
Words and Ideas
The Roots of Plato's Philosophy
Fritz-Gregor Herrmann(Author)
Classical Press of Wales
Published on 12. December 2007
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-1-905125-20-3 (ISBN)
Description
Plato did not create his philosophy ex nihilo, but rather drew on four centuries of literary production in epic and lyric poetry, on ethnography and historiography, tragedy and comedy, medical and mathematical research, oratory and rhetorical theory, as well as on Presocratic philosophy. Words & Ideas offers a study of Plato's philosophical language against this cultural background, retracing to their origins the history and development of the key terms of the Theory of Forms as presented in the Phaedo. 'Form' or 'idea', 'ousia' or 'being', 'participation', 'presence' and 'community' are among the concepts investigated. Te aim is to determine both the connotations of Plato's philosophical terms and the precise historical and philosophical contexts on which Plato drew in the formulation of his thoughts. In tracing the roots of Plato's philosophy, Words & Ideas demarcates afresh Plato's position regarding the protagonists of pre-Socratic philosophy: Parmenides and the Eleatics, Anaxagoras and Diogenes of Apollonia, Leucippus and Democritus, Philolaus and the Pythagoreans. This identifcation of his sources allows us, in many cases for the frst time, to judge what in the arguments of the dialogues is Plato's own contribution and what is there only as part of a philosophical or pre-philosophical inheritance.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Swansea
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
787 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-905125-20-3 (9781905125203)
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E-Book
12/2007
Classical Press of Wales
€105.99
Available for download
Person
Fritz-Gregor Herrmann is Senior Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Wales Swansea. He is the author of numerous articles and chapters on PlatoAes language and thought, and editor of New Essays on Plato (Classical Press of Wales, 2006). He is currently co-editing, with Terry Penner and Douglas Cairns, Pursuing the Good: Ethics and Metaphysics in PlatoAes Republic (Edinburgh University Press, 2007).