ResearchWhat Are You Reading...On Post-Aristotelian Philosophy

What Are You Reading…On Post-Aristotelian Philosophy

Aristotle unquestionably changed the discipline of philosophy. As an undergrad, I remember one of my professors telling me that, if time constraints were no object, he would make semester long courses on Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche a requirement for all philosophy majors. While I do not specialize in Ancient Philosophy, my studies have thus far confirmed those assessments. Many of the fundamental ideas we take for granted, like looking to the natural world for true knowledge, were established by Aristotle, as were many of the categories we still use today (e.g. metaphysic). Armand Marie Leroi’s book The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science describes this in detail.

After Aristotle’ death there was much to dissect and sort through. Some focused on his ethics, and multiple Hellenistic schools (like the Epicureans and Stoics) elaborated on several of the virtues he discussed. Others, like Islamic philosopher Avicenna and medieval philosopher Aquinas, brought some of Aristotle’s theories in line with religious doctrines while expanding on topics they felt he left incomplete. Given the breadth of topics taken up after Aristotle, I thought it would make for an excellent topic for this, the third RTF-APA Blog partnership column. Please check out the following papers on post-Aristotelian philosophy and, if you’re interested in learning more, visit the RTF-APA page (the link is below) to look at the books they have at discounted prices for APA members.

See the Routledge APA member page for more books on post-Aristotelian philosophy. APA members get a 20% discount on all books.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

WordPress Anti-Spam by WP-SpamShield

Topics

Advanced search

Posts You May Enjoy

International Women’s Day Profile: Cristina Peri Rossi

This post was originally published on Filosofía en la Red. It has been translated as part of the APA Blog’s ongoing collaboration with Filosofía...