Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Volume 58

Abstract

Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy provides, twice each year, a collection of the best current work in the field of ancient philosophy. Each volume features original essays that contribute to an understanding of a wide range of themes and problems in all periods of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, from the beginnings to the threshold of the middle ages. From its first volume in 1983, OSAP has been a highly influential venue for work in the field, and has often featured essays of substantial length as well as critical essays on books of distinctive importance. Volume LVIII contains: a close reading of Plato’s argument for the unity of the political arts in the Statesman; a new interpretation of the lowest part of the Divided Line in Plato’s Republic, based on the perception of value properties; an analysis of Plato’s treatment of belief attribution in the Theaetetus, the Gorgias, and the Meno; a reconstruction of Aristotle’s argument for why direct demonstrations are superior to those which argue by reduction ad impossibile in Posterior Analytics 1. 26; an interpretation of Aristotle’s conception of spontaneous generation that emphasizes the role of putrefaction; a sceptical reading of Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations; a comprehensive survey of Sextus Empiricus’ attitude towards religious belief and practice; and a review essay of Miriam Griffin’s collected papers, which discusses not only the question of how precisely philosophy affected statesmen in Rome, but also larger methodological questions about the history of philosophy.