Cosmic Problems: Essays on Greek and Roman Philosophy of Nature

by David Furley

Overview

The essays in this collection represent in scholarly infrastructure to Professor Furley's major study, The Greek Cosmologists, of which volume 1 was published by the Press in 1987. They tackle the questions in ancient cosmology and the clash between the two opposing systems known as Aristotelianism and Atomism. Some essays are general reflections on the nature of the debate; others explore certain detailed questions; yet all illustrate the author's incisive approach, which cuts through irrelevancies and goes directly to the heart of an issue.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521117128
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/13/2009
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. The Greek theory of the infinite universe; 2. The dynamics of the Earth: Anaximander, Plato and the centrifocal theory; 3. Notes on Parmenides; 4. Truth as what survives the elenchos; 5. Anaxagoras in response to Parmenides; 6. Antiphon's case against justice; 7. Aristotle and the atomists on motion in a void; 8. Weight and motion in Democritus' theory; 9. Aristotle and the atomists on infinity; 10. The rainfall example in Physics II.8; 11. Self-movers; 12. The mechanics of Meteorologica IV: a prolegomenon to biology; 13. Strato's theory of the void; 14. Knowledge of atoms and void in epicureanism; 15. Variations of themes form Empedocles in Lucretius' Proem; 16. Lucretius and the stoics; 17. Lucretius the Epicurean, on the history of man; 18. The cosmological crisis in classical antiquity; Bibliography; Index locorum; Index of modern scholars; General index.