Strategies of Argument

This volume features fifteen new papers by an international group of scholars in ancient philosophy, with a particular focus on new work in ancient Greek and Roman ethics, epistemology, logic, and science. The papers are organized around five broad topics: Plato, Aristotle's ethics and practical reasoning, Aristotelian logic, Hellenistic ethics, and Hellenistic epistemology. Specific topics covered include the refutation of the hedonist in Plato's Philebus, the question of whether modern interpreters are right to read Plato's Timaeus as "proto-historical," Aristotle's argument concerning virtue, Aristotle's discussion of practical reasoning in the realm of ethics, Aristotle's logical theory, classification and division of goods in ancient ethical theories, and belief, appearances, and assent in Hellenistic epistemology.Table of contents ; Preface ; Notes on Contributors ; Plato ; 1. The life of Protarchus' choosing: Plato Philebus 20b-22c ; Verity Harte ; 2. Fools' pleasures in Plato's Philebus ; Jennifer Whiting ; 3. Did Plato's cosmos literally begin? ; Sarah Broadie ; Aristotle's ethics and practical reasoning ; 4. A swarm of virtues: on the unity and completeness of Aristotle's scheme of character-virtues ; Dorothea Frede ; 5. Justice and the laws in Aristotle's ethics ; Mi-Kyoung Lee ; 6. Aristotle on how to fell a tree and other matters involving experience ; Dana Miller ; Aristotelian logic ; 7. Deduction in Sophistici Elenchi 6 ; Marko Malink ; 8. Boethus and finished syllogisms ; Jonathan Barnes ; 9. Alexander of Aphrodisias on Aristotle's theory of the Stoic indemonstrables ; Susanne Bobzien ; Hellenistic ethics ; 10. Why there are ends of both goods and evils in ancient ethical theory ; James Allen ; 11. Ancient goods: the tria genera bonorum in ethical theory ; Brad Inwood ; 12. The Philosophical Ambitions of Seneca's Letters ; John Schafer ; Hellenistic epistemology ; 13. The epistemology of Ptolemy's On the criterion ; Mark Schiefsky ; 14. Compulsions of Stoic assent ; Charles Brittain ; 15. Sextus Empiricus on Persuasiveness and Equipollence ; Svavar Hrafn Svavarsson ; Bibliography for Gisela Striker ; Subject Index ; Index of Names ; Index Locorum