The Self in Ancient and Early Modern Philosophy
The Self in Ancient and Early Modern Philosophy

Author: Attila Nemeth

Publisher:

Published: 2025-05-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1350380377

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This open access collection of studies by internationally distinguished scholars focuses on the philosophical concepts of the Self in Graeco-Roman antiquity and the early modern period. The contributors bring together a range of historical and comparative case-studies that highlight tensions as well as connections between ancient and early modern conceptions of the self. Ancient philosophers discussed include Plato, Lucretius, the Stoics, the Cynics, Augustine and the Neoplatonists; early modern philosophers include Descartes, Gassendi, Pascal, Fénelon, Abbadie, Diderot and Kant. The two periods are bridged by a series of chapters assessing the influence of ancient thought on emerging 17th-18th century philosophical and scientific theories of the Self, aiming to answer questions like these: 'Should we see references to ancient pagan or Christian authors merely as documents of a cultural code or a taste for antiquity? Or do they represent a genuine return to a real source of inspiration? Do these points of contact mark opposition, tension, or complementarity?' The volume, which both contains new insights on particular periods of intellectual history and reassesses the possible connections between them, will be of interest to philosophers, classicists, psychologists, and historians of science and ideas. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary.

Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy
Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy

Author: M. F. Burnyeat

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-06-14

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0521750725

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The first of two volumes collecting the published work of one of the greatest living ancient philosophers, M.F. Burnyeat.

The Problem of Universals in Early Modern Philosophy
The Problem of Universals in Early Modern Philosophy

Author: Stefano Di Bella

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-06-29

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0190608056

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The ancient topic of universals was central to scholastic philosophy, which raised the question of whether universals exist as Platonic forms, as instantiated Aristotelian forms, as concepts abstracted from singular things, or as words that have universal signification. It might be thought that this question lost its importance after the decline of scholasticism in the modern period. However, the fourteen contributions contained in The Problem of Univerals in Early Modern Philosophy indicate that the issue of universals retained its vitality in modern philosophy. Modern philosophers in fact were interested in 3 sets of issues concerning universals: (i) issues concerning the ontological status of universals, (ii) issues concerning the psychology of the formation of universal concepts or terms, and (iii) issues concerning the value and use of universal concepts or terms in the acquisition of knowledge. Chapters in this volume consider the various forms of "Platonism," "conceptualism" and "nominalism" (and distinctive combinations thereof) that emerged from the consideration of such issues in the work of modern philosophers. Furthermore, this volume covers not only the canonical modern figures, namely, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Kant, but also more neglected figures such as Pierre Gassendi, Pierre-Sylvain Regis, Nicolas Malebranche, Henry More, Ralph Cudworth and John Norris.

Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy: Volume 2
Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy: Volume 2

Author: M. F. Burnyeat

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-06-14

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1107376432

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M. F. Burnyeat taught for 14 years in the Philosophy Department of University College London, then for 18 years in the Classics Faculty at Cambridge, 12 of them as the Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy, before migrating to Oxford in 1996 to become a Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at All Souls College. The studies, articles and reviews collected in these two volumes of Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy were all written, and all but two published, before that decisive change. Whether designed for a scholarly audience or for a wider public, they range from the Presocratics to Augustine, from Descartes and Bishop Berkeley to Wittgenstein and G. E. Moore. Their subject-matter falls under four main headings: 'Logic and Dialectic' and 'Scepticism Ancient and Modern', which make up the first volume, with 'Knowledge' and 'Philosophy and the Good Life' contained in this, the second volume. The title 'Explorations' well expresses Burnyeat's ability to discover new aspects of familiar texts, new ways of solving old problems. In his hands the history of philosophy becomes itself a philosophical activity.

Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy
Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy

Author: Martin Pickavé

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-10-04

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0199579911

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This volume explores emotion in medieval and early modern thought, and opens a contemporary debate on the way emotions figure in our cognitive lives. Thirteen original essays explore the key themes of emotion within the mind; the intentionality of emotions; emotions and action; and the role of emotion in self-understanding and social situations.

Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy
Hellenistic and Early Modern Philosophy

Author: Jon Miller

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-06-26

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 1139442090

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Early modern philosophers looked for inspiration to the later ancient thinkers when they rebelled against the dominant Platonic and Aristotelian traditions. The impact of the Hellenistic philosophers (principally the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics) on such philosophers as Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza and Locke was profound and is ripe for reassessment. This collection of essays offers precisely that. Leading historians of philosophy explore the connections between Hellenistic and early modern philosophy in ways that take advantage of new scholarly and philosophical advances. The essays display a challenging range of methods and will be an invaluable point of reference for philosophers, historians of ideas and classicists.

Self
Self

Author: Richard Sorabji

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2008-09-26

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13: 0226768309

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Drawing on classical antiquity and Western and Eastern philosophy, Richard Sorabji tackles in Self the question of whether there is such a thing as the individual self or only a stream of consciousness. According to Sorabji, the self is not an undetectable soul or ego, but an embodied individual whose existence is plain to see. Unlike a mere stream of consciousness, it is something that owns not only a consciousness but also a body. Sorabji traces historically the retreat from a positive idea of self and draws out the implications of these ideas of self on the concepts of life and death, asking: Should we fear death? How should our individuality affect the way we live? Through an astute reading of a huge array of traditions, he helps us come to terms with our uneasiness about the subject of self in an account that will be at the forefront of philosophical debates for years to come. “There has never been a book remotely like this one in its profusion of ancient references on ideas about human identity and selfhood . . . . Readers unfamiliar with the subject also need to know that Sorabji breaks new ground in giving special attention to philosophers such as Epictetus and other Stoics, Plotinus and later Neoplatonists, and the ancient commentators on Aristotle (on the last of whom he is the world's leading authority).”—Anthony A. Long, Times Literary Supplement

Ancient Philosophy of the Self
Ancient Philosophy of the Self

Author: Pauliina Remes

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2008-08-26

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1402085966

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Pauliina Remes and Juha Sihvola In the course of history, philosophers have given an impressive variety of answers to the question, “What is self?” Some of them have even argued that there is no such thing at all. This volume explores the various ways in which selfhood was approached and conceptualised in antiquity. How did the ancients understand what it is that I am, fundamentally, as an acting and affected subject, interpreting the world around me, being distinct from others like and unlike me? The authors hi- light the attempts in ancient philosophical sources to grasp the evasive character of the specifically human presence in the world. They also describe how the ancient philosophers understood human agents as capable of causing changes and being affected in and by the world. Attention will be paid to the various ways in which the ancients conceived of human beings as subjects of reasoning and action, as well as responsible individuals in the moral sphere and in their relations to other people. The themes of persistence, identity, self-examination and self-improvement recur in many of these essays. The articles of the collection combine systematic and historical approaches to ancient sources that range from Socrates to Plotinus and Augustine.

Topics in Early Modern Philosophy of Mind
Topics in Early Modern Philosophy of Mind

Author: Jon Miller

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-05-16

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 904812381X

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During the early modern era (c. 1600-1800), philosophers formulated a number of new questions, methods of investigation, and theories regarding the nature of the mind. The result of their efforts has been described as “the original cognitive revolution”. Topics in Early Modern Philosophy of Mind provides a comprehensive snapshot of this exciting period in the history of thinking about the mind, presenting studies of a wide array of philosophers and topics. Written by some of today’s foremost authorities on early modern philosophy, the ten chapters address issues ranging from those that have long captivated philosophers and psychologists as well as those that have been underexplored. Likewise, the papers engage figures from the history of ideas who are well-known today (Descartes, Hume, Kant) as well as those who have been comparatively neglected by contemporary scholarship (Desgabets, Boyle, Collins). This volume will become an essential reference work that graduate students and professionals in the fields of philosophy of mind, the history of philosophy, and the history of psychology will want to own.

The Early Modern Subject
The Early Modern Subject

Author: Udo Thiel

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2011-09-29

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 019954249X

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Udo Thiel presents a critical evaluation of the understanding of self-consciousness and personal identity in early modern philosophy. He explores over a century of European philosophical debate from Descartes to Hume, and argues that our interest in human subjectivity remains strongly influenced by the conceptual framework of early modern thought.