Research Catalog

Title

Western philosophy : from antiquity to the Middle Ages / James N. Jordan.

Author

Jordan, James N. (James Nicholas), 1938-

Publication

New York : Macmillan, ©1987.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvi, 492 pages; 24 cm

Summary

Twenty-six hundred years ago, among the Ionian Greeks, there arose the kind of reasoned inquiry after truth that characterizes philosophy in Western civilization. A path with many twists and turns (and desolate stretches as well) is traceable from this ancient beginning to the types of philosophy pursued in the West today. The aim of the present volume is to acquaint the reader with landmarks along this path as far as the end of the Middle Ages, until about 1350, when the Renaissance began its work of shaping the modern era. Western philosophers of the Ancient and Medieval periods have had great influence not only upon later philosophers but also upon the general culture of the West. Politics, religion, the arts, the sciences, the very notions that pass for common sense -- all have been complexly affected, directly and indirectly, by the philosophical methods and findings of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Plotinus, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Ockham, and others to be examined herein. Some knowledge of these thinkers is essential to any real understanding of the whys and wherefores of Western cultural history. Moreover, because most of the philosophicl issues investigated in modern times first came up in Ancient or Medieval discussions, a grasp of the latter is necessary to a just estimate of more recent discussions and to an avoidance of blind alleys and delayed insights in one's own philosophical reflections. It is also true that the ideas and intellectual careers of Ancient and Medieval philosophers are matters of absorbing interest on their own account. Simply as personalities these thinkers are extraordinary, and their respective contributions toward overcoming the "reign of chaos and old night" are among the noblest of human achievements. - Introductory note.

Subject

• Geschichte Anfänge-1500
• Geschichte 600 v. Chr.-1400
• Philosophy, Ancient
• Philosophy, Medieval
• Filosofía antigua > Historia
• Filosofía medieval > Historia
• Philosophie

Note

• Includes index.

Bibliography (note)

• Bibliography: p. 443-450.

Contents

Part I. The pre-Socratic philosophers : The Ionians -- The Italians -- The pluralists -- Part II. The great days of Athens : The Sophists -- Socrates -- Plato -- Aristotle -- Part III. Hellenistic and Roman philosophy : Epicureanism -- Stoicism -- Skepticism -- Philo of Alexandria -- Plotinus -- Part IV. The Middle Ages: St. Paul and the early Christian fathers -- St. Augustine -- Medieval philosophers in profile -- St. Thomas Aquinas -- Three late medieval minds.

ISBN

• 0023614501
• 9780023614507

LCCN

86011711

OCLC

• ocm13559642
• 13559642
• SCSB-9455536

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library