Aristotle and Other Platonists

Aristotle and Other Platonists

by Lloyd P. Gerson
ISBN-10:
0801441641
ISBN-13:
9780801441646
Pub. Date:
01/13/2005
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
ISBN-10:
0801441641
ISBN-13:
9780801441646
Pub. Date:
01/13/2005
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Aristotle and Other Platonists

Aristotle and Other Platonists

by Lloyd P. Gerson
$59.95
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Overview

"Aristotle versus Plato. For a long time that is the angle from which the tale has been told, in textbooks on the history of philosophy and to university students. Aristotle's philosophy, so the story goes, was au fond in opposition to Plato's. But it was not always thus."—from the Introduction

In a wide-ranging book likely to cause controversy, Lloyd P. Gerson sets out the case for the "harmony" of Platonism and Aristotelianism, the standard view in late antiquity. He aims to show that the twentieth-century view that Aristotle started out as a Platonist and ended up as an anti-Platonist is seriously flawed.

Gerson examines the Neoplatonic commentators on Aristotle based on their principle of harmony. In considering ancient studies of Aristotle's Categories, Physics, De Anima, Metaphysics, and Nicomachean Ethics, the author shows how the principle of harmony allows us to understand numerous texts that otherwise appear intractable. Gerson also explains how these "esoteric" treatises can be seen not to conflict with the early "exoteric" and admittedly Platonic dialogues of Aristotle. Aristotle and Other Platonists concludes with an assessment of some of the philosophical results of acknowledging harmony.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780801441646
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication date: 01/13/2005
Pages: 348
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.19(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Lloyd P. Gerson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His books include Knowing Persons: A Study in Plato, God and Greek Philosophy, and Plotinus (Arguments of the Philosophers series). He is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus and the four-volume Aristotle: Critical Assessments. He is the author of several volumes of translations and commentaries on Greek texts, including Aristotle: Selected Works and Aristotle's Politics (with H. G. Apostle), Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory Readings (with Brad Inwood), and Neoplatonic Philosophy: Introductory Readings (with John Dillon).

What People are Saying About This

Stephen Clark

This is both a learned, philosophically acute, and readable introduction to late antique Neoplatonism and a persuasive re-reading of Aristotle. Anyone with an interest in Aristotle, Plato, the late Platonists, and their effects on later philosophy, as well as anyone with a less specialized interest in the questions these philosophers discussed, will profit from Lloyd P. Gerson's painstaking study of a properly Platonic Aristotelianism (or Aristotelian Platonism).

Richard Bodéüs

"I read Lloyd P. Gerson's book with absorption and with pleasure. It is an impressive, solidly argued work, based on a profound knowledge of the ancient texts. It also considers and interprets a very large number of recent studies. Gerson is well aware that he is making a very bold challenge, but he does so seriously and precisely. The subtlety and insight of his analyses are truly stimulating."

Richard Bodéüs

I read Lloyd P. Gerson's book with absorption and with pleasure. It is an impressive, solidly argued work, based on a profound knowledge of the ancient texts. It also considers and interprets a very large number of recent studies. Gerson is well aware that he is making a very bold challenge, but he does so seriously and precisely. The subtlety and insight of his analyses are truly stimulating.

C. D. C. Reeve

"This wide-ranging and deeply learned book casts a challengingly heterodox, and often convincing, light on every major aspect of Aristotle's thought from his metaphysics to his ethics. It deserves to be read by every student not just of Aristotle but of ancient philosophy more generally."

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