GREEK PHILOSOPHY

Last Updated 22/07/05

BACK TO LPSG CONTENTS

The Paper
Reading
General Books
Plato
Texts
Collections
Single Authored Collections
Individual Platonic Dialogues
Euthyphro
Meno
Phaedo
Republic
Parmenides
Theatetus
Sophist
Topics
Socratic Method, Socratic Ignorance
Recollection
Theory of Forms
The Soul
Plato's Epistemology
Falsehood
Aristotle
Texts
Translations
General Books and Collections
On Individual Works
Physics
Metaphysics
De Anima
On Individual Topics
The Four Causes
Matter and Form; Nature
Chance and Teleology
Sea Battle
The Infinite
Change
Time
Soul, Mind and Body
Perception
Imagination and Thinking
Epistemology
Categories
The Problem of a Science of Being
Substance
God
The Presocratics
General
Books and Collections of Articles
Individual Philosopers
Heraclitus
Parmenides
Zeno
Empedocles
Anaxagoras
The Atomists
1. The Paper
This course is designed to make you familiar with the thought and the ways of
thinking of the major classical philosophers: the pre-Socratics, Plato and
Aristotle. It is focused on metaphysics and epistemology; ancient ethics, politics
and aesthetics are covered in the Ethics or Politics or Aesthetics courses. You
will be encouraged to analyse and criticise the arguments of the ancients and to
think both constructively and critically about ancient theories. To this end, there
is no substitute for reading the texts themselves (in translation, or even in
Greek! Courses are available to help you to learn Greek).

The Lectures
The intercollegiate lectures in this course are divided into two levels:

Level 1: two survey courses, one on Plato and the other on Aristotle: these
lectures include material on the pre-Socratics.

Level 2: sets of lectures on Plato and Aristotle, and sometimes also on the pre-
Socratics. sometimes organized around particular works; sometimes around particular
topics; sometimes comparative between the two philosophers.

Lectures at Birkbeck offer the same mixture of survey, text and topic.

The Exam
The examination paper requires you to answer three questions, at least two of which
must be on Plato and/or Aristotle; a third question may be on the pre-Socratics.
However, you are not required to answer a question on the pre-Socratics. All three
of your answers may be on Plato and/or Aristotle. Credit is given both for careful
and critical analysis of the ancient arguments and for wider scrutiny of the topics
in question.

BACK TO TOP

2. Reading
The reading lists below offer some general books and collections of papers on
ancient philosophy; detailed advice on reading on texts and topics for Plato; then
likewise for Aristotle; and lastly for the pre-Socratics.

General Books Covering a Wide Scope

Cooper, J. 2004 Knowledge, Nature and the Good Princeton.

Everson, S. 1990. ed. Epistemology. Companions to Ancient Thought 1. Cambridge.

?. 1991. ed. Psychology. Companions to Ancient Thought 2. Cambridge.

?. 1994. ed. Language. Companions to Ancient Thought 3. Cambridge.

Frede, M. 1987 Essays in Ancient Philosophy. Oxford

Frede, M., and G. Striker, eds. 1996. Rationality in Greek Thought. Oxford

Furley, D. 1997 Routledge History of Philosophy Vol II: From Aristotle to

Augustine. London

Gentzler, J. ed. 1998. Method in Ancient Philosophy. Oxford

Hankinson, R.J. 1998 Cause and Explanation in Ancient Greek Thought. Oxford
Owen, G. E. L. 1985. Logic, Science and Dialectic: Collected Papers in Greek
Philosophy. Ithaca, N. Y.

Price, A. W. 1995 Mental Conflict. London

Shields, C. 2002 Blackwell Guide to Ancient Philosophy. London

Taylor, C.C.W. 1998 Routledge History of Philosophy Vol. I: >From the beginnnings
to Plato. London

BACK TO TOP

Plato
Texts
The dialogues are translated in

J. Cooper, ed., The Complete Works of Plato.

Edith Hamilton, and Huntington Cairns, eds., The Collected Dialogues of Plato,
including the Letters, (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1961).

You should buy one of these collections.

Dialogues of importance for this course include Euthyphro, Laches, Charmides,

Lysis, Meno, Protagoras, Gorgias, Phaedo, Symposium, Republic, Parmenides,
Phaedrus, Cratylus, Timaeus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Philebus. (Remember that ethical
and political topics are dealt with elsewhere; see the Ethics and Political
Philosophy sections of the study guide.)

BACK TO TOP

Collections
Allen, R. E. ed. 1965. Studies in Plato's Metaphysics. London

Benson, ed., H.H. 1992 Essays on the Philosophy of Socrates. Oxford

Fine, G. ed. 1999. Plato. Vol.1. Metaphysics and Epistemology. Oxford

Gill C. and McCabe M.M. eds. Form and Argument in Late Plato. Oxford

Kraut, R. ed. 1992. The Cambridge Companion to Plato. Cambridge

Vlastos, G. 1973. ed. Plato I: Epistemology and Metaphysics.

Single Authored Collections

Crombie, I. M. 1963. An Examination of Plato's Doctrines. 2 Vols. London.

Gosling, J. C. B. 1973. Plato. London.

Fine, G. 2003 Plato on Knowledge and Forms. Oxford

Harte, V. A. 2002 Plato on Parts and Wholes. Oxford

McCabe M.M., 2000 Plato and his Predecessors: The dramatisation of reason.
Cambridge

Nehamas, A. 1999 Virtues of Authenticity. Princeton

Vlastos, G. 1973. Platonic Studies. Princeton

Kahn, C.H. 1996 Plato and the Socratic Dialogue Cambridge

BACK TO TOP

Individual Platonic Dialogues

One of the best ways of tackling Plato is to think hard and long about individual
dialogues. To understand Plato's epistemology and metaphysics, the following are
central.

Euthyphro
Geach, P.T. 1966 ?Plato's Euthyphro : Analysis and commentary', The Monist : 369-82

Burnyeat, M.F. 1977 ?Examples in Epistemology', Philosophy : 381-98

BACK TO TOP

Meno
This dialogue considers virtue and knowledge, and contains Plato's first extended
epistemology.

Scott, D., 2005 Plato's Meno Cambridge

Sharples, R. W. ed., and trans. 1985. Meno / Plato. Chicago.

Vlastos, G. 1965. ?Anamnesis in the Meno', Dialogue 4: 143-167.

BACK TO TOP

Phaedo
Socrates' death and the conversation about the immortality of the soul that
preceded it.

Bostock, D. 1986. Plato's Phaedo. Oxford

Vlastos, G. 1973. ?Reasons and Causes in the Phaedo'. In G. Vlastos, Platonic

Studies. Princeton: 76-110

Scott, D. 1987. ?Platonic Anamnesis Revisited'. Classical Quarterly.

Wiggins, D. 1986. ?Teleology and the good in Plato's Phaedo ', Oxford Studies in
Ancient Philosophy, 1-18.

BACK TO TOP

Republic
This is usually considered Plato's masterpiece; it repays careful study.

Annas, J. 1981. An Introduction to Plato's Republic. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Cross R. C., and A. D. Woozley. 1964. Plato's Republic: a Philosophical Commentary.

London: Macmillan.

Fine, G. 1990 ?Knowledge and Belief in Republic V-VII' in ed. Everson, S.

Epistemology. Companions to Ancient Thought 1. Cambridge.

Kraut, R. 1997. Plato's Republic: Critical Essays. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.

Pappas, N. 1995. Plato and the Republic. London: Routledge.

Reeve, 1988 Philosopher Kings: The argument of Plato's Republic. Princeton. C.D.C.

Vlastos, G. 1973. ?Degrees of Reality in Plato'. In G. Vlastos, Platonic Studies.

Princeton

BACK TO TOP

Parmenides
This dialogue falls into two parts; the first (126-136) is an extended critique of
the theory of Forms, the second (137-end) an intricate dialectical exercise. Most
modern attention has been paid to the first part, and therein to the notorious
Third Man Argument. Try to consider all the arguments of the first part, even if
you find the second part uncongenial.

Vlastos, G. 1965. ?The Third Man argument in the Parmenides'. In R. E. Allen ed.,
Studies in Plato's Metaphysics. London: Routledge.

Strang, C. 1972. ?Plato and the Third Man'. In G. Vlastos, ed., Plato: a Collection
of Critical Essays, Vol.1, Metaphysics and Epistemology. London: Macmillan.

Mignucci, M. 1990. ?Plato's Third Man Argument in the Parmenides'. Archiv fur
Geschichte der Philosophie.

McCabe, M. M. 1994. Plato's Individuals. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University

Press. chs. 3 and 4.

Gill, M. L. trans. 1996. Parmenides. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co. Introduction.

BACK TO TOP

Theaetetus
Here Plato reconsiders the problems of epistemology in a manner which is readily
accessible to modern readers.

Burnyeat, M. F. 1990. The Theaetetus of Plato. Indianapolis: Hackett. A long

philosophical introduction with translation, a difficult but brilliant treatment of
a dialogue which is readily accessible to those with modern epistemological
concerns in mind.

Bostock, D. 1988. Plato's Theaetetus. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

McDowell, J. Plato: Theaetetus (Clarendon Plato Series)

Sedley D. 2005 The Midwife of Platonism Oxford

BACK TO TOP

Sophist
Here Plato tackles the problems of not-being and falsehood, and offers his own
philosophical logic.

Owen, G. E. L. 1985. ?Plato on Not-Being'. In Logic, Science and Dialectic:

Collected Papers in Greek Philosophy. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press. The
place to start in considering modern interpretations of the Sophist.

Frede, M. 1992. ?Plato's Sophist on False Statements'. In R. Kraut, ed., The

Cambridge Companion to Plato. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Heinaman, R. 1981. ?Self-predication in the Sophist'. Phronesis 26: 55-66.

BACK TO TOP

Topics
You should cross refer to the suggested reading for individual dialogues above.

Socratic Method, Socratic Ignorance

Apology ; Euthyphro ; Charmides; Laches; Protagoras

Benson H.H. 2000 Socratic Wisdom. Oxford

Brickhouse T. and Smith N. 2000 The Philosophy of Socrates. Boulder Colorado

Nehamas, A. 1998 The Art of Living. Berkeley

Vlastos, G. 1991 Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher. Cambridge

Taylor, C.C.W. 1998 Socrates. Oxford.

BACK TO TOP

Recollection
Meno 80-98; Phaedo 72-78; Phaedrus 244-57

Day, Jane M. ed. 1994. Plato's Meno in Focus. London.

Fine, G. 1992. ?Inquiry in the Meno ', in Kraut, ed., The Cambridge Companion to
Plato. Cambridge: 200-26

Nehamas, A. 1985 ?Meno's paradox and Socrates as a teacher', Oxford Studies in

Ancient Philosophy 1-30.

Scott, D. 1995. Recollection and Experience: Plato's Theory of Learning and its
Successors. Cambridge Chs 1 & 2.

Bostock D. 1986 Plato's Phaedo Oxford ch.4

Vlastos, G. 1965 ?Anamnesis in the Meno,. Dialogue ; also in J. Day (ed.) Plato's
Meno in Focus

BACK TO TOP

The Theory of Forms

Phaedo 72-78; 96-106; Symposium 199-212; Republic 476-536; 596-7; Parmenides 216-
135

Fine G. 1986 ?Forms as Causes: Plato and Aristotle' in Fine, Plato on Knowledge and
Forms, Oxford: 350-396

Fine, G. 1993 On Ideas Oxford

Frede, M. 1988 ?Being and Becoming in Plato,' Oxford Studies in Ancient

Philosophy, supplementary volume

Irwin, T. 1977 'Plato's Heracliteanism', Ph.Q. : 1-13

Nehamas, A. 1975 'Plato on the imperfection of the sensible world' A. Ph. Q. and in
Nehamas, Virtues of Authenticity.

Sedley, D. 1998 ?Platonic Causes', Phronesis : 114-32

Vlastos, G. 1981 'Degrees of Reality' and 'Reasons and Causes in the Phaedo' in
Vlastos Platonic Studies

BACK TO TOP

The Soul
Republic book IV; Phaedo 78-95; 102-107; Phaedrus

Cooper, J. 1984 ?Plato's Theory of Human Motivation,' History Ph. Quarterly

Frede, D. 1978 ?The final proof of the immortality of the soul in the Phaedo ',
Phronesis 27-41

Irwin, T.H. 1995 Plato's Ethics. Oxford 203-222

Lovibond, S. 1991 ?Plato's theory of mind' in S. Everson, ed. Companions to Ancient

Thought ii: Psychology. 35-55

Price, A. W. 1995 Mental Conflict. London 30-103

Williams, B. 1973 ?The analogy of city and soul in Plato's Republic ', in E. Lee,
A. Mourelatos and R.Rorty, eds. Exegesis and Argument : Phronesis supplement.

BACK TO TOP

Plato's Epistemology
Meno 96-9; Republic 475-535; Theaetetus 200-210; Sophist 251-3

Burnyeat, M. and Barnes, J. 1980 ?Socrates and the Jury', Proceedings of

Aristotelian Society Supplement 177-206

Burnyeat, M. 1982 ?Idealism and Greek Philosophy: What Descartes saw and Berkeley
missed', Phil.Rev. 3-40

Fine, G. 1990 ?Knowledge and Belief in Republic V-VII' in ed. Everson, S.

Companions to Ancient Thought i: Epistemology. Cambridge.

Fine, G. 2003 ?Knowledge and logos in the Theaetetus ', in Fine, Plato on Knowledge
and Forms, Oxford: 225-251

Nehamas, A., ? Episteme and Logos in Plato's later thought', in Nehamas, Virtues of
Authenticity. Princeton: 224-248

BACK TO TOP

Falsehood
Theaetetus 187-201; Sophist 236-263; Euthydemus 283-8; Cratylus 383-391; 428-36;
Philebus 36-41

Denyer, N. 1991 Language, Thought and Falsehood in Ancient Greek Philosophy. London

Fine, G. 1979 ?False belief in the Theaetetus,' Phronesis 70-80

Frede, M. 1992 ?Plato's Sophist on false statements,' in Kraut, R. ed. The

Cambridge Companion to Plato. Cambridge 397-424
BACK TO TOP

Aristotle
Texts
The following are central works of Aristotle, as examined under this paper, i.e.
excluding ethics, political philosophy and aesthetics.

Physics, especially 1 on matter and form; 2 on explanation in natural science; 4 on

space and time; 6 on continuity vs. atomism; 7 and 8 on the sources of motion.

On the Soul (de Anima).

Categories, an introduction to metaphysics (on what there is).

Posterior Analytics, on scientific explanation.

Metaphysics, especially 4 (Gamma) on the law of contradiction; 7-9 (Zeta, Eta,

Theta) on what there is; 12 (Lambda) on God

On The Heavens, (de Caelo).

On Interpretation, (de Interpretatione).

There are very useful summaries, in the commentaries by W. D. Ross, of the Physics,
Metaphysics, Posterior Analytics and de Anima.

BACK TO TOP

Translations
The best translations are in The Complete Works of Aristotle: the revised Oxford
translation, edited by Jonathan Barnes, 2 Vols., (Princeton N. J.: Princeton
University Press, 1984). J. L. Ackrill, A New Aristotle Reader, (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1987) covers some, but unfortunately not all, of what you need. The
Clarendon Aristotle translations from the Oxford University Press of particular
works are designed for Philosophy students: you will find many of these interesting
and challenging.

BACK TO TOP

General books and Collections

Ackrill, J.L. 1981 Aristotle the Philosopher. Oxford

Barnes, J. 1982 Aristotle. Oxford

Barnes, J., Schofield, M. and Sorabji, R. 1975-1979 Articles on Aristotle. 4 Vols.

London. These 4 collections of articles cover all aspects of Aristotle.

Barnes, J. ed. 1995. Cambridge Campanion to Aristotle. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Berti, E. ed. 1981. Aristotle on Science: ?The Posterior Analytics'. Proceedings of

the Eighth Symposium Aristotelicum. Padova.

Charles, D. 2000 Aristotle on Meaning and Essence. Oxford.

Gill, M.L. and Lennox, J. 1994 Self-Motion. Princeton.

Gotthelf, A. ed. 1985. Aristotle on Nature and Living Things: Philosophical and
Historical Studies. Bristol

Gotthelf, A., and J. Lennox, eds. 1987. Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's

Biology. Cambridge.

Hintikka, Jaakko. 1973. Time and Necessity: Studies in Aristotle's Theory of

Modality. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Irwin, T. 1988. Aristotle's First Principles. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Lear, J. 1988. Aristotle: the Desire to Understand. Cambridge.

Matthen, Mohan, ed. 1987. Aristotle Today: Essays on Aristotle's Ideal of Science.
Edmonton, Alberta.

Sorabji, R. 1980. Necessity, Cause and Blame: Perspectives on Aristotle's Theory.

London.

?. 1983. Time, Creation and the Continuum: Theories in Antiquity and the Early
Middle Ages.

BACK TO TOP
On Individual Works
Physics
Judson, L. ed. 1991. Aristotle's Physics: a Collection of Essays. Oxford

Wardy, R. The Chain of Change. Cambridge

Waterlow, S. 1982. Nature, Change and Agency in Aristotle's Physics: a

Philosophical Study. Oxford

?. 1982. Passage and Possibility: a Study of Aristotle's Modal Concepts. Oxford

Metaphysics
Frede, M, and Charles, D. 2000 Aristotle's Metaphysics Lambda Oxford

Politis, V. 2004 Aristotle' and the Metaphysics London

Scaltsas, T., D. Charles, and M. L. Gill, eds. 1994. Unity, Identity and
Explanation in Aristotle's Metaphysics. Oxford

De Anima
Nussbaum, M., and A. O. Rorty, eds. 1992. Essays on Aristotle's De Anima. Oxford

Wedin, M. 1988 Mind and imagination in Aristotle New Haven

BACK TO TOP

On Individual Topics
The Four Causes
Physics II.3 (194b16-195a26), 4-6, 8-9; 259a10-12; On the Parts of Animals I.1;
Politics 1256b10-22; On Sense and the Sensible 436b17-437a3; Protrepticus B11-16

Ackrill, J.L. 1981 Aristotle the Philosopher chapter 4

Lear, J. 1988 Aristotle the desire to understand, 26-42

Sorabji, R. 1980 Necessity, Cause and Blame, chapter 10

Mackie, J.L. 1980 The Cement of the Universe chapter 11

BACK TO TOP

Matter and Form; Nature

Physics I, II.

Irwin, T. 1988 Aristotle's First Principles Oxford ch. 5

Lear, J. 1988 Aristotle, The desire to understand. Cambridge: ch 2

Moravcsik, J. 1991 'What makes reality intelligible?' in L. Judson, ed.,

Aristotle's Physics

Sorabji, R. 1980 Necessity Cause and Blame London: ch 2.

Waterlow, S. 1982 Nature Change and Agency in Aristotle's Physics Oxford: ch.2

BACK TO TOP

Chance and Teleology

Physics II. 4-6, 8-9

Cooper, J. 1987 'Hypothetical necessity and natural teleology' in A. Gotthelf and

J. Lennox, eds., Philosophical issues in Aristotle's Biology, Cambridge; and in
Cooper, Knowledge, Nature and the Good.

Gotthelf, A. 1976-7 ?Aristotle's conception of final causality' Review of

Metaphysics, 30 1976/7. (Or, more recent version in A. Gotthelf and J.G. Lennox,
Philosophical Issues in Aristotle's Biology, Cambridge, 1987.)

Judson, L. 1991 'Chance and 'Always or for the most part' in Aristotle', in L.
Judson, ed., Aristotle's Physics

Sedley, D. 1991 'Was Aristotle's teleology anthropocentric?' Phronesis, 1991

Wardy, R. 1993 'Aristotelian rainfall,' Phronesis

Wieland, W. ?The problem of teleology' in J. Barnes, M. Schofield and R. Sorabji,

Articles on Aristotle (London, 1975-9), vol.1.

BACK TO TOP

Sea Battle
De Interpretatione 9 . Rhetoric 1359a15-19, 1392b25-27, 1418a2-4. Metaphysics
996b26-30, 1005b19-23, 1011b23-24, 1051a34-b17; Physics 264a9-21; On Generation and
Corruption 337a34-b9

Ackrill J.L 1963 Aristotle's Categories and De Interpretatione Oxford.

Anscombe, G.E.M. 'Aristotle and the sea battle' revised version in From Parmenides
to Wittgenstein. Collected Papers vol 1.

Frede, D. 1985 'The sea-battle reconsidered', Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy.

Kneale, W. and M. 1962 The Development of Logic, Oxford: 46-54.

BACK TO TOP
The Infinite
Physics III.

Charlton W. 1991 'Aristotle's potential infinites' in Judson, L. ed. Aristotle's

Physics: a Collection of Essays. Oxford.

Hintikka J. 1975'Aristotelian infinity' PR and in Barnes, Schofield and Sorabji

v.3.

Hussey E. 1983 Aristotle's Physics III-IV, Oxford.

Lear J. 1979-80 'Aristotelian infinity' Proc Aristot Soc.

BACK TO TOP

Change
Kosman, L.A. 1969 ?Aristotle's definition of motion' Phronesis 40-62.

Waterlow, S, 1982 Nature, Change and Agency in Aristotle's Physics Oxford: ch 3. 1.

Heinaman, R 1994 ?Is Aristotle's definition of change circular?' Apeiron.

Loux, M.J. 1995 ?Understanding Process: reflections on Physics III.1' in Sim, M The
Crossroads of Norm and Nature.

Kostman, J, 1987 ?Aristotle's definition of change', History of Philosophy

Quarterly.

Hussey E. Aristotle's Physics III-IV, OUP 1983.

BACK TO TOP

Time
Inwood, B. 1991 ?Aristotle on the reality of time' in Judson Aristotle's Physics.

Sorabji, R. 1983 Time, Creation and the Continuum. London.

Waterlow, S. 1984 ?Aristotle's Now'. Philosophical Quarterly.

Annas, J. 1975 ?Aristotle, Number and Time'. Philosophical Quarterly.

Owen, G.E.L. 1985 ?Aristotle on time' reprinted in G. E. L. Owen, Logic Science and
Dialectic.

Coope, U. 2001 ?Why does Aristotle say that there is no time without change? '
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.

Bostock, D. 1980 ?Aristotle's account of time' Phronesis

Corish, D. 1976 ?Aristotle's attempted derivation of temporal order from that of

movement and space' Phronesis

Hussey E. 1983 Aristotle's Physics III-IV, Oxford.

BACK TO TOP
Soul, Mind and Body
On the Soul (De Anima) I.1., I.2, 403b20-404b6 ; 1.3, 405b31-406b25, 407b12-26 ;
1.4, 408a29-b29, 409a1-3 ; I.5, 411a24-b30 ; II. 1-7, 12 ; III. 4-5 ; Metaphysics
IX. 6 ; Nicomachean Ethics 1128b11-15; X.4 ; Physics 234b10-20
Ackrill, J.L. 1979 ?Aristotle's definitions of psuche' in Barnes, Schofield and
Sorabji, Articles on Aristotle 4 ? Psychology and Aesthetics. (And in Proceedings
of the Aristotelian Society, 1972-3, 119-33.)

Everson S., 1995 ?Psychology' in The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle, ed. J.

Barnes.

Frede, M. 1993 ?On Aristotle's conception of the soul' in R.W. Sharples (ed)
Ancient Thinkers and Modern Thinkers, London, 1993. (And in M.C. Nussbaum and A.O.
Rorty (ed.) Essays on Aristotle's De Anima, Oxford, 1992.)

Heinaman, R. 1990 'Aristotle and the Mind-Body problem', Phronesis.

Menn, S 2002 'Aristotle's definition of soul and the programme of the de anima'
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy.

Shields, C. essay at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-psychology/.

Williams, B. 1986 ?Hylomorphism'. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy : 186-99.

BACK TO TOP
Perception
De anima II, III.

Burnyeat, M. 1992 'Is an Aristotelian philosophy of mind still credible?' in M.

Nussbaum and A Rorty, Essays on Aristotle's de Anima.

Langton, R. 2000 ?The musical, the magical and the mathematical soul' in T Crane
and S Patterson History of the Mind-Body Problem . London : 13-33.

Sorabji R., 1975 ?Body and soul in Aristotle' Philosophy, 63-89. Reprinted in J.
Barnes, M. Schofield and R. Sorabji Articles on Aristotle iv (1979), 42-64.

Sorabji, R. 1992?Intentionality and physiological processes: Aristotle's theory of

sense-perception.' in M. C. Nussbaum and A. O. Rorty Essays on Aristotle's De
Anima.

BACK TO TOP
Imagination and Thinking
De anima III

Lear, J. 1988 Aristotle, The desire to understand, ch.4.3 and 4.5.

Schofield, M. ?Aristotle on the imagination' in M. Nussbaum and A Rorty, Essays on

Aristotle's de Anima (and in J. Barnes, M. Schofield and R. Sorabji Articles on
Aristotle iv (1979)).

Kahn, C.H. ?Aristotle on thinking' ' in M.Nussbaum and A Rorty, Essays on

Aristotle's de Anima.

L. Kosman, 'What does the maker mind make?' in M.Nussbaum and A Rorty, Essays on
Aristotle's de Anima .

BACK TO TOP
Epistemology
Barnes, J. 1994 Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, translated with notes. Oxford.

Berti, E. ed., 1981 Aristotle on Science (esp. the paper by Burnyeat, ?Aristotle on
understanding knowledge') Padua.

Everson S. ed., 1990 Companions to ancient thought I: Epistemology. Cambridge.

Hankinson, R.J. 1998 Cause and Explanation in Ancient Greek Thought. Oxford.

Irwin, T. 1988 Aristotle's First Principles. Oxford.

Lear, J. 1988 Aristotle, the desire to understand. Cambridge.

R. Sorabji, 1980 Necessity, Cause and Blame, esp. chs 2-3.

BACK TO TOP

Categories
Categories; Topics I.9.

Ackrill, J.L. Aristotle's Categories and De Interpretatione, translated with notes.

Gillespie R. in J. Barnes, M.Schofield, R. Sorabji, eds., Articles on Aristotle :

vol. 3 Metaphysics.

Frede, M. 'Categories in Aristotle' and 'Individuals in Aristotle', both in his

Essays in Ancient Philosophy.

Furth, M. 1978 Journal of Philosophy, 624-46.

BACK TO TOP

The Problem of a Science of Being

Metaphysics 998b22-27, IV. 1, 2 (to 1003b19); VI.1; VII.1; 1028b27-31, 1030a28-b3,
1037a10-17, 1043a29-37, 1053b16-24, 1076a8-13. Physics 192a34-36. Topics 121a14-19,
144a36-b3. Eudemian Ethics 1217b25-35, 1236a16-32.

Frede, M. ?General and Special Metaphysics,? in his Essays in Ancient Philosophy.

Owen, G.E.L. ?Logic and Metaphysics in Some Earlier Works of Aristotle,? in G.E.L.
Owen and I. During (eds.) Aristotle and Plato in the Mid-Fourth Century ; also in
J. Barnes, M.Schofield and R. Sorabji (eds.) Articles on Aristotle 3. Metaphysics ;
also in G.E.L. Owen, Logic, Science and Dialectic.

BACK TO TOP
Substance
Metaphysics VII (Zeta).

Lear, J. 1988 Aristotle, the desire to understand (esp. the chapter on Met. Z).

Frede, M. ?Substance in Aristotle's Metaphysics,? in his Essays in Ancient

Philosophy ; also in A. Gotthelf (ed.) Aristotle on Nature and Living Things, pp.
72-80.

Fine, G. ?Plato and Aristotle on Form and Substance,' in Plato on Knowledge and
Forms.

Politis V. Aristotle and the Metaphysics.

BACK TO TOP
God
Metaphysics XII (Lambda), Physics VIII.
Frede, M. and Charles, D. eds. 2000 Aristotle's Metaphysics Lambda Oxford

Kosman, L.A. 1994 ?Aristotle's Prime Mover', in M.L.Gill and J. Lennox, eds. Self-
Motion Princeton.

Norman, R. 1969 ?Aristotle's Philosopher-god', Phronesis : 63-74

BACK TO TOP

The Presocratics
General
The work of the Presocratics survives in fragments. This means that their work
needs considerable interpretation; it also means that everything they said is
easily accessible to you. There is a full account of the evidence for the
Presocratics, with a Greek text and translations in G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, and M.
Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers: a Critical History with a Selection of
Texts, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). In translation, there is R.
McKirahan, Philosophy before Socrates. You can find translations of the fragments
in J. Barnes, Early Greek Philosophy, and with a large and vigorous philosophical
commentary in J. Barnes, The Presocratic Philosophers, (rev. ed., London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul, 1982). All of these are available in paperback; you should own at
least one of them if you are planning to work on these philosophers.

Books and collections of articles

Furley, D. 1987. The Greek Cosmologists. Vol.1. Cambridge.

Furley, D.1989. Cosmic Problems: Essays on Greek and Roman Philosophy of Nature.
Cambridge.

Allen, R. E., and D. J. Furley. eds. 1970. Studies in Presocratic Philosophy.

Vol.1, The Beginnings of Philosophy; Vol.2, The Eleatics and Pluralists. London.

Hussey E. 1972 The Presocratics. London.

Mourelatos, Alexander P. D., ed. 1974. The Pre-Socratics: a Collection of Critical

Essays. Rev. ed. Princeton 1993.

Long, A. A. ed. 1999. The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy. Cambridge.

Osborne C. 1987 Rethinking early Greek philosophy London.

BACK TO TOP

Individual philosophers
Heraclitus
Kahn, Charles H. 1979. The Art and Thought of Heraclitus: an Edition of the
Fragments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wiggins, D. 1982. ?Heraclitus' Conceptions of Fire, Flux and Material Persistence'.

In M. Schofield, and M. Nussbaum, eds., Language and Logos: Studies in Ancient
Greek Philosophy Presented to G. E. L. Owen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mackenzie, M. M. 1988. ?Heraclitus and the Art of Paradox'. In Oxford Studies in

Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 6. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

BACK TO TOP
Parmenides
Gallop, D. 1984. Parmenides of Elea: Fragments. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press.

Furley, D. 1967. ?Parmenides'. In P. Edwards, ed., The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.

London: Collier-Macmillan.

Furth, M. 1974. ?Elements of Eleatic Ontology'. In Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, ed.,

The Pre-Socratics: a Collection of Critical Essays. Rev. ed. Princeton, N. J.:
Princeton University Press, 1993.

Owen, G. E. L. 1985. ?Eleatic Questions'. In Logic, Science and Dialectic:

Collected Papers in Greek Philosophy. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press.

BACK TO TOP

Zeno
When you think about Zeno, consider both the paradoxes described and criticised by
Aristotle and the fragments quoted in Simplicius.

Aristotle, Physics, VI.9, VIII.8.

Vlastos, G. 1967. ?Zeno'. In P. Edwards, ed., The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.

London

Owen, G. E. L. 1985. ?Zeno and the Mathematicians'. In Logic, Science and

Dialectic: Collected Papers in Greek Philosophy. Ithaca

Lear, J. 1981. ?A note on Zeno's Arrow'. Phronesis 26: 91-104.

Sainsbury, R. M. 1995. Paradoxes. 2 nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ryle, G. 1954. Dilemmas. Cambridge

Sorabji, R. 1983. Time, Creation and the Continuum: Theories in Antiquity and the
Early Middle Ages. London Ch.21

BACK TO TOP

Empedocles
Long, A. A. 1966. ?Thinking and Sense-perception in Empedocles'. Classical
Quarterly.

Sorabji, R. 1993. Animal Minds and Human Morals: the Origins of the Western Debate.
Ithaca

BACK TO TOP

Anaxagoras
Schofield, M. 1980. An essay on Anaxagoras. Cambridge
BACK TO TOP

The Atomists
Furley, D. 1967. Two Studies in the Greek Atomists: Study 1?Indivisible
magnitudes.; Study 2?Aristotle and Epicurus on Voluntary Action. Princeton

Sedley, D. 1982. ?Two Conceptions of Vacuum'. Phronesis 27: 175-193

BACK TO TOP