Hellenistic philosophy

By Sedley, David

The Hellenistic schools dominated the Greco-Roman world from c.300 bc to the mid first century bc, making it an era of great philosophical brilliance. The ...

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 ...

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 ...

International law, philosophy of

By Buchanan, Allen

The philosophy of international law has a long history, reaching back on some accounts beyond the Medieval period to late Hellenistic philosophy. In the twentieth century work in ...

Medieval philosophy

By MacDonald, Scott; Kretzmann, Norman

Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe from about ad 400–1400, roughly the period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance. Medieval philosophers are the ...

Epistemology, history of

By Pappas, George S.

Epistemology has always been concerned with issues such as the nature, extent, sources and legitimacy of knowledge. Over the course of western philosophy, philosophers have concentrated sometimes on ...

Aristotle (384–322 BC)

By Irwin, T.H.

Aristotle of Stagira is one of the two most important philosophers of the ancient world, and one of the four or five most important of any time or ...

Pyrrho (c.365–c.275 BC)

By Brunschwig, Jacques

The Greek philosopher Pyrrho of Elis gave his name first to the most influential version of ancient scepticism (Pyrrhonism), and later to scepticism as such (pyrrhonism). Like Socrates, ...

al-Kindi, Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq (d. c.866–73)

By Kennedy-Day, Kiki

Practically unknown in the Western world, al-Kindi has an honoured place in the Islamic world as the ‘philosopher of the Arabs’. Today he might be viewed as a ...

Greek philosophy: impact on Islamic philosophy

By Fakhry, Majid

During the Hellenistic period (323–43 bc), classical Greek philosophy underwent a radical transformation. From being an essentially Greek product, it developed into a cosmopolitan and eclectic cultural ...

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 ...

Peripatetics

By Sharples, R.W.

The title ‘Peripatetics’ designates followers of the philosophical tradition founded by Aristotle: at first those who continued his inquiries, and in the Roman period those who interpreted and ...

Timon (c.315–c.225 BC)

By Brunschwig, Jacques

Timon was a Greek philosopher-poet. The formative influence on his life was his meeting with Pyrrho, who was later hailed as the founder of Scepticism. He devoted his ...

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 ...

Platonism, Early and Middle

By Dillon, John

Platonism is the body of doctrine developed in the school founded by Plato, both before and (especially) after his death in 347 bc. The first phase, usually ...

Egyptian cosmology, ancient

By Ray, John D.

Ancient Egypt has left us no systematic philosophy in the modern sense. However, there is abundant evidence that the Egyptians were concerned with all the usual problems of ...

Ariston of Chios (early to mid 3rd century BC)

By Sedley, David

The Greek philosopher Ariston (alternatively Aristo), from the Aegean island of Chios, was an exceptionally independent-minded member of the early Stoic school. A pupil of the founder Zeno ...

Dialectical school

By Sedley, David

An offshoot of the Megarian school, and active c.350–250 bc, the Dialectical school was an important precursor of Stoic logic. Its leading members were Diodorus Cronus ...

Diodorus Cronus (late 4th–early 3rd centuries BC)

By Denyer, Nicholas

The most famous member of the Dialectical school, the Greek philosopher Diodorus Cronus maintained various paradoxical theses. He argued that any attempt to divide space, time or matter ...

Posidonius (c.135–c.50 BC)

By Algra, Keimpe A.

Posidonius of Apamea (Syria) was a Stoic philosopher and student of Panaetius. He taught in Rhodes. He combined a passion for detailed empirical research with a general commitment ...

Strato (d. c.269 BC)

By Sharples, R.W.

The third head of Aristotle’s school, from c.287 to c.269 bc, Strato has been regarded as substituting materialism for Aristotelian metaphysics, mechanism for teleology, atheism ...

Islam, concept of philosophy in

By Leaman, Oliver

There is no generally accepted definition of what Islamic philosophy is, and the term will be used here to mean the sort of philosophy which arose within the ...

Pyrrhonism

By Hankinson, R.J.

Pyrrhonism was the name given by the Greeks to one particular brand of scepticism, that identified (albeit tenuously) with Pyrrho of Elis, who was said (by his disciple ...