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Nietzsche's consideration of 5th and 6th century Greece, the proving ground for his philosophy. ... Read more

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An insightful explication of pre-Platonic philosophera in ancient Greece
One of Nietzsche's earliest works, Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks deals with various pre-Platonic philosophers, such as Thales, Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Anaxagoras. Nietzsche esteems these thinkers as being important because they took the first halting steps away from mythology, anthropomorphism, and mysticism, groping for a "scientific" explanation of the cosmos. They wrestled with such ideas and concepts as "being," "non-being," "becoming" (or "coming-to-be"), the indefinite, infinity, time, space, and causality, seeking to explain the "whence" and "wherefore" of the universe. Behind it all was the perennial puzzle that plagued philosophers, metaphysicians, and even some thelogians: "Why is there something rather than nothing."

Nietzsche greatly admired ancient Greek culture, especially when he compared it with the low state of contemporary German culture, and sought by his writings to expose the shallowness of "modern philosophy." He traced his philosophical lineage to the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who famously stated, "One cannot step in the same river twice" (in other words, the universe is in a continual state of "becoming" (or coming-to-be). A Greek sentence captures this perspective in capsule form: "Panta rhei, ouden menei" ("All things are flowing, nothing is abiding" or, to paraphrase, "Nothing is permanent except change."). In a later work, Nietzsche showed his strong affinity with Heraclitan flux by saying, "[My project] is to stamp on becoming the seal of being," or, in other words, "Becoming" (an eternal flux] is the only true "Being." Heraclitus viewed the cosmos as "a child's game," much like "an artist's creative play-impulse." Nietzsche apparently would agree, for in The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music he wrote, "The world can be justified eternally only as an aesthetic phenomenon."

Parmenides (whom Plato, in the Sophist, called "our father") is, for Nietzsche, the villain of the piece. Parmenides might be called the "grandfather of Western philosophy," for he greatly influenced Plato, the "father of Western philosophy." (Whitehead famously said, "The whole of Western philosophy is but a series of footnotes to Plato.") For Nietzsche, the philosophy of Parmenides and Plato, which posited "the true world" as opposed to our "actual world," was disastrous for Western philosophy. A wrong turn was made by Parmenides and Plato, and philosophy has never quite recovered from their egregious mistake.

The lion's share of Nietzsche's book goes to an examination of Anaxagoras, for whom Nietzsche shows, surprisingly, a great respect. It is true that a lot of Anaxagoras' "scientific" speculations resemble what modern phyicists speak of as "the big bang" from a "singularity." However, Anaxagoras drug in, as some convenient deus ex machina, the concept of nous (or spirit), which he regarded as the arbitrary, random "mover" of all things. (Compare Aristotle's "Unmoved Mover.) But such a concept smacks of mythology, anthropomorphism, mysticism, and religious gobbledygook. From whence does Anaxagoras derive his celebrated "nous"? The concept sounds much too much like a casui sui (cause of itself), such as the theological concept of "God." Does everything have to have a cause, or did Anaxagoras' "nous" spring full-grown from the head of Zeus? If God created the universe, who or what created God or nous?

Finally, Nietzsche anticipates by many years the intriguing concept of "language-games" and grammatical investigations put forward by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Both of these thinkers aver that we trust much too much in words, concepts, and grammar, and neglect "that which is right before our eyes," that is, the empirical evidence of our senses. In a later work, Nietzsche, the atheist, gives this warning: "We still believe in God because we still believe in grammar."

Overview
Fox Nietzsche the 6th and 5th centuries in Greece were indeed a tragic age. He saw in them the rise and climax of values so dear to him that their sub­sequent drop into catastrophe (in the persons of Socrates-Plato) was as clearly foreshadowed as though these were events taking place in the theater.

This book is an account of the personalities in­volved and not a handbook of philosophic doctrines or the history of a certain period in philosophy. Among those included Nietzsche delineates in turn, Thales, Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides and Anaxagoras.
Nietzsche concludes "so much depends on the de­velopment of Greek culture because our entire occidental world has received its initial stimuli from it.. . . One must know the younger Greece in great detail in order to differentiate it from the older. There are many possibilities which have not yet been discovered because the Greeks did not dis­cover them . . . others have discovered the Greeks and later covered them up again."

to what end does a healthy culture use philosophy?
The book's key concept would be "a unity of style." By this, Nietzsche seems to mean a power to have "life in lavish perfection before our eyes," a power wherein our desire for "freedom, beauty, and greatness" and our "drive toward truth" are one (p. 33). A culture is healthy when it has such unity of style. In such a culture, philosophy exists in its fullest right, being engaged fully by its members. When it is sick, philosphy is deemed dangerous and philosophers exiles. Or, as Nietzsche says: "During such times philosophy remains the learned monologue of the lonely stroller, the accidental loot of the individual, the secret skeleton in the closet, or the harmless chatter between senile academics and children" (p. 37).

How such unity can be achieved in a philosopher is illustrated by Niezsche in philosophers of 'young' Greece, that is, before Plato. So in Thales ("water is the origin of all things"), we see 1) urges of the religious in his wanting to settle the primal origin of everything, 2) a natural scientist at work, putting his proposition in a language free from image or fable, and 3) a philosopher, in his "metaphysical conviction," or presenting his fundamental concept ("unity" of all things) clothed in a hypothesis ("water" as the source of that unity). In the case of Thales, we may say the unity is two-fold: 1) as to the relation between man and nature. Before Thales, Greeks thought nothing of nature, seeing it as mere semblance, and putting all their faith in men and Gods. It is with Thales that they started to believe in nature as a fundamental part of life, 2) as to varying ways of knowing. Nietzsche notes: "When Thales says, "all is water," man is stung up out of the wormlike probings and creepings-about of his separate sciences. He intuits the ultimate resolution of all things and overcomes, by means of such intuition, the vulgar restrictions of the lower leves of knowledge" (p. 44).

The book is from Nietzsche's early period, written at about the same time as The Birth of Tragedy. Although a very small book, with just over 100 pages, it contains many seeds for such essential Nietzschean concerns and themes as the relation between art, philosophy and life, the role of education in culture, virtues of slow reading, or "how one becomes what one is." Widely neglected, but what Walter Kaufmann said of Beyond Good and Evil would be equally applied to this book. You will encounter "hundreds of doors it opens for the mind, revealing new vistas, problems, and relationships."

The young Nietzsche on the impotence of Philosophy...
This book has much of interest to say about various Greek philosophers but precious little to say of Nietzsche's method of proceeding. Of that Nietzsche says, in the preface that "philosophical systems are wholly true for their founders only. For all subsequent philosophers they usually represent one great mistake, for lesser minds a sum of errors and truths. Taken as ultimate ends, in any event, they represent an error..." In this book Nietzsche focuses on one point - "a slice of personality" - in several philosophers in order to reveal ...what? - Personal mood, color, personality, as he says in the first preface? But in a second preface he refers to the incompleteness of this approach. Still, he says, "the only thing of interest in a refuted system is the personal element. It alone is forever irrefutable." By the time he writes Beyond Good & Evil this `personal' element (a singularity) is revealed as philosophical purpose; which is itself the revealing (or concoction) of ultimate ends.

But of that I am going to say nothing. What I have always found most remarkable in this early work by Nietzsche is the discussion of culture; I mean the relation between philosophy and culture. The healthy culture can exist with even a little philosophy, we are told. And we wonder at the contrast he then [implicitly, perhaps unconsciously] offers between the Greeks and the Romans; "the Romans during their best period lived without philosophy." - But what of non-healthy cultures? "The sick it [philosophy] made even sicker. Wherever a culture was disintegrating, wherever the tension between it and its individual components was slack, philosophy could never re-integrate the individual back into the group." Nietzsche says the Greeks did not stop philosophizing when they should have, and that it was this philosophy (of old age) that made our common philosophical tradition. ...Sigh, nothing dies at the right time, but that is another story.

But the Greeks began (to philosophize) at the right time. And they made use of the cultures around them. "Nothing would be sillier then to claim an autochthonous development for the Greeks. On the contrary, they invariably absorbed other living cultures. The very reason they got so far is that they knew how to pick up the spear and throw it onward from the point where others had left it." The Greek achievement is this throwing the spear further. The fashionable and unfashionable insistence on cultural purity is always a sign of stupidity, laziness and cowardice. "The quest for philosophy's beginnings is idle, for everywhere in all beginnings we find only the crude, the unformed, the empty and the ugly. What matters in all things is the higher levels."

But what if one lives in a sick (by that I mean the individual apart from the group) culture? Can we not go back to the beginning, ala Heidegger, retrace our steps, see what went wrong, correct it and start over? "Everywhere the way to the beginning leads to barbarism. Whoever concerns himself with the Greeks should be ever mindful that the unrestrained thirst for knowledge for its own sake barbarizes men just as much as a hatred of knowledge." Nietzsche weaves a cautionary tale about the value of philosophy and knowledge for culture in the opening pages of this essay that is often overlooked in the haste to get to what Nietzsche has to say about this or that Greek philosopher.

Haste is a dreadful thing; the ruin of so many promising beginnings. But can a poor beginning ever be made good again?

Outstanding Book, Bad Introduction
I give this work by Nietzsche, minus the "Introduction" by the translator, five stars.This book is proof that a work can be translated without the translator understanding the conceptscontained within the original work.It is clear from her introduction that the translator does not have a profound knowledge of Nietzsche and his work as a whole, for this work is best understood in the context of Nietzsche's thought throughout the course of his life, with special emphasis on his work concerning metaphysics.I won't write a long review, however, I recommend this work for anyone with a serious knowledge of Nietzsche, metaphysics, and the Presocratic philosophers. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Self-Help / Personal Growth / Happiness; Philosophy / Religious; Philosophy / History ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

oh Boethius
I cried when I read Plato's "Apology," though only because I love Socrates with such a pure and friendly love. Boethius lived and died, like Socrates, a true philosopher.

Must Read
The most important text of the Middle Ages and a best seller for 1,000 years.If you want to know why people are unhappy READ THIS BOOK!

Ancient wisdom for the ages.
Excellent. Reader friendly. Ancient wisdom still relative today as Western values are engulfed in the material. If you are a student of Plato and Aristotle this is right down your philosophical alley.

Faith and philosophy in the early Middle Ages
Awaiting his execution on trumpted up charges, Boethius attempts to reconcile his unjust sentence with concepts of "justice", "power", "happiness" and of course, "faith."Considered the first truly medieval philosopher, Boethius conducts a Platonic dialogue with Lady Philosophy, attempting to reconcile his Christian faith with the classical rationalist philosophy of Artistotle and Plato.What results is the first elucidation of "scholasticism" - and Boethius' conclusion that faith and reason are reconcilable.

Beyond the philosophical, I was struck by Boethius' resignation to his fate and his quiet confidence in the wrongs being righted."No one can doubt that God is almighty" Philosophy began."Certainly not, unless he is mad" I answered."But nothing is impossible for one who is almighty.""Nothing.""Then can God do evil?""No, of course not.""Then evil is nothing, since God, who can do all things, cannot do evil."

Both an excellent philosophical tract and a testament to the strength of human reason and belief, I highly recommend it.

When you find yourself in times of trouble....
The truly amazing thing about this work is that it was written in PRISON as Boethius awaited execution (following judgment and conviction based upon spurious charges). Bearing that in mind as I read "The Consolation of Philosophy" (if anyone ever needed consolation, it was an innocent man awaiting his own death; Christians should be able to relate to that idea) made it all the more remarkable. If you ever feel that life isn't fair, that others have it "in" for you, that it's tough to get an even break, maybe reading this will put things in better perspective. If not, it won't be due to Boethius' shortcomings.... ... Read more

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Comprised of readings from ancient to modern times, this volume offers a comprehensive introduction to the central questions of the philosophy of religion.

• Provides a history of the philosophy of religion, from antiquity up to the twentieth century
• Each section is preceded by extensive commentary written by the editors, followed by readings that are arranged chronologically
• Designed to be accessible to both undergraduate and graduate students

Customer Reviews (1)

good
Loved the price.Was a lot cheaper than other sites and the book was brand new.Disappointed a little bit with the time it took to arrive to me.For being only one state over, I thought it should have been a lot quicker. ... Read more

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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. ... Read more

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Readable study of 1/2 the Platonic dialogs
Guthrie covers all of the earlier Platonic dialogues in this volume, up to and including THE REPUBLIC.The next volume in the series (THE LATER PLATO AND THE ACADEMY) covers the rest.Each chapter covers one or two dialogues.Guthrie mentions work published by previous philosophers, and indicates where he agrees and disagrees.The book has a particular emphasis on the development of Plato's theory of the Forms and the influence of the Pythagoreans and Parmenides on Plato's thought.It's very reader-friendly yet packed with information.I can recommend both volumes to casual Plato fans. ... Read more

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Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is a volume of original articles on all aspects of ancient philosophy. The articles may be of substantial length, and include critical notices of major books. OSAP is now published twice yearly, in both hardback and paperback. In this volume, articles range from Heraclitus to Proclus, with several on each of Aristotle and Plato. Editor: David Sedley, Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy, University of Cambridge. "Standard reading among specialists in ancient philosophy."--Brad Inwood, Bryn Mawr Classical Review ... Read more

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The Cambridge Companion to Greek Political Thought offers a guide to understanding the central texts and problems in ancient Greek political thought, from Homer through the Stoics and Epicureans. Composed of essays specially commissioned for this volume and written by leading scholars of classics, political science, and philosophy, the Companion brings these texts to life by analyzing what they have to tell us about the problems of political life. Focusing on texts by Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle, among others, they examine perennial issues, including rights and virtues, democracy and the rule of law, community formation and maintenance, and the ways in which theorizing of several genres can and cannot assist political practice. ... Read more

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This is a book about the religious life of the Greeks from archaic times to the fifth century AD, looked at in the context of a variety of different cities and periods. Simon Price examines local practices and concepts in the light of general Greek ideas, relating them to such issues as gender roles, political life, and the trial of Socrates. He lays emphasis on the reactions to Greek religions of ancient thinkers--Greek, Roman and Christian. The evidence drawn on is of all kinds: literary, inscriptional and archaeological. ... Read more

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Nice, concise introduction
First, this is not the comprehensive study of the subject that Burkert's work is.If you are looking for a comprehensive look at the subject, "Greek Religion" by Walter Burkert is the book to get.

However, this book offers an interesting set of topical studies which have added to my understanding of the topic.Price's viewpoint is quite useful in addition to any other books on the topic.

Material in the book includes an introduction to myths and festivals and to our source material in this area, a discussion of social control and Greek religion, gender roles in Greek religion and how this differed in Roman religion, and a look at how Greek religion was perceived by other groups (Romans, Christians, Jews, etc).Each of these studies adds to the field and is not a mere rehash of what I have read elsewhere.

I would recommend this book along with "Greek Religion" by Walter Burkert and "From Religion to Philosophy" by F. M. Cornford. ... Read more

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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. ... Read more

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Method in Ancient Philosophy brings together fifteen new, specially written essays by leading scholars on a broad subject of central importance. The ancient Greeks recognized that different forms of human activity are guided by different methods of reasoning; examination of how they reasoned, and how they thought about their own reasoning, helps us to see how they came to hold the views they did, and how our own methods of enquiry have developed under their influence. Contributors include Terence Irwin, Patricia Curd, Ian Mueller, Robert Bolton, A.A. Long, Gail Fine, Constance C. Meinwald, Lesley Brown, Gisela Striker, C.D.C. Reeve, Charlotte Witt, Richard Kraut, Sarah Broadie, James Allen, and G.E.R. Lloyd. ... Read more

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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In this highly praised new translation of Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy, David R. Slavitt presents a graceful, accessible, and modern version for both longtime admirers of one of the great masterpieces of philosophical literature and those encountering it for the first time. Slavitt preserves the distinction between the alternating verse and prose sections in the Latin original, allowing us to appreciate the Menippian parallels between the discourses of literary and logical inquiry. His prose translations are lively and colloquial, conveying the argumentative, occasionally bantering tone of the original, while his verse translations restore the beauty and power of Boethius’s poetry. The result is a major contribution to the art of translation.

Those less familiar with Consolation may remember it was written under a death sentence. Boethius (c. 480–524), an Imperial official under Theodoric, Ostrogoth ruler of Rome, found himself, in a time of political paranoia, denounced, arrested, and then executed two years later without a trial. Composed while its author was imprisoned, cut off from family and friends, it remains one of Western literature’s most eloquent meditations on the transitory nature of earthly belongings, and the superiority of things of the mind. In an artful combination of verse and prose, Slavitt captures the energy and passion of the original. And in an introduction intended for the general reader, Seth Lerer places Boethius’s life and achievement in context.

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Socrates and Nietzsche meet in a bar . . .
Laurence Lampert has written a remarkable book.It appears to be the first volume of a "Nietzschean" history of philosophy.It is an engaging read as he links dramatically these three dialogues to explain Socrates' political-philosophic project.He brings these three dialogues alive as few have the capability to do in print.

It appears that this book will be controversial by the nature of his interpretation.I personally am not competent to judge because of the level of scholarship needed to do justice to the work.I do note that the comments made about Catherine Zuckert's book are somewhat unfair because she attempts to tackle all the Platonic dialogues based upon their dramatic settings; whereas, Laurence Lampert focuses on the first three.

Since I am not competent to judge the work, let me tell you a story that I think sums it up.

Socrates and Nietzsche walk into a bar.They have never met before.They both go to the counter and order a drink, something intoxicating.They are both sitting side by side.After each has been served and they begin to drink quietly, they each pull out the same copy of Plato's dialogues in the original Greek.Surprised, they begin a far ranging conversation about the dialogues.

One wonders whether Socrates and Nietzsche recognize one another as like through their conversation of the diaes.Or does Socrates see the need to teach Nietzsche as he did Critias and Charmides so many years ago.

Oh, by the way, sitting in the corner of the bar at a separate table is Plato in disguise.His teacher and his student cannot recognize him.He sits silently listening to the conversation and keeps his opinion to himself.

My review is based on how exciting and thought provoking I found the text.

... Read more

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The word 'yoga' conjures up in the minds of many Westerners images of people performing exercises and adopting unusual, sometimes contortive postures. Such exercises and postures do have a place within the practice of yoga, but it is much more than that. Indeed, the early literature on yoga describes and defines it as a form of mental rather than physical discipline. Yoga is also associated with the Indian subcontinent and the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. This book therefore concentrates on the evolution of yoga in the context of Indian culture, though the final chapters also explore some of its links with non-Indian mystical traditions and some of its developments outside of India during the modern period. The book is aimed at both university students taking courses in Comparative Religion and Philosophy and practitioners of yoga who seek to go beyond the activity and explore its spiritual dimensions. Hence, it presents yoga in the context of its historical evolution in India and seeks to explain the nature of its associations with various metaphysical doctrines. The work also draws upon a number of conceptual schemes designed to facilitate comparative study. Some of these are employed throughout the book so as to link the material from each chapter together within a common framework. ... Read more

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An anthology devoted to the intellectual developments that led up to the philosophy of Plato. ... Read more