Last Updated 21/04/05
This period of 900 years from 322 B.C. to 600 A.D. is full of philosophical excitement and innovation. Philosophers transformed old problems and introduced new ones, in such a way as to turn the subject in fresh directions. Much that we encounter in modern philosophy takes its character from the developments of this time. Seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy cannot be fully understood without it. Since the history of philosophy is a continuous story, this period in its turn cannot be fully understood without some knowledge of Plato and Aristotle. It connects well with the Medieval Philosophy paper, which from 2001 will include Islamic, as well as Latin Medieval Philosophy.
There are two main areas covered by this paper:
Hellenistic Philosophy, 322 B.C. 200 A.D.
Neoplatonism and Christianity, 200 A.D. 600 A.D.
Hellenistic Philosophy can now be studied very simply because the fragments previously scattered, have been collected in an excellent translation with very helpful commentary:
They study the Epicureans, Stoics and Sceptics, covering the main topics as they were distinguished by the ancients. This is the main book for Hellenistic Philosophy.
For overviews of the whole subject, the following books are very useful:
Algra, K., Barnes, J., Mansfeld, J., and Schofield, M. (eds), 1999. The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Long, A. A. 1986. Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics. 2 nd ed. London: Duckworth.
Sharples, R. W. 1996. Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics. London: Routledge.
Philosophy students will want to see the light that these schools shed on modern philosophical concerns, and for this purpose the relevant sections of any of the following books are worth reading.
Bobzien, S. 1998. Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press. This is a brilliant analysis of the later stages of the determinism debate.
Nussbaum, M. 1994. The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press. A vivid philosophical analysis of the ethics and psychology of the emotions in these schools.
Sharples, R. W. 1983. Alexander of Aphrodisias, On Fate: text, translation and commentary. London: Duckworth. Translates and explains the main reply on determinism by the Aristotelian school to the Stoics.
Sorabji, R. 1972. Aristotle on Memory. London: Duckworth.
. 1980. Necessity, Cause and Blame: Perspectives on Aristotle's Theory. London: Duckworth. (NCB), chapters on determinism.
. 1983. Time, Creation and the Continuum: Theories in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. London: Duckworth. (TCC), chapters on time, on atomism, on death and eternal recurrence, on Idealism and antiquity
. 1988. Matter, Space and Motion: Theories in Antiquity and their Sequel. London: Duckworth. (MSM), chapters on Stoic categories, mixture, interpenetration of bodies, space, vacuum, the world's finitude, natural motion, eternal recurrence and circular time.
. 1993. Animal Minds and Human Morals: the Origins of the Western Debate. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. (AMHM), on reason, perception, perceptual content, memory, emotion, social contract, human rights, justice, cynicism.
. 2000. Emotion and Peace of Mind. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (EPM), is emotion just an attitude of mind, or due to irrational psychic forces, or to physiology? How does the Stoic calming of emotions relate to Christian avoiding of temptations?
Inwood, B. ed. 2003. The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
. 1985. Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Long, A. A. 1971. ed. Problems in Stoicism. London: Athlone Press.
. 1996. Stoic Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rist, J. M. ed. 1978. The Stoics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
. 1969. Stoic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sambursky, S. 1959. Physics of the Stoics. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Hahm, D. E. 1977. The Origins of Stoic Cosmology. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
Furley, D. J. 1967. Two Studies in the Greek Atomists: Study 1 - Indivisible magnitudes. Study 2 - Aristotle and Epicurus on Voluntary Action. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.
Annas, J., and J. Barnes. 1985. The Modes of Scepticism: Ancient Texts and Modern Interpretations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hankinson, R. J. 1998. The Sceptics. London: Routledge.
Powell, J. G. F. ed. 1999. Cicero the Philosopher: Twelve Papers. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Griffin, M., and J. Barnes, eds. 1989. Philosophia Togata: Essays on Philosophy and Roman Society. 2 Vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
See also
Kneale, W., and M. Kneale. 1962. The Development of Logic. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Annas, Julia. 1992. Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind. Berkeley: University of California Press.
. 1993. The Morality of Happiness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Although many of the texts for the Hellenistic period are fragmentary, there are a number of non-fragmentary texts available, many in the volumes of the Loeb Classical Library, which has English on one side and Greek or Latin facing (marked LCL in what follows).
Epicurus's 3 letters summarising his views, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers. With a translation by R. D. Hicks. 2 Vols. Series Loeb Classical Library (henceforth LCL). London: Heinemann: Putnam's Sons, 1925. Bk.10, in Vol.2.
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things (LCL), a latin verse summary of Epicurus.
Inwood, Brad, and L. P. Gerson. 1994. The Epicurus Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia. Introduction by D. S. Hutchinson. Indianapolis: Hackett.
See above for Alexander On Fate.
Seneca, Letters ( Epistulae Morales ) (LCL), 3 Vols.
Seneca, Moral Essays (LCL), 3 Vols.
Seneca, Moral and Political Essays. Edited and translated by John M. Cooper and J. F. Procopé. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Cicero, parts of On Ends (de Finibus ); On Duties ( de Officiis ); Tusculan Disputations. (LCL)
Epictetus, The Discourses, the Handbook, fragments. Ed., and trans., by Christopher Gill and Robin Hard. The Everyman Library. London: Dent, 1995. Also translated in LCL.
Sextus Empiricus, 4 Vols. (LCL)
Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism. Translated by Julia Annas and Jonathan Barnes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Cicero, Academica. (LCL)
There are some excellent collections of articles.
Schofield, M., M. Burnyeat, and J. Barnes. eds. 1980. Doubt and Dogmatism: Studies in Hellenistic Epistemology: Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Burnyeat, M. ed. 1983. The Skeptical Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Barnes, J., J. Brunschwig, M. Burnyeat, and M. Schofield. eds. 1982. Science and Speculation: Studies in Hellenistic
Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Includes theory of inference.
Schofield, M., and G. Striker. eds. 1986. The Norms of Nature: Studies in Hellenistic Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. On ethics.
Brunschwig, J., and Nussbaum, M. eds. 1993. Passions and Perceptions: Studies in Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind: proceedings of the fifth Symposium Hellenisticum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Contains work relevant to philosophy of mind.
Barnes, J., and Mignucci. M. eds. 1988. Matter and Metaphysics: fourth Symposium Hellenisticum. Napoli: Bibliopolis. With verse introduction by Sorabji.
Laks, A., and Schofield, M. eds. 1995. Justice and Generosity: Studies in Hellenistic Social and Political Philosophy: sixth Symposium Hellenisticum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. On social and political philosophy.
Brunschwig, J. 1994. Hellenistic Philosophy. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Frede, M. 1987. Essays in Ancient Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Everson, S. 1990. ed. Epistemology. Companions to Ancient Thought 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
. 1991. ed. Psychology. Companions to Ancient Thought 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
. 1994. ed. Language. Companions to Ancient Thought 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
. 1998. ed. Ethics. Companions to Ancient Thought 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ierodiakonou, K. 1999. Topics in Stoic Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Striker, G. 1996. Essays on Hellenistic Epistemology and Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
For the influence of ancient scepticism on seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy, see
Long, A. A., and D. N. Sedley. 1987. The Hellenistic Philosophers. 2 Vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vol.2.
Algra, K., Barnes, J., Mansfeld, J., and Schofield, M. (eds), 1999. The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eleven philosophers are particularly important
Neoplatonists
Christians
Christian Neoplatonists
For background to Neoplatonism, which begins with the thought of Plotinus, see:
Dillon, J. 1977. The Middle Platonists: a Study of Platonism, 80 BC to AD 220. London: Duckworth.
Dillon, J. trans. 1993. Alcinous: Handbook of Platonism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
For Plotinus himself the best translation is the Loeb edition:
For the whole Neoplatonic tradition, especially the Neoplatonic commentators on Aristotle, there is now an invaluable Sourcebook available:
This covers the entire period by philosophical topic: (i) Logic and Metaphysics; (ii) Psychology with Ethics and Religion; (iii) Physics.
For further translations of primary texts, see:
Over 50 volumes of Neoplatonic commentaries and related literature have been translated into English in the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle Project. Particularly interesting philosophical texts from this series include:
Alexander of Aphrodisas. 2004. Supplement on the Soul (including his historically crucial treatise On the Intellect ). London: Duckworth.
Ammonius and Boethius. 1998. On Aristotle on Interpretation 9 (how these two commentators dealt with Aristotle's infamous sea-battle argument for determinism). London: Duckworth.
Philoponus, 1987. Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World (an attack on Aristotle's arguments in Physics and On the Heavens ). London: Duckworth.
Philoponus. 2005-. Against Proclus on the Eternity of the World (point by point refutation of Proclus' 18 arguments in favour of the world's eternity, which have themselves been translated in 2001 by H. Lang and A.D. Macro with U. California Press). London: Duckworth.
Porphyry. 2000. On Abstinence from Killing Animals (a Neoplationist defense of vegetarianism). London: Duckworth.
Proclus. 2003. On the Existence of Evils (how Neoplatonists explained the presence of evil in a world created by a good First Principle). London: Duckworth.
On the Christian side, the two most important thinkers of all, Augustine and Boethius, are available in numerous translations. A useful start would be Augustine, Confessions (Henry Chadwick's translation, in Oxford World's Classics, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) is the best), a riveting autobiography, which describes how Neoplatonism converted him to Christianity and any part of the larger and later City of God, in which he distances himself from Neoplatonism (available both in Penguin, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972) and Loeb, (London: Heinemann, 1957-1972).) (Look esp. at Books 8-14.)
Boethius Consolation of Philosophy, (Penguin, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books) and Loeb, (Rev. ed. London: Heinemann, 1918)) is also attractive. Written by him in prison awaiting execution on a doubtful charge, frustrated in completing his life's work of putting Aristotle, Plato, and Neoplatonist-style commentaries on them into Latin. The result was truncated knowledge of Plato and Aristotle in the West until the 12th century, although the Consolation itself was paraphrased or translated by King Alfred and Queen Elizabeth. Philosophy students will find Book 5 the most interesting, on whether life is governed by chance, fate or divine providence.
Plotinus's Christian contemporary Origen wrote the clever and original On First Principles translated by Butterworth (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1973).
There are again books bringing out the relation of the above texts to modern philosophical concerns
Sorabji, Richard. 1983. Time, Creation and the Continuum: Theories in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. London: Duckworth.
. 1988. Matter, Space and Motion: Theories in Antiquity and their Sequel. London: Duckworth.
. 1993. Animal Minds and Human Morals: the Origins of the Western Debate. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
. 2000. Emotion and Peace of Mind. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Sambursky, S. 1962. The Physical World of Late Antiquity. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Discusses science.
Stead, C. 1994. Philosophy in Christian Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Discusses concepts relevant to Christianity.
Brown, P. 1967. Augustine of Hippo: a Biography. London: Faber. The standard biography.
O'Daly, G. 1987. Augustine's Philosophy of Mind. London: Duckworth.
Chadwick, H. 1986. Augustine. Oxford: Oxford University Press. A brief introduction.
Kirwan, C. 1989. Augustine. London: Routledge.
Stump, E. and Kretzmann, N. The Cambridge Companion to Augustine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chadwick, H. 1989. Boethius: the Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology and Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Marenbon, J. 2003. Great Medieval Thinkers: Boethius. New York: Oxford University Press.
Armstrong, A.H. 1979. Plotinian and Christian Studies. London: Variorum.
Blumenthal, H. J. 1993. Studies in Plotinus and Later Neoplatonism. Aldershot: Ashgate.
O'Meara, D.J. 1993. Plotinus: an Introduction to the Enneads. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rist, J. M. 1967. Plotinus, The Road to Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hadot, P. 1993. Plotinus or, The Simplicity of Vision. Translated by Michael Chase. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gerson, L.P. 1994. Plotinus. London: Routledge.
Gerson, L.P. ed. 1996. The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
A special issue of American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly was devoted to Plotinus: vol. 71 (1997).
A special issue of Phronesis gives a comprehensive bibliography of Plotinus: 1991.
Sorabji, R. ed. 1987. Philoponus and the Rejection of Aristotelian Science. London: Duckwork.
de Haas, F.A. J. 1997. John Philoponus' New Definition of Prime Matter: Aspects of its Background in Neoplatonism and the Ancient Commentary Tradition. Leiden: Brill.
Proclus. rpt. 2000. Elements of Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Siorvanes, L. 1997. Proclus: Neoplatonic Philosophy and Science. New Haven: Yale.
Armstrong, A.H. 1967. The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gersh, S. 1986. Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism: the Latin Tradition. Notre Dame: Notre Dame Press.
Lloyd, A. C. 1990. The Anatomy of Neoplatonism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Wallis, R. T. 1972. Neoplatonism. 2 nd ed. London: Duckworth, 1995. A historical survey.