‘Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction’ by Julia Annas is an introduction to ancient philosophy. In this book, author introduces some topics of arguments by ancient philosophers, instead a chronologically account of ancient philosophy.
Digests of each chapters are below.
Chapter 1 – How did ancient philosophers think about mind? The Stoics thought there are no parts and divisions in the human soul, and that is all rational unity one. But Plato took the psychological conflicts. He thought there are some distinct parts, they are reason, desire and spirit or anger. And in the soul reason should rule.
Chapter 2 – Author comments the problems of studying ancient philosophy by the example of Plato’s the ‘Republic’. The position, interpretation and value of a philosophical theory has been turned by historical contexts, philosophers and schools.
Chapter 3 – Ancient ethical theories have been called eudaimonist. Aristippus of Cyrene said leading a life is devoted to self-gratification which is the way to happiness. For adults, a choice of virtue and vice is the differing roads to happiness. Aristotle thought everyone agrees that their final end is happiness, and what people seek in everything they do is to live a happy life. Aristippus said pleasure is a movement, not a settled state. A happy life is an organized one of past and future pleasures. And according to Epicurus there are two kinds of pleasure. One is the kind of enjoyment, another is the static pleasure. The Epicurean happy life is a cautious and risk-aversive strategy for maintaining tranquility. By Aristotle, happiness require some amount of ‘external good’. But amount of external goods can’t depend on your happy, and, so happiness come from an organization of your life. On the other hand, view to happiness of Plato and Stoics are odd. Stoics thought virtue is the only good thing. But, in modern time, virtue and virtuous thing or person don’t match happiness or happy in the many cases. One of characteristics of ancient ethical thought is a sense of the demands of morality.
Chapter 4 – Author introduces ancient theory of knowledge. Socrates denied he has knowledge in the sense of wisdom ore understanding. This philosophically questions about knowledge taken to concern the possession of wisdom. Plato showed the dominance of what we can call the expertise model for knowledge. In his account, mathematics is a model of knowledge. The entire system bases a clear and limited set of concepts and postulates. Aristotle thought different branches of knowledge employ fundamentally different methods, so their subject-matters are basically different. Sciences are the different kinds or branches of knowledge. Scepticism means an investigator going in enquity. Scepticism philosophers said knowledge have value requires that you can satisfy the reasons that you claim. In ‘Theaetetus’, Plato claimed that truth is relative to the believer. And Epicurus thought of knowledge in terms of knower’s relation to particular matters of face. He was a rigorously empiricist. Ancient philosophers’ concerning with knowledge is focus on wisdom and understanding.
Chapter 5 – In ancient philosophy, logic was a part of philosophy in its own right, which sustains philosophical truth and demolish philosophical mistake. Aristotle, Stoic logic concerned statements assert or deny something. Stoic logic equities arguments are made up of premisses and conclusion which are all statements. Aristotelian and Stoic logic were the essential matter of philosophical study in the ancient time. Aristotle’s thought of nature is the world made up of things that have natures. Nature is the undifferentiated totality of what there is. In ancient philosophy, for example Aristotle’s teleology and Plato’s account of intellectual design by a designer God, logical method matches principal theory and reality. The error of this approach is top-down methods and accounts can control reality and facts. So these systematic overall approaches by ancient philosophers caused controversial problems up to today, but is one of origins of the modernity and the modern science.
Chapter 6 – The characteristic of philosophy is reason and argument to understand the world, somethings, self and these basis. Socrates despised all things, also gave a ultimately rational account of what the subject in question is with arguing with others. Plato made philosophy a system, a self-consciously way of thinking and a institutional study to subjects. So philosophy became a forerunner of science. Ancient philosophy has had a influential role in Western Europe and the rest of world up to the present.
This guide book is not a standard chronological account on ancient philosophy. Author comments how ancient philosopher think about some problems and matters. She clearly introduces arguments of reason with desire (the ancient psychological studies), happiness (eudaemonic), knowledge (epistemology or metaphysics), relations of logic with practical thinking and the origins of philosophy by ancient philosophers such as the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Sceptics, Epicurus and the Stoics. Especially her comments of ancient eudaemonic and epistemology are readable, interesting and excellent. A remarkable point of this book is these comments become equivalent to an account of worth and significance of philosophy with its foundation.
This good book would be helpful for you to grasp the thoughts of ancient philosophers.
Ancient Philosophy (Very Short Introductions)
Julia Annas
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 12 Oct 2000
152 pages £7.99 $11.95
ISBN: 978-0192853578
Contents:
List of illustrations
Introduction
1. Human and Beasts: Understanding Ourselves
2. Why Do We Read Plato’s Republic?
3. The Happy Life, Ancient and Modern
4. Reason, Knowledge and Scepticism
5. Logic and Reality
6. When Did It All Begin? (And What Is It Anyway?)
Timeline
Further Reading
Notes
Index
Related Posts and Pages
‘Philosophy (A Very Short Introduction)’ by Edward Craig, Oxford University Press
‘Continental Philosophy (A Very Short Introduction)’ by Simon Critchley, Oxford University Press
‘Plato (A Very Short Introduction)’ by Julia Annas, Oxford University Press
‘Aristotle (A Very Short Introduction)’ by Jonathan Barnes, Oxford University Press
‘Descartes (A Very Short Introduction)’ by Tom Sorell, Oxford University Press
‘Locke (A Very Short Introduction)’ by John Dunn, Oxford University Press
‘Marx (A Very Short Introduction)’ by Peter Singer, Oxford University Press
‘Barthes (A Very Short Introduction)’ by Jonathan Culler
‘The Meaning of Life (A Very Short Introduction)’ by Terry Eagleton, Oxford University Press
‘Love (A Very Short Introduction)’ by Ronald de Sousa, Oxford University Press