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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

Forms, Platonic

By Brennan, Tad

Plato thought that in addition to the changeable, extended bodies we perceive around us, there are also unchangeable, extensionless entities, not perceptible by the senses, that structure the ...

Nativism

By Samet, Jerry

Traditional empiricism claims that the mind is initially equipped only with the capacity for experience and the mechanisms that make it possible for us to learn from experience. ...

Innate knowledge

By Sober, Elliott

If innate knowledge exists, there must be innate beliefs and those beliefs must count as knowledge. In consequence, the problem of clarifying the concept of innate knowledge divides ...

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 ...

Plato (427–347 BC)

By Schofield, Malcolm

Plato was an Athenian Greek of aristocratic family, active as a philosopher in the first half of the fourth century bc. He was a devoted follower of ...

Plato (427–347 BC)

Plato was an Athenian Greek of aristocratic family, active as a philosopher in the first half of the fourth century bc. He was a devoted follower of ...