Customer Reviews:
Interesting work by key Neo-Platonist.......2006-10-14
Proclus was one of Plato's most devout followers, along with Plotinus. He was also one of the most brilliant.
His commentary on Parmenides is a very long 'drawing out' of what Proclus considered to be the hidden meaning of Plato's dialogues; in effect, Plato was not just a philosopher but also a sage and divinely inspired figure who discovered the secret structure of the universe itself, visible and invisible.
In commenting on this difficult metaphysical dialogue of Plato, in which Plato himself tried to reach an understanding of Parmenides' philosophy of Being, Proclus 'discovers' a vast metaphysical reality beyond the realm of the senses. The structures Proclus outlines are quite complex and best left to the introductory essay in the translation itself. Suffice to say there is a transcendant 'One' which the source of all Being, and which then radiates itself to lower objects called 'Henads' which in turn produce visible reality. Along the way there is also a mixture of magic and prayer to various Gods and daimons.
Proclus was an important philosophical influence on Christian Neo-Platonists, such as Eckhart, Dionysius the Aeropagite and possibly Eriugena. Proclus was also an important influence in Renaissance Neo-Platonism and the influence of this philosopher continues today.
The book is very long (about 900 pages) and Proclus's digressions are exceedingly long winded. His work is not easy to read and will probably put off all but the most determined student of philosophy.
Platonism and Neoplatonism.......2005-08-02
This book is a fundamental cornerstone in understanding the Socratic dialogs. Academia has split up Philosophy in such a way that it does not come into conflict with Institutional Christianity. The notion that exists today about Platonism and especailly the Socratic dialogs is that a philosopher in ancient Greece is a person that deals in ethics. This is absurd. Religion did not start with Christ, but Christ extends it. A philospher in ancient Greece is a person that is working to become in the likenss of God. This one and only God that only the Jews are supposed to know. This the greatest religious forgery ever that supports yhe Divide and Conquer, the results of which we live today with religious terrorism. Proclus with this work gives a solid ground to break the misunderstanding that caused millions of deaths by bestial people as the Roman Emperors were and their succesors in the Byzantium. Humans are made in the image and likeness of God, and modern science has managed to tell people that God made man in the image and likeness of a monkey. Biology got itself in the monkey business and humanity has to extricate itself from it.
A great survey of the Neo-Platonic philosophy.......2000-11-23
This is one of the best books by Proclus Diadochus and we are also lucky to have this excellent translation by G.R. Morrow and J.M. Dillon. If anybody is interested in the Neo-Platonic philosophy, or in the ancient philosophy, he should not miss this book. Even if it is rather difficult for a beginner to read long discourses of Proclus on the most important topics of the philosophy, noone should leave this book without careful reading. If you have read the Elements of Theology by Proclus, then you are able to understand everything Proclus is telling us. This book thinks about the most difficult dialogue of Plato - about the Parmenides. In the beginning you are connected with the amazing world of Proclus' allegorical interpretation of Plato's dialogue. Then you can study the world of Ideas as seen by Proclus - you can learn about four problems concerning the Ideas, i.e. whether there are Ideas; what things have Ideas; what is the participation like; and finally where are the Ideas. Proclus shows you all the levels of the realms of the One (Hen) and the Mind (Nous) and you can enjoy also the Proclus' dialectics in the end of the Commentary. The author also tells us a lot of Ideas about the negative theology tells in the last book. The translation is as well of the best value.
Book Description
All volumes of Professor Guthrie’s great history of Greek philosophy have won their due acclaim. The most striking merits of Guthrie’s work are his mastery of a tremendous range of ancient literature and modern scholarship, his fairness and balance of judgement and the lucidity and precision of his English prose. He has achieved clarity and comprehensiveness.
Customer Reviews:
Throwing Light on the Landscape of the Orthodox.......2007-04-12
The orthodox position regarding the early Greek philosophers might be thought of as a view which likes to see Ancient Greece as a self-contained clearly demarcated autochthonous entity, and the Greeks as more or less like us in meaning by 'philosophy' what our orthodox professors such as Guthrie mean by the term.
Over this orthodox landscape the American scholar Thomas McEvilley has arrived like a thunderbolt of Indra with a burst of brilliant light that enables us to see clearly for the first time things that without him we might never have seen.
As a classicist who is competent, not only in Greek and Latin but also in Sanskrit and several other languages, and who is conversant, not merely with the history and primary texts of an isolated and clearly demarcated 'Greece' (which never existed except in the minds of the orthodox), but with the larger Indian-Mesopotamian-Egyptian-Greek complex, he has devoted thirty years research to bringing before us a massive and comprehensive account of the philosophies that burgeoned and grew within that complex.
It was a complex in which an enormous amount of movement took place with innumerable people of various sorts engaged in travel by both land and sea - statesmen, ambassadors, emissaries, couriers, merchants, bankers, financial agents, healers, soldiers, sailors, scholars, students, priests, missionaries, religious mendicants, holy men, wonder workers, tourists, sightseers, etc.
It was also one in which people still retained their natural curiosity about others, their ways of life and beliefs, and would have been eager to listen to the wise and informed no matter what region of the earth they hailed from. This open-mindedness, naturally enough, led to a great deal of cross-fertilization of ideas which McEvilley, a man who happily is similarly open-minded, sets out before us in detail. What he shows us is that, while it is undoubtedly true that Indian thinkers learned certain things from the Greeks, it is equally true that the Greeks learned some very important things from the Indians.
By all means read Guthrie and Kirk and Raven and Barnes and the rest of the tribe of the Orthodox, but be aware that - imprisoned as they are in the cave of wishful thinking with its ceaseless and seductive whisper - autochthonous ... autochthonous ... autochthonous - they are giving you only an incomplete and distorted picture of what ancient Greek thought was really about. For the bigger and truer picture you will most assuredly need McEvilley's truly magisterial study, a study which throws a dazzling and brilliant light over what has hitherto been the somewhat dim and distorted landscape of the orthodox.
Details of his study are as follows:
Thomas McEvilley, 'The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies.' New York: Allworth Press, 2002. ISBN 1581152035. Hardback, 731 pp. Illustrated with b/w plates, maps, and with a detailed bibliography and index.
To the Roots of Knowledge and Culture.......2005-09-09
One of the truly remarkable intellectual achievements of our time, Guthrie's magisterial six volume History of Greek Philosophy, is, within the compass of my reading, the most comprehensive rendering of the golden epoch of Western Philosophy available. The sheer magnitude of the research collected, sorted, and weighed here is enough to recommend, but this work offers much more than a survey of leading interpretations. Many a major commentary, ancient and modern, receives a fair hearing for each argument analyzed both in the text and in extensive notes. One only wishes Guthrie were eternal that he might have been able to include all that has and will come in the way of analysis since publication of these texts in the 1960's with the same judicious acumen.
On immersing oneself in these many pages, over and again, one is struck by the centrality and the exhaustive nature of the venture. While such a scope of endeavor is bound to be open to controversy on any number of particulars, and Guthrie is not without critics, the distance traversed is staggering, and the work, in its point-by-point detailed coverage, assumes an authority on the achievement of such breadth alone. But it is the analytic depth of Guthrie's treatment of the arguments that for me holds the greater value. For the many treasures on display in these pages shine ever more brightly due to the loving care with which they are presented in view of their developmental contexts.
Among the finer features of Guthrie is the headliner on each page, providing focus for the narrative, in the style of the annotated Jowett Plato. Organization of the chapters under topical rubrics contributes to the superior organization of the work itself and, along with the extensive Indexes, makes reference within this dense field blessedly user-friendly.
If you love Archaic (Pre-Socratic) Greek Philosophy like I do, I feel that there is no better practice than to regularly inter yourself in the first two volumes of Guthrie. I've been asked which is the best investment for a book on early Greek Philosophy. The best-known one-volume histories all have their virtues. Of these, Barnes is probably most useful, very good on the Eleatics and Xenophanes, not so comprehending of Herakleitos, the Milesians, and others. The writing tends to be nuanced in a very Anglo-analytic, somewhat technical, orientation. Kirk and Raven don't thrill me much either as writers or analysts, and make what a number of commentators feel are erroneous judgments. Not nearly as thorough as Guthrie, their book on balance is - sufficient. The old Burnet is quite good at times, but now has been antiquated on many points by later, more accurate readings (discussed in Guthrie). Nietzsche's study, translated as "Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks" is definitely worth a read (what did Nietzsche ever write that wasn't?), but was not intended as comprehensive scholarship. All considered, the first two volumes of Guthrie easily outpace the field, and for pure enjoyment of uniformly superb scholarship, copious citations, and solid, accessible writing, are more than worth the expensive price tag. Splurge! You're buying the best.
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The Dialogues of Plato, Volume 4: Plato's Parmenides, Revised Edition (The Dialogues of Plato)
Plato
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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Plato's Symposium: A Translation by Seth Benardete with Commentaries by Allan Bloom and Seth Benardete
ASIN: 0300077297 |
Book Description
Among Plato`s later dialogues, the Parmenides is one of the most significant. In this book, Allen provides a superb translation of the Parmenides along with a structural analysis that proceeds on the assumption that formal elements, logical and dramatic, are important to its interpretation and that the argument of the Parmenides is aporetic, a statement of metaphysical perplexities.
Product Description
Handbook of Greek Philosophy is a real guide for anyone who wants to know about Ancient Greek philosophy, but he does not know how to start. Since there are thousands of writings about it, the one who is eager to be informed of Greek philosophy, is all at sea. With the present study one can be gradually initiated into the main principles of the great philosophers, whose thought is the basis of the modern philosophical thought. Due to chronological presentation of the fifteen Greek philosophical schools, the reader can gradually get to the understanding of the philosophical terms and concepts, beginning with the simple (of Thales, Anaximander etc..) and proceeding to the most complex ones (Plato, Aristotle etc..). The original fragments, which have been carefully selected out of thousands, along with their thorough analysis, can enable the reader to fathom the reasoning of the Greek thinkers, and acquire a deep comprehension of their Gnoseology, Ontology and Ethics. With this substantial work of scholarship, both the student and the teacher of philosophy alike can find useful concepts, ideas and quotations, so as to broaden their knowledge and views of philosophy. Apart from that, this essay can help them to make a further inquiry concerning Ontology and Ethics of Greek Philosophy.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant interpretation .......2006-06-25
I find most of the reviews really enlightening on the qualities of the book; so to say ` an excellent guide and interpretation of Greek philosophy and not a mere collection of translated texts of the Greek thinkers'. However, I would not agree with such a discriminating proposal as `to rewrite the book in native speaking English', unless we mean to suggest that Leibniz and Beckett's excellent writings in French and Wittgenstein's works in English should be rewritten by a native language speaking person.
The author, by developing progressively the concepts and due to his brilliant interpretation of the different philosophical schools of thought, leads the reader to gradual comprehension of the Greek philosophical conceptions. The `Doric' style of the language (poor), following the Greek philosophical tradition, does not interfere with the reader's understanding, but on the contrary develops a feeling of immediacy and prompts the student to go on and to search through the original writings of the philosophers by himself. All that makes the book valuable as a guide and introduction to Greek philosophy, because it increases the reader's awareness of philosophical questions and consequently it is getting more people interested in philosophy.
Illuminating and useful tool for the student of classical philosophy.......2006-01-10
Although a philosophical work, I found this book immensely stimulating and made me want to read more and more. Its gradual development of the concepts, its clear and essential interpretation of the Greek philosophers' sayings, along with its references to their works helps the reader to achieve a great deal of understanding. To sum up, the references to the Greek philosophical terms, which are very well interpreted, make the book an illuminating and useful guide for any student of philosophy.
Excellent introduction to Ancient Greek philosophy.......2005-12-28
I am a student of philosophy and I have had many difficulties in understanding the Greek philosophical terms and concepts. This book with its countless citations enabled me to understand all these terms like logos, phronesis, doxa, episteme, nous, eudaimonia etc. Due to its essential reference to the most of the Presocratics I could finally grasp the metaphysical and epistemological concepts of Plato and Aristotle. The author does not only show the way to discover the Greek wisdom through the innumerable fragments, but he also helps the student to do a further research into the enormous work of Plato and Aristotle, since he quotes the references of their work related to certain topics.
Really amazing and helpful work!!
Excellent book of ancient Greek philosophy.......2005-08-23
Finally I found the right book, which helped me to understand the main concepts of ancient Greek philosophy.
back to the origins in Greek philosophy.......2005-08-20
This little 'Handbook of Greek Philosophy' introduces the reader to all those authors who have become a staple of any history of European philosophy: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus, the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and the Stoics.
The author had the good idea to devote nearly half of the pages to the Pre-Socratics from Thales to Democritus. As a result of this, much of what we know from Plato becomes better understandable, and besides this reader's awareness of the wealth of thoughts debated before the rise of Socrates is much heightened.
The term 'handbook' is a bit misleading, since this is not a magisterial work bringing several pounds of heavy scholarship onto your desk. It is more aptly called 'a first guide to the origins of European philosophy for the uninitiated.' However, this should not devalue the book. The book radiates the charm of old diaries and notebooks. There are many valuable nuggets strewn throughout the text, so one gets hooked and reads on.
There are some minor technical weaknesses. Readers looking for a synoptic vision which puts all things in their proper context and builds a grandiose web of cross references will be disappointed. But the bottom-line is: Read this book and you will have not wasted your time but on the contrary gained a strong feeling of what philosophy is all about and how the Greeks did it.
From the countless citations an intense feeling of immediacy develops, of being near to the sources from where philosophy once sprang like from a well of fresh water. What looks like a weakness turns out to be a strength: The author is not standing in the way of getting at the sources of original insight but makes you go there yourself.
I have to admit that I am no specialist on Greek philosophy, while the author seems to be. Thus I cannot evaluate the quality of the selections. But this does not change my evaluation as a reader that the book deserves close reading and will repay study.
Because there remains much to be improved in technicalities as is cross-referencing and index etc. I gave only 4 stars this time.
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Plato's Forms in Transition: A Reading of the Parmenides
Samuel C. Rickless
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521864569 |
Book Description
There is a mystery at the heart of Plato’s Parmenides. In the first part, Parmenides criticizes what is widely regarded as Plato’s mature theory of Forms, and in the second, he promises to explain how the Forms can be saved from these criticisms. Ever since the dialogue was written, scholars have struggled to determine how the two parts of the work fit together. Did Plato mean us to abandon, keep, or modify the theory of Forms, on the strength of Parmenides’ criticisms? Samuel Rickless offers something that has never been done before: a careful reconstruction of every argument in the dialogue. He concludes that Plato’s main aim was to argue that the theory of Forms should be modified by allowing that forms can have contrary properties. To grasp this is to solve the mystery of the Parmenides and understand its crucial role in Plato’s philosophical development.
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Form and Good in Plato's Eleatic Dialogues: The Parmenides, Theatetus, Sophist, and Statesman
Kenneth Dorter
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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ASIN: 0520083318 |
Book Description
In this innovative analysis, Plato's four eleatic dialogues are treated as a continuous argument. In Kenneth Dorter's view, Plato reconsiders the theory of forms propounded in his earlier dialogues and through an examination of the theory's limitations reaffirms and proves it essential. Contradicted are both those philosophers who argue that Plato espoused his theory of forms uncritically and those who argue that Plato in some sense rejected the theory and moved toward the categorical analysis developed byAristotle. Dorter's reexamination of Plato's insights implies an important new direction for modern philosophical inquiry.
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A metaphysics of language
Brice Parain
Manufacturer: Anchor Books
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ASIN: B0006D0ADI |
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- Ignores Plato's own explanation
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Plato's Parmenides
Constance C. Meinwald
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Plato's Individuals
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Parmenides
ASIN: 0195064453 |
Book Description
The Parmenides is notorious for the criticisms it directs against Plato's own Theory of Forms, as presented in the middle period. But the second and major portion of the dialogue has generally been avoided, despite its being offered as Plato's response to the problems; the text seems
intractably obscure, appearing to consist of a series of bad arguments leading to contradictory conclusions. Carefully analyzing these arguments and the methodological remarks which precede them, Meinwald shows that to understand Plato's response we need to recognize his important distinction
between two kinds of predication. Read in the light of this distinction, the arguments can be seen to be sound, and the contradictions merely apparent. Meinwald then proceeds to demonstrate the direct application of Plato's crucial innovation in solving the problems of the first part of the
dialogue, including the infamous Third Man. On Meinwald's interpretation, the new distinction is associated with developments in metaphysics which take Plato well beyond the problems commonly thought to tell against Platonism.
Customer Reviews:
Ignores Plato's own explanation.......2004-03-04
For centuries people have been puzzled by the "Parmenides," the dialogue in which Plato raised objections against his own theory of forms. Even in late antiquity people didn't know what was going on. Many conjectures have been presented, but every one of them is wrong.
I say this with such assurance because Plato actually gave us an explanation of what he was up to. This explanation hasn't been noticed because it is the sort of thing you can't see unless you know what to look for. I didn't see it myself for nearly twenty years, but now that I do see it, it is hard to understand how I failed to see it before.
The explanation occurs about where we would expect to find an explanation, namely immediately after all of the objections have been presented (134e-135c). Here is a rough paraphrase of that explanation, designed to make Plato's views and feelings clearer:
"Nearly everyone who hears these wretched objections is persuaded by them and concludes that forms do not exist. I [Plato] have argued with these people repeatedly, but to no avail. They stubbornly refuse to change their minds because they believe that they have hit upon a very significant truth, and even when I can get them to concede that forms exist, they contend that they are unknowable. Apparently, only those who are extremely intelligent (like me and unlike them) will see that these objections are wrong and that forms do exist and can be known. Anyway, if the forms did not exist, then all thought and discourse would be impossible."
If anyone has another, better interpretation of this passage, I'd like to hear it. But if I am right, Meinwald is wrong. She (along with everyone else) takes the Third Man to be a self-critique, but this passage strongly suggests that it was a critique raised by others. And she takes its import to be that Plato revised, but this passage suggests that Plato had no intention of revising. Anyway, revision is not the issue here. Plato's opponents wanted him to ABANDON his theory, not revise it.
Goodbye to Meinwald's interpretation.
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