Early Greek Philosophies of Nature - Andrew Gregory

Early Greek Philosophies of Nature

By: Andrew Gregory

Hardcover | 1 October 2020

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $200.00

$144.90

28%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $36.23 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 25 to 30 business days

When will this arrive by?
Enter delivery postcode to estimate

This book examines the philosophies of nature of the early Greek thinkers and argues that a significant and thoroughgoing shift is required in our understanding of them. In contrast with the natural world of the earliest Greek literature, often the result of arbitrary divine causation, in the work of early Ionian philosophers we see the idea of a cosmos: ordered worlds where there is complete regularity. How was this order generated and maintained and what underpinned those regularities? What analogies or models were used for the order of the cosmos? What did they think about causation and explanatory structure? How did they frame natural laws?

Andrew Gregory draws on recent work on mechanistic philosophy and its history, on the historiography of the relation of science to art, religion and magic, and on the fragments and doxography of the early Greek thinkers to argue that there has been a tendency to overestimate the extent to which these early Greek philosophies of nature can be described as 'mechanistic'. We have underestimated how far they were committed to other modes of explanation and ontologies, and we have underestimated, underappreciated and indeed underexplored how plausible and good these philosophies would have been in context.

Industry Reviews
Andrew Gregory's welcome new book offers a much-needed challenge to the idea that early Greek philosophers - the Presocratic atomists in particular - deployed mechanistic explanations of the physical or biological processes they observed or postulated. -- Malcolm Schofield, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy, University of Cambridge, UK

More in Ancient Western Philosophy

Meditations : The Annotated Edition - Marcus Aurelius

RRP $49.99

$38.75

22%
OFF
The Nicomachean Ethics : Penguin Classics - Aristotle
Discourses and Selected Writings : Penguin Classics - Epictetus
Meditations : The Philosophy Classic - Marcus Aurelius

RRP $24.95

$23.75

Meditations : A New Translation - Marcus Aurelius

RRP $45.00

$42.95

The Republic : Penguin Classics - Plato
Meditations : A New Translation - Marcus Aurelius
Meditations : Penguin Classics - Marcus Aurelius

RRP $17.99

$17.50

Hellenistic Astrology : The Study of Fate and Fortune - Chris Brennan
Meditations : Design by Coralie Bickford-Smith - Marcus Aurelius
The History of Philosophy - A. C. Grayling

RRP $24.99

$23.75

A Guide to the Good Life : The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - William B. Irvine
Cicero : Pro Marco Caelio - Marcus Tullius Cicero

RRP $49.95

$44.35

11%
OFF