Aristotle Commentators

By Sorabji, Richard

Aristotle’s school treatises were given renewed prominence by Andronicus of Rhodes in the first century bc, and from then on numerous commentaries were written on them. The ...

Aristotle Commentators

Aristotle’s school treatises were given renewed prominence by Andronicus of Rhodes in the first century bc, and from then on numerous commentaries were written on them. The ...

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 ...

Social sciences, philosophy of

By Ruben, David-Hillel

Although some of the topics and issues treated in the philosophy of social science are as old as philosophy itself (for example, the contrast between nature and convention ...

Latin America, philosophy in

By Oliver, Amy A.

Geographically, Latin America extends from the Mexican–US border to those regions of Antarctica to which various Latin American countries have laid claim. It includes the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Philosophy ...

Metaphysics

By Craig, Edward

Metaphysics is a broad area of philosophy marked out by two types of inquiry. The first aims to be the most general investigation possible into the nature of ...

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 ...

Biology, philosophy of

By Lewens, Tim

Biologists sometimes look perplexed when they are told of the existence of a subject called ‘The Philosophy of Biology’. What, they ask, is there to philosophise about in ...

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 ...

Political philosophy

By Miller, David

Political philosophy can be defined as philosophical reflection on how best to arrange our collective life - our political institutions and our social practices, such as our economic ...

Poland, philosophy in

By Czerkawski, Jan; Stepien, Antoni B.; Wielgus, Stanislaw

Philosophy in Poland has developed largely along the same lines as its Western European counterpart. Yet it also has many aspects which are peculiar to itself. Historically, the ...

Introduction to Philosophy

By Crane, Tim

REP can be approached at so many different levels: philosophers at any stage can lose themselves in the interconnected web of entries. ...

Dreaming

By Revonsuo, Antti

Dreaming is one of the most mysterious mental states. When we dream, we experience sensations, perceptions, actions, emotions, and thoughts while our bodies lie immobile in our beds. ...

Aristotelianism in Islamic philosophy

By Kennedy-Day, Kiki

In Arabic, Aristotle was referred to by name as Aristutalis or, more frequently, Aristu, although when quoted he was often referred to by a sobriquet such as ‘the ...

Mechanics, Aristotelian

By Franklin, Allan

The central feature of Aristotle’s mechanics is his discussion of local motion, a change of place, which he categorizes as either natural or violent. He further divides natural ...

Owen, Gwilym Ellis Lane (1922–82)

By Cooper, John M.

G.E.L. Owen led the reorientation in ancient philosophy that began in the 1950s in Britain and North America. He approached the texts with a profound knowledge of classical ...

Simplicius (fl. first half 6th century AD)

By Wildberg, Christian

Simplicius of Cilicia, a Greek Neoplatonic philosopher and polymath, lived in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He is the author of the most learned commentaries on ...

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 ...

Theophrastus (c.372–c.287 BC)

By Huby, Pamela M.

Theophrastus, the pupil and successor of Aristotle, shared all the latter’s interests, and produced a large number of works on the same topics. Some, like the extant botanical ...

Aristotelianism, Renaissance

By Mahoney, Edward P.; South, James B.

By the Renaissance here is meant the period of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries during which there was a deliberate attempt, especially in Italy, to pattern cultural activities ...

Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. c. AD 200)

By Sharples, R.W.

The Peripatetic philosopher Alexander was known to posterity as the commentator on Aristotle, until Averroes took over this title. His commentaries eclipsed most of those of his ...

Virtue ethics

Virtue ethics has its origin in the ancient world, particularly in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. It has been revived following an article by G. E. M. ...

Ammonius, son of Hermeas (c. AD 440–521)

By Wildberg, Christian

The Greek philosopher Ammonius, ‘son of Hermeas’ was an Alexandrian Neoplatonist. Educated by Proclus in Athens, he succeeded his father as head of the school in Alexandria, where ...

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 ...

Logic, ancient

By Thom, Paul

Western antiquity produced two great bodies of logical theory – those of Aristotle and the Stoics. Both aim to explain what distinguishes good arguments from bad. Both see ...