Socrates (469–399 BC)

By Cooper, John M.

Socrates, an Athenian Greek of the second half of the fifth century bc, wrote no philosophical works but was uniquely influential in the later history of philosophy. ...

Socrates (469–399 BC)

Socrates, an Athenian Greek of the second half of the fifth century bc, wrote no philosophical works but was uniquely influential in the later history of philosophy. ...

African philosophy

By Appiah, K. Anthony

In order to indicate the range of some of the kinds of material that must be included in a discussion of philosophy in Africa, it is as well ...

Aretē

By Sedley, David

A pivotal term of ancient Greek ethics, aretē is conventionally translated ‘virtue’, but is more properly ‘goodness’ – the quality of being a good human being. Philosophy ...

Cratylus (late 5th/early 4th century BC)

By Long, A.A.

Probably an Athenain, Cratylus was a radical Heraclitean, holding that the world is in constant and total flux. Through this doctrine he had a seminal influence on Plato. ...

Aristippus the Elder (c.435–c.355 BC)

By Tsouna, Voula

Aristippus of Cyrene was a member of Socrates’ entourage who after Socrates’ death (399 bc) founded the Cyrenaic school. He was primarily interested in practical ethics. He ...

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 ...

Megarian school

By Sedley, David

The Megarians were a Greek ‘Socratic’ school of the fourth and early third centuries bc. After their founder Euclides, whose main doctrine was the unity of the ...

Presocratic philosophy

By Sedley, David

The Presocratics were the first Western philosophers. The most celebrated are Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Democritus. Active in Greece throughout the ...

Prodicus (fl. late 5th century BC)

By Kahn, Charles H.

Prodicus was a Greek Sophist from the island of Ceos; he was active in Athens. He served his city as ambassador and also became prominent as a professional ...

Callicles (late 5th century BC)

By Hobbs, Angela

Callicles, although known only as a character in Plato’s Gorgias (the dramatic date of which is somewhere between 430 and 405 bc), was probably an actual historical ...

Diogenes Laertius (c. AD 300–50)

By Runia, David T.

Diogenes Laertius is the author of a famous work entitled Lives of the Philosophers consisting of nearly one hundred accounts of individual philosophers. These contain mainly biographical information, ...

al-‘Amiri, Abu’l Hasan Muhammad ibn Yusuf (d. 992)

By Gaskill, Tom

Although al-‘Amiri had only a limited long-term impact, his extant works provide useful insights into an extremely creative period in Islamic philosophy in the tenth century ad. ...

Celsus (late 2nd century AD)

By Dillon, John

The Greek philosopher Celsus of Alexandria was a Middle Platonist, known only for his anti-Christian work The True Account. The work is lost, but we have Origen’s reply ...

Hippias (late 5th century BC)

By Kahn, Charles H.

The Greek Sophist Hippias of Elis is a familiar figure in Plato’s dialogues. He served his city as ambassador, and he earned a great deal of money from ...

Predication

By Mulligan, Kevin

Some sentences have a very simple structure, consisting only of a part which serves to pick out a particular object and a part which says something about the ...

Diogenes of Sinope (412/403–324/321 BC)

By Branham, R. Bracht

Diogenes of Sinope was considered, along with Antisthenes, the founder of Cynicism. His nickname ‘Cynic’, literally ‘doglike’, reflects the highly unconventional lifestyle he lived and advocated. Radically re-evaluating ...

Platonism in Islamic philosophy

By Burrell, David

Plato seems to have been more an icon and an inspiration than an authentic source for Islamic philosophers. So far as is known, the only works available to ...

Buddha (6th–5th century BC)

By Cousins, L.S.

The title of Buddha is usually given to the historical founder of the Buddhist religion, Siddhārtha Gautama, although it has been applied to other historical figures, Buddhist and ...

Gerdil, Giancinto Sigismondo (1718–1802)

By Riley, Patrick

A lifelong member of the Barnabite religious order, Gerdil became well-known as the most eminent Italian disciple of Malebranche (and critic of Locke); in 1764 he published a ...

Patočka, Jan (1907–77)

By Zumr, Josef
Translated by Burša, G.R.F.

Patočka was a Czech philosopher, one of the last pupils of Husserl. From the mid 1930s he developed his own approach to philosophical problems of the life-world (Lebenswelt), ...

Zeno of Citium (334–262 BC)

By Sedley, David

Zeno of Citium, a Greek philosopher from Cyprus, founded the Stoic school in Athens c.300 bc. His background and training lay in various branches of the ...

Nous

By Long, A.A.

Commonly translated as ‘mind’ or ‘intellect’, the Greek word nous is a key term in the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus. What gives nous its ...

Physis and nomos

By Hobbs, Angela

In the fifth and fourth centuries bc a vigorous debate arose in Greece centred on the terms physis (nature) and nomos (law or custom). It ...

Anaxarchus (c.380–c.330 BC)

By Brunschwig, Jacques

The Greek philosopher Anaxarchus of Abdera was a friend of Alexander the Great, teacher and friend of Pyrrho, and heroic victim of a tyrant. More a court philosopher ...