Читать книгу A Beginner's History of Philosophy, Vol. 1: Ancient and Mediæval Philosophy онлайн

9 страница из 54

ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY (625 B.C.–476 A.D.)

ssss1

The Divisions of Ancient Philosophy.

The Literary Sources of Ancient Philosophy.2

“The writings of the early Greek philosophers of the pre-Socratic period exist now only in fragments. The complete works of Plato are still extant; so also are the most important works of Aristotle, and certain others which belong to the Stoic, Epicurean, Skeptic, and neo-Platonic schools. We possess the principal works of most of the philosophers of the Christian period in sufficient completeness.”3 The secondary sources include quotations and comments upon earlier philosophers found in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Skeptics, neo-Platonists, and the so-called doxographers. Doxography—the commentating upon and collating of the works of former times—developed enormously in Alexandria, Pergamos, and Rhodes just after Aristotle. The founder of this work was Theophrastus, who was a disciple of Aristotle and his successor in the Lyceum. Among the important doxographers were Plutarch, Stobæus, and Aetios.