A History of Philosophy, Volume 1Conceived originally as a serious presentation of the development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy has journeyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim as the best history of philosophy in English. Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit of immense erudition who once tangled with A. J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the existence of God and the possibility of metaphysics, knew that seminary students were fed a woefully inadequate diet of theses and proofs, and that their familiarity with most of history's great thinkers was reduced to simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out to redress the wrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy, one crackling with incident and intellectual excitement -- and one that gives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in a beautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who went before and to those who came after him. The result of Copleston's prodigious labors is a history of philosophy that is unlikely ever to be surpassed. Thought magazine summed up the general agreement among scholars and students alike when it reviewed Copleston's A History of Philosophy as "broad-minded and objective, comprehensive and scholarly, unified and well proportioned... We cannot recommend [it] too highly." |
Contents
72 | 26 |
THE DIALECTIC OF ZENO | 54 |
EMPEDOCLES OF AKRAGAS | 61 |
PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY | 76 |
SOME INDIVIDUAL SOPHISTS | 87 |
SOCRATES | 96 |
MINOR SOCRATIC SCHOOLS | 116 |
DEMOCRITUS OF ABDERA | 124 |
PHYSICS OF PLATO | 244 |
XXV | 253 |
THE OLD ACADEMY | 263 |
LIFE AND WRITINGS OF ARISTOTLE | 266 |
THE METAPHYSICS OF ARISTOTLE | 277 |
PLATO AND ARISTOTLE | 372 |
THE OLDER SCEPTICS THE MIDDLE AND | 401 |
APPENDICES | 507 |
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Common terms and phrases
absolute according admit Anaxagoras appear Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle's asserted Athens atoms attain beautiful body cause certainly character Christian conception concerned course definition Demiurge Democritus dialogues Diog Diogenes Diogenes Laërtius distinction divine doctrine element Empedocles essence eternal ethical evil existence fact Forms Frag gods Greek philosophy happiness Heraclitus human ideal Ideas imitation implies important individual influence intelligible Ionian judgment justice knowledge Laërt Leucippus logical man's material mathematical matter means Metaph Metaphysics mind moral Moreover nature Neo-Platonism notion objects Parmenides particular perception Phaedo philo physical Plato Platonic theory pleasure Plotinus Poseidonius position Pre-Socratic Pre-Socratic philosophy principle Protagoras Pythagoreans question rational realise reality reason regard Republic School scientific sense sense-perception sensible Socrates Sophists soul speak sphere Stoics suppose Thales Theaetetus theory of Forms things thinkers thought Timaeus tion true truth ultimate unity universal virtue Zeno καὶ τὸ