla, Lorenzo (1407–57)

By Monfasani, John

Unlike most Renaissance humanists, Valla took a special interest in philosophy. However, his most influential writing was a work of grammar, Elegantiae Linguae Latinae (The Fine Points of ...

Gassendi, Pierre (1592–1655)

By Osler, Margaret J.

Pierre Gassendi, a French Catholic priest, introduced the philosophy of the ancient atomist Epicurus into the mainstream of European thought. Like many of his contemporaries in the first ...

Materialism

By Stack, George J.

Materialism is a set of related theories which hold that all entities and processes are composed of – or are reducible to – matter, material forces or physical ...

Philodemus (c.110–c.40 BC)

By Erler, Michael

Philodemus of Gadara, a Greek epigrammatic poet, was also an influential Epicurean philosopher. Scrolls containing many of his works, buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in ad ...

Epicurus (341–271 BC)

By Sedley, David

Epicurus of Samos founded the Epicurean school of philosophy. Initially a Democritean, he overhauled Democritus’ atomism so radically that his system was soon considered an independent one. He ...

Lucretius (c.94–c.55 BC)

By Erler, Michael

Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman Epicurean philosopher and poet. About his life and personality little can be said with certainty, yet his only known work, ‘On the ...

Diogenes of Oenoanda (c. 2nd century AD)

By Erler, Michael

The Epicurean philosopher Diogenes came from the Greek town Oenoanda in Lycia (Turkey). He is known exclusively for his massive philosophical inscription, erected in a colonnade there. Its ...

Atomism, ancient

By Sedley, David

Ancient Greek atomism, starting with Leucippus and Democritus in the fifth century bc, arose as a response to problems of the continuum raised by Eleatic philosophers. In ...

Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106–43 BC)

By White, Stephen A.

Cicero, pre-eminent Roman statesman and orator of the first century bc and a prolific writer, composed the first substantial body of philosophical work in Latin. Rising from ...

Immortality in ancient philosophy

By Brennan, Tad

In Greco-Roman philosophy immortality is discussed in two contexts: as an uncontroversial attribute of the gods and as a highly controversial attribute of human souls. Subdividing this latter ...

Carneades (214–129 BC)

By Barnes, Jonathan

The Greek philosopher Carneades was head of the Academy from 167 to 137 bc. Born in North Africa he migrated to Athens, where he studied logic with ...

Stoicism

By Sedley, David

Stoicism is the Greek philosophical system founded by Zeno of Citium c.300 bc and developed by him and his successors into the most influential philosophy of ...

Stoicism

Stoicism is the Greek philosophical system founded by Zeno of Citium c.300 bc and developed by him and his successors into the most influential philosophy of ...

Libertins

By MacLean, Ian

The term ‘libertin’ was first used in France in the late sixteenth century as a term of abuse directed against alleged free-thinkers and atheists who were linked with ...

Prolēpsis

By Scott, Dominic

In post-Aristotelian Greek philosophy, the term prolēpsis (plural prolēpseis) was used, first by Epicurus and then by the Stoics, to refer to basic general concepts. These ...

Innateness in ancient philosophy

By Scott, Dominic

The idea that knowledge exists latently in the mind, independently of sense experience, is put forward in three of Plato’s dialogues: the Meno, the Phaedo and the Phaedrus. ...

Mechanism, in modern philosophy

By MacIntosh, Jack

Mechanism is the view that the material world is composed of small particles (corpuscles, or atoms), whose motion, size, shape, and various arrangements and clusterings provide the theoretical ...

Cavendish, Margaret Lucas (1623–73)

By O'Neill, Eileen

The only seventeenth-century woman to publish numerous books on natural philosophy, Cavendish presented her materialism in a wide range of literary forms. She abandoned her early commitment to ...

John of Salisbury (1115/20–1180)

By Jordan, Mark D.

John of Salisbury is one of the most learned and penetrating of twelfth-century Latin writers on moral and political matters. In his style as in his teaching, John ...

Democritus (mid 5th–4th century BC)

By Taylor, C.C.W.

A co-founder with Leucippus of the theory of atomism, The Greek Philosopher Democritus developed it into a universal system, embracing physics, cosmology, epistemology, psychology and theology. He is ...

Eclecticism

By Mcclellan, Chris

Eclecticism in philosophy is the construction of a system of thought by combining elements of the established systems of a previous age. The term ‘eclecticism’ is derived from ...

Encyclopedists, medieval

By Barnish, Samuel

The modern encyclopedic genre was unknown in the classical world. In the grammar-based culture of late antiquity, learned compendia, by both pagan and Christian writers, were organized around ...